Are there any must read books about Africa in general? - History, culture, literature e.t.c. Here are a few to start with: ( I haven't read all of these - more of a must read list)

1. The Invention of Africa - V.Y Mudimbe (amazon.com)

2. In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture - Kwame Anthony Appiah (amazon.com)

3. King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa - Adam Hochschild (amazon.com)

Green Hills of Africa by Hemingway; When a crocodile eats the Sun by Peter Godwin; also the photography of Pete Turner #Africa

Please list your entries if you can ( for easier reading). Adding more: ( recent works of literature )

1. Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi, 'Half of a Yellow Sun' - amazon.com

2. All of African Writers Series - good list here! (pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk)

en.m.wikipedia.org I Married Adventure is an amazing book. This link may help you see the ties to Africa. Historical biography.

A great book that I recommend you is "July's people". Is a short yet very interesting book.

I loved Ama Ata Aidoo's Dilemma of a Ghost:
en.wikipedia.org

Moving from post-colonial to colonial, Graham Greene's 'Journey Without Maps' is Conrad without the explicit racism and a more open (though still very English) mind.
en.wikipedia.org

I really loved Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible: en.wikipedia.org

Much like in the book, my dad lived in the (then) Belgian Congo as a child, although he was there because his dad was in the Army Medical Corps working on parasitology, rather than doing missionary work. The family was evacuated just after the Congolese independence. There's a lot of interesting parallels for me (including the same last name!) and the book does a great job of showing a lot of the very personal effects of the massive unrest.

Some of the best articulate thinkers on pan-african theory/lit/art. Read through the blogs if you can't get a copy. Some great contributors. chimurenga.co.za

What is the What by Dave Eggers (amazon.com).
The fictionalised story relates the life and struggle of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan - Valentino Deng. Sometimes funny, often brutal, he is always hopeful. His story is much like that of many refugees.

When I married a South African I got a reading list covering recent history. Two books I found particularly interesting were My Traitors Heart by Rian Malan, and We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our famillies by Philip Gourevitch - both are harrowing moden history but very very good.

Intrigued by the stories of Dutch ship that was taken hostage a few years back I was waiting for a book to understand the "pirates" of Somali and The Pirates of Somalia by Jay Bahadur didn't disappoint. VERY interesting. He contextualizes the conditions that have made for the failed state of Somalia. Discusses how pirates are allowed to go unpunished and thrive and also has some policy analysis as well. Great book.

The Dark Safari is another interesting title and shows the great breadth of diversity that exists on the Continent as the author recounts his travels from Cairo to Cape Town.

Does anyone have a recommendation for something covering Rhodesia or the Bush War? Non-fiction or fiction.

I strongly recommend 'The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency' series, by Alexander McCall Smith. It is a fiction story about Botswana. Worth reading! en.wikipedia.org

Age of Iron, J.M. Coatzee.

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is a must for this list.

@nateberkopec - @Marco_Faraci recommended some books in answer to your question above - RE bit.ly

@aaronpkohn - Just came across an article abt chimurenga in the FT - ft.com

Would be great to connect with them!

I'll second Things Fall Apart and also add Cry, The Beloved Country...a post-colonial African take on the theme of country folk in the big city. Sad without being depressing, poetic without preachiness.

Heart of Darkness shouldn't have been removed from this thread. It's relevant to a lot of debate, like this piece by Achebe, who has his own tribulations reflecting on his early work. kirbyk.net

I was gonna post Image of Africa - critical read for understanding African literature. Really put Conrad/Greene/Hemingway in perspective for me.

One of my favourite books on Africa is The State of Africa by Martin Meredith. As a younger man, this was a great reader on the impact of colonialism and the first 50 years of independence on the continent. It's great way of getting to grips with all the major political changes. It's not perfect, it doesn't cover everything but it's a good start.

amazon.co.uk

Papa, Thanks for your contribution. I have been looking for such a book for awhile - its actually one of the reasons for starting this conversation. I am interested in a good evaluation of Africa before and after colonization and a discussion about the causes of the wide spread economic malaise and development challenges.

No problem. I really enjoyed the book so I thought I would share. There's loads of great stuff here though. Some things that I'm planning to pick up.