This is a list of prominent and notable writers from Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

, including poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

s, novelists, children's writers, essayists, and scholars, listed by country.

Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

• Noureddine Aba (1921–1996), playwright and poet.
• Ferhat Abbas
  Ferhat Abbas
  Ferhat Abbas Kabyle: Ferḥat Σabbas, was an Algerian political leader and briefly acted in a provisional capacity as the yet-to-become independent country's President from 1958 to 1961.- Background :...
  
   (1899–1995), political leader and essayist.
• Salim Aïssa, pseudonym of Boukella, writer of detective fiction.
• Wasini al-A'raj (1954– ), novelist and short story writer.
• Malek Alloula (1937– ), poet and critic.
• Djamal Amrani (1935–2005), poet and essayist.
• Jean Amrouche
  Jean Amrouche
  Jean-Elmouhoub Amrouche was a French-language Algerian poet. Born to a Catholic family in Kabylie in Algeria, Amrouche emigrated with his family to Tunisia while still young...
  
   (1907–1962), poet.
• Marguerite Taos Amrouche (1913–1976), writer and singer.
• Leila Aouchal (1937– ), novelist.
• Maya Arriz Tamza (1957– ), storyteller, novelist and playwright.
• Fatima Bakhaï (1949– ).
• Azouz Begag
  Azouz Begag
  Azouz Begag, is a French writer, politician and researcher in economics and sociology at the CNRS. He was the delegate minister for equal opportunities of France in the government of French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin till 5 April 2007...
  
   (1957– ), social scientist and novelist.
• Rabah Belamri (1946–1995), poet, short story writer and critic.
• Myriam Ben (1928–2001), novelist, poet and activist.
• 'Abdelhamid Ben Hadouga (1928–1996), novelist and short story writer.
• Jacqueline Benslimane, poet.
• Réda Bensmaia, novelist and critic.
• Albert Bensoussan, novelist, translator and academic.
• Fatiha Berezak, poet and performer.
• Aïcha Bouabaci, poet and short story writer.
• Rachid Boudjedra
  Rachid Boudjedra
  Rachid Boudjedra is an Algerian writer and educator who has published numerous poems, essays and novels. Before 1982, these were generally in French, but since then he has concentrated on writing in Arabic. He was born in Aïn Beïda, Algeria, where he was active in the independence movement...
  
   (1941– ), writer and educator.
• Nina Bouraoui
  Nina Bouraoui
  Nina Bouraoui is a French writer born in Rennes, Ille-et-Vilaine, of an Algerian father and a French mother. She spent the first fourteen years of her life in Algiers, then Zürich and Abu Dhabi...
  
   (1967– ), novelist.
• Hocine Bouzaher (1935– ), poet, politician and editor.
• Albert Camus
  Albert Camus
  Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...
  
   (1913–1960), author, philosopher and journalist.
• Hélène Cixous
  Hélène Cixous
  Hélène Cixous is a professor, French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher, literary critic and rhetorician. She holds honorary degrees from Queen's University and the University of Alberta in Canada; University College Dublin in Ireland; the University of York and University College...
  
   (1937–), feminist writer and critic.
• Djamila Debeche (1926– ), novelist and essayist.
• Jacques Derrida
  Jacques Derrida
  Jacques Derrida was a French philosopher, born in French Algeria. He developed the critical theory known as deconstruction and his work has been labeled as post-structuralism and associated with postmodern philosophy...
  
   (1930–2004), philosopher.
• Mohammed Dib
  Mohammed Dib
  Mohammed Dib was an Algerian author. He wrote over 30 novels, as well as numerous short stories, poems, and children's literature in the French language. He is probably Algeria's most prolific and well-known writer...
  
   (1920–2003), novelist and poet.
• Tahar Djaout
  Tahar Djaout
  Tahar Djaout was an Algerian journalist, poet, and fiction writer. He was assassinated by the Armed Islamic Group because of his support of secularism and opposition to what he considered fanaticism. He was attacked on May 26, 1993, as he was leaving his home in Bainem, Algeria. He died on June 2,...
  
