We’re wrapping up another #ReadingAfrica Week (you can read all of our posts celebrating this year’s event here), and this might have been the best one yet! We love celebrating these books and these authors every day, but it means so much to take a few special days to really let the world know how much this work means to us.
For this last post of the week, we’re going to turn the spotlight on ourselves (well, our authors) to celebrate and thank them for sharing their stories with us. We asked a few of them (and some of the Catalyst team) to tell us why they love #ReadingAfrica, some of their favorite books, and why these stories need to be shared everywhere.
Caroline Kurtz, author of the award-winning memoir A Road Called Down on Both Sides: Growing up in Ethiopia and America:
“The ancient ways of African cultures, the scar tissue of colonialism, the resilience of ordinary people, the fabrics, the art, the music—Africans bring to the human family something we can’t do without. With a deep, rich tradition of oral history and storytelling. it was inevitable that Africans would take their place on the shelves where written history and stories dwell. Catalyst Press is accelerating that process.
I grew up in Ethiopia, and have read deeply about her history, including the Italian invasion. Recently, a novel set during that time, The Shadow King by Maaza Mengistu, stirred and horrified me, bringing those years alive as only a novel can. She showed us the most heart-rending beauty of what words can do when they’re lyrically strung together, even if the story is dark and painful. She tells it from the point of view of the Ethiopian resistance–from the point of view of women in that resistance–and her book is a love song to the strength of the Ethiopian spirit.
I am honored to have my memoir, A Road Called Down on Both Sides, take its place alongside stories written by African historians and novelists. Africa touched me deeply as a child and again as an adult, when I immersed myself in the culture and language of Ethiopia. I celebrate the richness of that gift to me in my life and in my story.”
Hannes Barnard, author of the forthcoming release Halley’s Comet:
“Africa is a storytelling continent, and I believe that there is something special happening in African storytelling, particularly in literature. Our stories told by our diverse and beautiful people will enthrall and enrich people around the world more and more each year.
From Chinua Achebe to Namina Forna, from Daleen Matthee to Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Antjie Krog to Billy Kahora and Tsitsi Dangarembga, so many African writers, old and new, inspire new generations of African storytellers. As writers, we tell the stories, but it is the brave publishers who make it their business to get African stories out into the world. In my case, that is Lapa Publishers and Catalyst Press. Thank you for letting my small-town, Apartheid-era, coming-of-age story (Halley’s Comet) see the light.”
SarahBelle Selig, writer and Catalyst’s South African office manager:
I’m #ReadingAfrica because every single day I’m becoming more aware of just how limited my book selection was growing up and continues to be, and how underrepresented African and African diaspora authors are on most American family bookshelves. I want to be well equipped to expose my kids someday – and my friends and family now – to a breadth of authors from all over the world, including stories from the 54 beautiful, complex nations that make up this continent!
I’m a sucker for anything by Helen Oyeyemi, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, and Awkaeke Emezi. Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s The Perfect Nine is next on my list!
A recommendation from Karen Vermeulen, who designs our book covers and, we’re happy to announce, will be publishing an illustrated collection of personal essays with us in the very near future:
“My favorite book by an African author is My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite who I’ve had the pleasure to meet here in Cape Town! If you haven’t read it yet, you really must. It’s funny and fresh and I absolutely loved it.”
Several Catalyst authors took part in our #ReadingAfrica panels this week, and had so many insightful things to say. Ahmed Ismail Yusuf, author of the short story collection The Lion’s Binding Oath, on why he celebrates African literature “Africa is a neglected continent, but there is a rich variety of information— a few books are not going to do it justice. But at the same time, as the world shrinks in terms of connectivity or communication, there is a need for more information, and this continent has a rich history to tell. It’s about time that we reintroduce that information.” Ahmed’s collection features stories set before and during Somalia’s civil war (and he also heartily recommends The Shadow King). Siphiwe Gloria Ndlovu, author of the forthcoming novel The Theory of Flight says that we should be. reading African literature because “Africa has this amazingly rich history, and if you want to fully appreciate what’s happened in the last 400 years, I think you have to engage with African literature on some level because there is no moment in our modern history that has not affected the continent in some way. African writers definitely write about this.” Siphiwe recommends This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga.
During our crime panel, Outside the Lines author Ameera Patel spoke about the idea of “reclaiming” stories, “I think in any novel, you’re not going to write one person, and you’re not going to write one place. And while many of us [on the panel] might be from South Africa, we’re going to write different versions of that same place. It’s not going to be one thing. It’s not a reclaiming, it’s the world as I see it and want to place in my story.”
David Muirhead, author of Cat Among the Pigeons, our very first science book published through our Powers Squared imprint, celebrated the natural beauty of the continent with a list of science and nature books.
