1) The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright (Kenya) 

 

The most translated literary work from Africa is a short story by Kenyan author Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o entitled The Upright Revolution: Or Why Humans Walk Upright. 

So far, this fable has been translated into over 63 languages. The story describes how the human body is created through a discussion between body parts. Arms and legs compete to prove they are the most important body part, as witnessed by other creatures. In his folk explanation of how and why humans started walking on two legs, Thiong’o has an important message to share: we are all connected. 

 

 

 

The Stranger is a novel published in 1942, the first one by renowned writer Albert Camus, translated into over 60 languages.

Although the writer is often associated with the philosophy of the absurd and being an existentialist, Camus always denied the latter. The protagonist, Meursault, is a French Algerian settler whose indifference to reality resulted from it being absurd and unapproachable. 

It is worth noting that Camus’ entire literature work, translated by Victoria Ocampo, Julio Cortázar, and Aurora Bernárdez, circulated throughout the country from the mid-1940s, thanks to the Sur magazine editions.

 

 

The most translated literary work from South Africa is none other than The Hobbit, a fantasy novel written by J. R. R. Tolkien, which is considered a prequel to the epic The Lord of the Rings saga. 

The Hobbit was written in parts from the late 1920s to the early 1930s, originally intended to amuse Tolkien’s young children only. The book gained so much recognition that — to this day — it has been translated into 59 languages. 

Tolkien’s literary production showcases his love for language and philology. He was a true language lover. He learned Latin, French, and German from his mother, and, while at school, he learned Middle English, Old English, Finnish, Gothic, Greek, Italian, Old Norwegian, Spanish, Welsh, and Medieval Welsh. He created more than 15 made-up languages, which are spoken by the Elves and all other inhabitants of Middle-earth, the fictional setting of his works.  

 

 

 

Things Fall Apart is an English novel written by Nigerian author Chinua Achebe, published in 1958. It is one of the first African novels written in English that has received positive reviews worldwide. It is a primer book in schools across Africa, widely read and studied in English-speaking countries worldwide. 

It chronicles the conflicts between the obsolete values of old Europe and the African ways of life. It has been translated into 57 languages ever since it was published, selling more than two million copies in Britain alone.

 

5) Desert Flower (Somalia)

 

This book is the biography of international model Waris Dirie, who has become one of the leaders in the fight against female genital mutilation. In her memoir, Dirie recounts her early life in the Somali desert, the pain and trauma of female circumcision, and her epic accomplishment of becoming one of the world’s most renowned models and a United Nations ambassador for protecting women’s rights and children in Africa.

Dirie’s biography has been translated into over 39 languages, while the author has published part two, titled Desert Dawn. 

 

 

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier is a story of survival as a boy soldier told by Ishmael Beah in a first-person narrative. At the age of 12, he fled a rebel attack and wandered through a country that had become unrecognizable due to violence. At the age of 13 years, he joined the government army, where he discovered what he was capable of. 

Beah’s autobiography has been translated into more than 30 languages, and thus far, no one has been able to tell the tragic story of the boy soldiers in-depth. 

 

 

Against the backdrop of life in Tripoli during the early days of Gaddafi taking control, Hisham Matar wrote a moving portrait of a child whose innocent gaze uncovers the lights and shadows of a country awakening to the harsh reality of conflict and tension generated during decades of placid lethargy.

This literature work is the author’s brilliant literary debut and a finalist for the Man Booker Prize — a distinction never before achieved by a first novel, translated into more than 28 languages.

 

 

This novel by Wilbur Smith is set in the Second Intermediate Period of ancient Egypt. It was published in 1994 and is part of a series of novels set in Egypt, along with The Seventh Scroll, The Sorcerer, and Nile Sovereign. Translated into 26 languages, this literature work simulates the memoirs of the enslaved person and counselor Taita shortly before, during, and after the Hyksos invasion. The book narrates the impression made on the Egyptians by the emergence of new weapons and animals, a bathe invaders, fortunately, wone invaders.

 

 

Guantánamo Diary is the first and only diary written by a Guantánamo detainee who is still imprisoned. Mohamedou Slahi has been locked up in the Guantánamo Bay detention camp in Cuba since 2002. In all these years, the United States has never charged him with a specific crime. Three years into his captivity Slahi began writing a diary, recounting his life before he disappeared into U.S. custody and daily life as a detainee. His diary, which has been translated into 25 languages, is not merely a vivid record of an involuntary deprivation of liberty but a deeply personal memoir.

 

 

Racism Explained to My Daughter is a novel by Moroccan writer Tahar Ben Jelloun as a Q&A. The essay is written in the form of a conversation between the author and his 10-year-old daughter. They are the questions that a child asks her father to understand the meaning of the term “racism.” 

The book was published in 1998 and translated into over 25 languages.