For over four decades, the African Writers Series shaped the literary landscape of the African continent, amplifying voices that had long been silenced by colonial rule. From 1962 to 2003, Heinemann published 359 titles, providing a platform for African novelists, poets, and politicians to tell stories on their own terms—narratives of love and loss, identity and exile, oppression and resistance.
This collection of books, written in the heat of post-independence fervor and beyond, told the many stories of the struggles of a changing Africa. Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart remains a seminal masterpiece among the collection, critically dissecting the collision between tradition and colonial disruption. Other books like Changes: A Love Story by Ama Ata Aidoo explores the complex choices of a modern Ghanaian woman navigating love and autonomy.
In this article, we have curated 10 of the must-reads in this collection, although we would recommend reading every single one of the titles under the African Writers series.
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Changes: A Love Story
Living in Ghana’s capital city of Accra with a postgraduate degree and a career in data analysis, Esi Sekyi is a thoroughly modern African woman. Perhaps that is why she decides to divorce her husband after enduring yet another morning’s marital rape. Though her friends and family are baffled by her decision (after all, he doesn’t beat her!), Esi holds fast. When she falls in love with a married man—wealthy, and able to arrange a polygamous marriage—the modern woman finds herself trapped in a new set of problems.
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So Long A Letter
This 90-page novel is in the form of a letter, written by the widowed Ramatoulaye and describes her struggle for survival. Bâ. It was her first novel. Its theme is the condition of women in Western African society. So Long a Letter was the first book to ever win the Noma Award.
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The Concubine
The Concubine is the debut novel by Nigerian writer Elechi Amadi. It was originally published in 1966 as part of the Heinemann African Writers Series.
It is also considered a landmark novel in Nigerian literature, depicting
traditional Igbo culture and customs.
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Jagua Nana
Jagua Nana is a story about the life and affairs of an aged Lagos prostitute.
Jagua, in her pursuit of happiness, takes on a much younger boyfriend whom she offers to send to England to study law with her savings on the condition that they become husband and wife.
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Things Fall Apart
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, is widely regarded as the most important and successful African novel of the 20th century. It has been translated into over 50 languages and is studied worldwide in schools and universities. The novel is one of the first major works to present an African perspective on the effects of European colonialism, challenging earlier colonial literature that often portrayed Africans in a negative light.
This is the story of Okonkwo, an important man in the Obi tribe, in the days before white men appeared on the scene. The novel tells of the series of events that led to Okonkwo’s exile from the tribe, through his pride and fears.
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Weep Not Child
Weep Not, Child is a 1964 novel by Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o. It was his first novel, published in 1964 under the name James Ngugi. It was in the African Writers Series of the Heinemann publishing company.
The novel explores the negative aspects of colonial rule over Kenya. Njoroge’s aspiration to attend university is frustrated by both the violence of the Mau Mau rebels and the violent response of the colonial government. This disappointment leads to his alienation from his family and ultimately his suicide attempt.
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Not Even God is Ripe Enough
A collection of Yoruba stories full of amusement, including lovers who escape in cooking pots, with wry retribution being the order of the day.
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Beyond the Horizon
Street life in the slums of Accra is realistically portrayed in this socially committed, subtle novel about four educated women who are inspired by the plight of a 14-year-old girl, Fofo. As the main characters convert their library centre into a practical street initiative, the novel invokes the squalor, health risks, and vicious cycles of poverty and violence that drive children to the streets and women to prostitution; from which, ultimately, no one in the society is free.
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The Housemaid
A dead baby and bloodstained clothes are discovered near a small village. Everyone is ready to comment on the likely story behind the abandoned infant. The men have one opinion, the women another. As the story rapidly unfolds, it becomes clear that seven different women play a part in the drama. All of them are caught in a web of superstition, ignorance, greed and corruption.
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Houseboy
‘Houseboy’ is written in the form of a diary kept by Toundi, an innocent Cameroonian houseboy who is fascinated and awed by the white world, the world of his masters. When the head of his mission is killed in an accident, Toundi becomes the ‘boy’ of the local Commandant.
