FAR AWAY IN AFRICA: A JOURNEY THROUGH THE MOST TRANSLATED BOOKS (PART 2)
Rosario Traducciones takes you on a journey through the most translated literary books. Today, we will focus on African literature.
As mentioned in previous articles, Africa, the third largest continent in the world, harbors cultural treasures, language diversity, and geographical wonders.
It is a vast and diverse territory with various political and social characteristics across many countries and regions. Africa comprises 54 internationally recognized countries, each with its unique history, traditions, and features, all reflected in its literature.
1) Women at Point Zero (Egypt)
Women at Point Zero is a novel by Nawal El Saadawi, a well-renowned Egyptian writer and one of the most important members of the feminist movement in her country.
First published in 1975, this book explores oppression against women and their fight in a patriarchal society.
The novel is based on a real story and is the first-person account of Firdaus. This Egyptian woman tells about her life, from her childhood to adulthood, in a society marked by gender inequality and violence. Through this account, El Saadawi focuses on the issues women face daily, such as female genital mutilation, forced marriage, prostitution, and domestic violence.
The book has been translated into over 12 languages.
2) The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears
The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears is the first novel by the Ethiopian-US author Dinaw Mengestu. The book focuses on Sepha Stephanos, an Ethiopian immigrant living in Washington, D.C. After fleeing his country's revolution and political instability, Sepha runs a small grocery store. At the same time, he marvels at the gentrification of his neighborhood. As the social transformation of the community takes place, he becomes more and more isolated, struggling to adapt himself to this new environment and keeping his sense of identity in a foreign land.
The novel explores loss, loneliness, friendship, and the search for a sense of belonging. Through a first-person narrative, Mengestu examines the tensions between the culture of origin and the adoptive culture and the struggle of those caught between two worlds.
The novel was published in 2007 and translated into over 12 languages.
3) Left to Tell (Rwanda)
Left to Tell is an autobiographical work by Immaculée Ilibagiza, a young woman from the Tutsi ethnic group who lived the 1994 Rwandan genocide in the flesh, where the Hutu majority massacred the Tutsi minority.
In her book, the author shares her experience of how she survived hidden for 91 days with five other women in a small bathroom. This is one of the many calamities suffered during the Rwandan genocide, where one of her brothers was hacked to death with machetes by Hutu soldiers.
However, Immaculée presents her testimony as a story of hope. She subtitled her book: “Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.” Her faith led her to survive tragedy, forgive the genocides, and finally rebuild her life out of the debris.
The book was published in 2006 and translated into more than 12 languages.
4) The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo
The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo is a novel by Capeverdean writer Germano Almeida, published in 1989. This literary work has stood out for its satirical style and exploration of the life and society of Cabo Verde, as well as its approach to the culture and history of this group of African islands.
The plot revolves around the death of Napumoceno Da Silva Araújo, a wealthy and respected citizen of the island of Santiago, as the opening of his will reveals secrets, intrigue, and unique details of his life and his relationship with some of the book's characters.
The novel uses a multifaceted narration that combines different characters' testimonies, memories, and anecdotes to build a vivid image of Mr. Silva Araújo and his environment. Through these other voices, Germano Almedida weaves a story beyond Napumoceno’s individual life to delve deeper into topics such as corruption, power, religion, and the Capeverdean culture.
The book has been translated into more than 12 languages.
5) The Palace (Madagascar)
The Palace is a novel by a renowned writer and Nobel Prize winner (1955), Claude Simon, born in Antananarivo (Madagascar).
The story is about a young man’s life in the context of the Spanish Civil War as he remembers moments of his past along a non-linear narrative.
The book stands out for its experimental narrative style and approach to exploring memory, time, and perception.
The book was published in 1962 and translated into more than 11 languages.
6) Paradise (Tanzania)
Paradise is one of the most emblematic novels by Tanzanian writer Abdulrazak Gurnah, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature. The novel was nominated for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Prize for Fiction.
It is a story about love and friendship, loyalty and disloyalty, that takes us into the wealth of nuances of a complex African society that is changing because of the presence of a supervening European culture.
The novel follows the story of Yusuf, a 12-year-old boy whose parents inform him that he will be sent to live with his uncle Aziz for one season. While he is happy at first, he doesn’t know he has been pawned in exchange for his father's unpayable debt to Aziz or that Aziz is not a relative of his but a wealthy and influential merchant with whom he’ll travel across Central Africa and the banks of the Congo on the eve of World War I.
The novel was published in 1994 and translated into over 11 languages.
7) Tram 83 (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Tram 83 is a novel by Congolese writer Fiston Mwanza Mujila.
The plot revolves around an unspecified African country experiencing a deep recession and a new gold fever. Tourists from many nationalities and speaking different languages land in the country with only one wish: to amass a fortune by exploiting the country’s mineral wealth.
They work at the mines during the day and gather together at night to eat, drink, and dance in Tram 83, a nightclub that is an actual lair of outlaws full of former child soldiers, tourists wishing to make profits, prostitutes, and sorcerers' apprentices. Lucien, a writer who has fled from extortion and censorship, finds a shelter in the nightclub, where darker characters gravitate around him.
Published in 2017, the book has been considered one of the most recent and remarkable cultural phenomena in the French language. It has been translated into more than 11 languages, including English, German, Italian, Catalan, Greek, Lithuanian, Arabic, Dutch, Hebrew, Swedish and Danish.
8) Houseboy (Cameroon)
Houseboy is a novel by Cameroonian author Ferdinand Oyono. Published in 1959, it is considered a significant work in the African-francophone literature. The novel deals with colonialism, oppression, and alienation through the story of an African young man working as a servant at the house of a French colonial official.
The story is told in the form of a diary in a first-person perspective, offering a deep insight into the daily life of African countries under French colonial rule.
The book has been translated into more than nine languages.
9)The Book of Chameleons (Angola)
The Book of Chameleons is a novel by Angolan writer José Eduardo Agualusa, published in 2004.
The novel combines elements of magic realism and mystery. It revolves around the life of Felix Ventura, an albino Angolan man who creates better and fictitious pasts for people, creating alternative identities and family histories.
Through his connection with chameleons and his work as a creator of false identities, the novel deals with identity, memory, and the construction of truth in a changing society.
The novel has been translated into more than nine languages.
10) Maru (Botswana)
Maru is a 1971 novel by Botswanian writer Bessie Head, born in South Africa. The book delves into racism and ethnic conflict, particularly concerning the Tswana and San peoples.
It tells the story of an orphan girl arriving at the Dilepe community to teach, where she sees how her community is marginalized.
The book has been translated into more than nine languages.
