Why am I passionate about this?

For fifty years I have studied and taught the history of Africa, which  makes me about the luckiest guy around.  My focus has been on Southern Africa, and especially Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.  Aside from the fantastic physical beauty, the region attracts because of the comparability of its history and experience with that of the United States at many points:  for instance, a colonial past, systems of slavery, and fraught [to say the least] racial dynamics.  I have enjoyed 23 journeys or lengthier sojourns in Southern Africa, and have taught at five universities, including North Carolina State, Duke, and the University of Zimbabwe as a Fulbright Lecturer.


I wrote

The African Experience: From "Lucy" to Mandela

By Kenneth P. Vickery,

Book cover of The African Experience: From "Lucy" to Mandela

What is my book about?

The story of Africa is the oldest and most event-filled chronicle of human activity on the planet. And in theseā€¦

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

The books I picked & why

Book cover of Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela

Kenneth P. Vickery Why did I love this book?

Wellā€¦ā€¦duh! The term ā€œiconā€ is undoubtedly overused these days, but if anyone deserves it, it would be Mandela. Published in South Africaā€™s annus mirabilis of 1994, when Mandela became the countryā€™s first democratically-elected president, the book traces his rural childhood, his move to the big city, his anti-apartheid activism from the 1940s to 1960s, his 27 years imprisonment, and the difficult transition to majority rule. Mandela began the memoir secretly when on Robben Island, the maximum security jail offshore from Cape Town. Very readable, and utterly inspirational.

By Nelson Mandela,

Why should I read it?

11 authors picked Long Walk to Freedom as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

2018 is the centenary of Nelson Mandela's birth

'The authentic voice of Mandela shines through this book . . . humane, dignified and magnificently unembittered' The Times

The riveting memoirs of the outstanding moral and political leader of our time, A Long Walk to Freedom brilliantly re-creates the drama of the experiences that helped shape Nelson Mandela's destiny. Emotive, compelling and uplifting, A Long Walk to Freedom is the exhilarating story of an epic life; a story of hardship, resilience and ultimate triumph told with the clarity and eloquence of a born leader.

'Burns with the luminosity of faith inā€¦


Book cover of The Old Drift

Kenneth P. Vickery Why did I love this book?

To describe The Old Drift as epic and sprawling is an understatement.  As critics have noted, it is astounding to think that this is a first novel. The Zambian-born Serpell has used her phenomenal powers of observation and imagination to create a sweeping saga of multiple families over several generations of Zambiaā€™s history, and even verges into science-fiction towards the end. Ordinarily I prefer novels with, say, three or four main characters. This one must have thirty, but the recurring connections between them holds things together. Above all, the dead-on details of daily life, especially in the fascinating capital city of Lusaka, make the book memorable.

By Namwali Serpell,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Old Drift as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

ā€œA dazzling debut, establishing Namwali Serpell as a writer on the world stage.ā€ā€”Salman Rushdie, The New York Times Book Review
 
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Dwight Garner, The New York Times ā€¢ The New York Times Book Review ā€¢ Time ā€¢ NPR ā€¢ The Atlantic ā€¢ BuzzFeed ā€¢ Tordotcom ā€¢ Kirkus Reviews ā€¢ BookPage

WINNER OF: The Arthur C. Clarke Award ā€¢ The Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award ā€¢ The Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Fiction ā€¢ The Windham-Campbell Prizes for Fiction

1904. On the banks of the Zambezi River, a few miles from theā€¦


Ad

Book cover of Brother. Do. You. Love. Me.

Brother. Do. You. Love. Me. by Manni Coe,

Brother. Do. You. Love. Me. is a true story of brotherly love overcoming all. Reuben, who has Down's syndrome, was trapped in a care home during the pandemic, spiralling deeper into a non-verbal depression. From isolation and in desperation, he sent his older brother Manni a text, "brother. do. you.ā€¦

Book cover of Nervous Conditions

Kenneth P. Vickery Why did I love this book?

Another remarkable first novel, and the first of a trilogy, now complete. Dangarembga is a multi-talented Zimbabwean womanā€”filmmaker, playwright, novelist, and not least, political activist. A coming-of-age tale set in the late colonial period [when Zimbabwe was Rhodesia], the focus is on two girls, cousins. Tambu, the narrator, begins the book this way: ā€œI was not sorry when my brother died."  Now, that will get your attention [we gradually learn why]. But it is her cousin Nyasha who will grab you: brilliant, passionate, troubled, sickly. In 2018 the BBC named Nervous Conditions one of the 100 stories that have shaped the world.

By Tsitsi Dangarembga,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Nervous Conditions as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

FROM THE BOOKER PRIZE SHORTLISTED AUTHOR OF THIS MOURNABLE BODY, ONE OF THE BBC'S 100 WOMEN FOR 2020

'UNFORGETTABLE' Alice Walker 'THIS IS THE BOOK WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR' Doris Lessing 'A UNIQUE AND VALUABLE BOOK.' Booklist 'AN ABSORBING PAGE-TURNER' Bloomsbury Review 'A MASTERPIECE' Madeleine Thien 'ARRESTING' Kwame Anthony Appiah

Two decades before Zimbabwe would win independence and ended white minority rule, thirteen-year-old Tambudzai Sigauke embarks on her education. On her shoulders rest the economic hopes of her parents, siblings, and extended family, and within her burns the desire for independence. A timeless coming-of-age tale, and a powerful exploration ofā€¦


Book cover of Move Your Shadow: South Africa, Black and White

Kenneth P. Vickery Why did I love this book?

Move Your Shadow is a masterpiece of reportage. Lelyveld, a former executive editor of the New York Times, spent considerable periods in apartheid South Africa in both the 1960s and the 1980s. The sixties was the period of ā€œbaaskapā€ā€”ā€œbosshoodā€ apartheid, when the perverse racist cruelties of the system were imposed with a sledgehammer. I would call the eighties the era of ā€œfaceliftā€ apartheidā€”why, the word was hardly used by the regime anymore. 

To paraphrase Gramsci, the old world was dying, a new one struggled to be born. Monsters abounded. Nobody captured the period better than Lelyveld. The chapter on Philip Kgosana, the idealist who led Cape Town demonstrations in 1960ā€”at age 19ā€”was betrayed by the state, and wound up in exile in Sri Lankaā€”is worth the price of the book.

By Joseph Lelyveld,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Move Your Shadow as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Drawing on his tours in South Africa as a correspondent for the "New York Times," the author details the absurdities, rationalizations, inequities, and cruelties of apartheid, showing what it means to suffer and survive under the restrictions of racial separation


Ad

Book cover of The Model Spy: Based on the True Story of Toto Koopmanā€™s World War II Ventures

The Model Spy by Maryka Biaggio,

The Model Spy is based on the true story of Toto Koopman, who spied for the Allies and Italian Resistance during World War II.

Largely unknown today, Toto was arguably the first woman to spy for the British Intelligence Service. Operating in the hotbed of Mussolini's Italy, she courted dangerā€¦

Book cover of A History of South Africa

Kenneth P. Vickery Why did I love this book?

Okay, he was my dissertation advisor. Sorry! But Thompsonā€™s is a concise, perceptive, and readable one-volume history of the great country, a splendid introduction. Born and raised in South Africa, the late Thompson was a Rhodes Scholar before seeing extensive service in World War II. Like so many talented South Africans from many fields, he went into exile around 1960 when the apartheid regime moved toward a no-holds-barred stranglehold on all opposition. This was his last book, and in it he distills a lifetime of research, teaching and experience. The fourth edition has an update and new preface by Lynn Berat.

By Leonard Thompson,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked A History of South Africa as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A fresh and penetrating exploration of South Africa's history, from the earliest known human inhabitation of the region to the present

"I did not think it was possible for a white person to write a history of South Africa which a black South African would find to be a fair and accurate account of a beautiful land and its people. Leonard Thompson has disabused me of that notion. His is a history that is both accurate and authentic, written in a delightful literary style."-Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The Fourth Edition of this classic text brings South Africa's history up to dateā€¦


Explore my book šŸ˜€

The African Experience: From "Lucy" to Mandela

By Kenneth P. Vickery,

Book cover of The African Experience: From "Lucy" to Mandela

What is my book about?

The story of Africa is the oldest and most event-filled chronicle of human activity on the planet. And in these 36 lectures, you'll explore this great historical drama, tracing the story of the Sub-Saharan region of the continent from the earliest evidence of human habitation to the latest challenges facing African nations in the 21st century.

By learning with these lectures, you'll finally be able to bust myths and correct potential misunderstandings about Africa. For example, in Africa, the word 'tribe' is often used in a neutral way to connote ethnic identity, and not as a veiled comment on some bogus level of 'civilization,' as it often is in the West. Another example: Sub-Saharan Africa was not as isolated as is often suggested by references to the "lost" continent; in fact, an ancient Greek sailing guide from 2,000 years ago clearly shows that the East African coast was already connected commercially with areas to the north.

Book cover of Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
Book cover of The Old Drift
Book cover of Nervous Conditions

Share your top 3 reads of 2024!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,889

readers submitted
so far, will you?

Ad

šŸ“š You might also likeā€¦

Book cover of Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor's Unlikely Adventure

Tap Dancing on Everest by Mimi Zieman,

Tap Dancing on Everest, part coming-of-age memoir, part true-survival adventure story, is about a young medical student, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor raised in N.Y.C., who battles self-doubt to serve as the doctorā€”and only womanā€”on a remote Everest climb in Tibet.

The team attempts a new route upā€¦

Book cover of Let Evening Come

Let Evening Come by Yvonne Osborne,

After her mother is killed in a rare Northern Michigan tornado, Sadie Wixom is left with only her father and grandfather to guide her through young adulthood. Miles away in western Saskatchewan, Stefan Montegrand and his Indigenous family are displaced from their land by multinational energy companies. They are takenā€¦

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in South Africa, Africa, and apartheid?

South Africa 136 books
Africa 269 books
Apartheid 46 books