   (1954–1993), journalist, poet and fiction writer.
• Assia Djebar
  Assia Djebar
  Assia Djebar is the pen-name of Fatima-Zohra Imalayen , an Algerian novelist, translator and filmmaker. Most of her works deal with obstacles faced by women, and she is noted for her feminist stance. Djebar is considered to be one of North Africa's pre-eminent and most influential writers...
  
   (1936– ), Francophone writer, film-maker and academic.
• Frantz Fanon
  Frantz Fanon
  Frantz Fanon was a Martiniquo-Algerian psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary and writer whose work is influential in the fields of post-colonial studies, critical theory and Marxism...
  
  , originally from Martinique
  Martinique
  Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
  
   (1925–1961), psychiatrist, philosopher and political theorist.
• Achour Fenni
  Achour Fenni
  Achour Fenni poet, translator and academician from Algeria having participated in several scientific, cultural and literary meetings in Algeria, North Africa, Europe, North America and South America.-Collections of poems in Arabic :...
  
  , poet and academic.
• Mouloud Feraoun
  Mouloud Feraoun
  Mouloud Feraoun was an Algerian writer and martyr of the Algerian revolution born in Tizi Hibel, Kabylia. Some of his books, written in French, have been translated into several languages including English and German...
  
   (1913–1962).
• Touati Fettouma (1950– ), Francophone novelist of the Maghreb.
• Fatima Gallaire
  Fatima Gallaire
  Fatima Gallaire is a Franco-Algerian playwright and short stories author, who writes in French.She was born in 1944 in Algeria, and holds a degree in French literature from Algiers University, and one of cinema from Vincennes University....
  
   (1944– ), playwright.
• Anna Greki, pseudonym of Colette Anna Grégoire (1931–1966), poet.
• Malek Haddad
  Malek Haddad
  Malek Haddad was an Algerian poet and writer in the French language.- Partial bibliography :...
  
   (1927–1978), novelist and poet.
• Aicha Lemsine (1942– ), novelist.
• Mouloud Mammeri
  Mouloud Mammeri
  Mouloud Mammeri is an Algerian Kabyle writer, anthropologist and linguist. Born on December 28, 1917 in Taourirt Mimoune Ait Yenni in Tizi Ouzou Province, Algeria; died in February 1989 near Aïn Defla in a car accident while returning from a conference in Oujda, Morocco.- Biography :Mouloud...
  
   (1917–1989), Kabyle writer, anthropologist and linguist.
• Latifa Ben Mansour
  Latifa Ben Mansour
  -Biography:Having studied Linguistics at the École Normale Supérieure d'Alger, where she obtained her Ph.D. in the subject, Ben Mansour went on to teach it at the University of Paris III and communications at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers....
  
   (1950– ), writer and linguist.
• Rachid Mimouni
  Rachid Mimouni
  Rachid Mimouni was an Algerian writer, teacher and human rights activist....
  
   (1945–1995), writer, teacher and activist.
• Ahlam Mostaghanemi (1953– ), novelist.
• Mohammed Ould Cheikh (1905–1938), poet and novelist.
• Leila Rezzoug (1956– ), novelist.
• Leïla Sebbar
  Leila Sebbar
  Leïla Sebbar is an Algerian author, born on 9 November 1941 to the daughter of a French mother and an Algerian father. She spent her youth in colonial Algeria but now lives in Paris...
  
   (1941– ), novelist.
• Jean Sénac
  Jean Sénac
  Jean Sénac Born of an unknown father in Béni Saf in the Oran region of Algeria, the "poet who signed with a sun", was murdered in Algiers on August 30, 1973. His murder remains unsolved. Besides his poems and writings, he was renowned for a long-running relationship and correspondences with...
  
   (1926–1962), poet.
• al-Tāhir Wattar (1936– ), novelist.
• Kateb Yacine
  Kateb Yacine
  Kateb Yacine was an Algerian writer notable for his novels and plays, both in French and Algerian Arabic dialect, and his advocacy of the Algerian Berber cause.-Biography:...
  
   (1929–1989), novelist and playwright.
• Ahmed Zitouni (1949– ), novelist.

Angola

Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

• José Eduardo Agualusa
  José Eduardo Agualusa
  José Eduardo Agualusa is an Angolan journalist and writer. He studied agronomy and silviculture in Lisbon, Portugal. He currently spends most of his time in Portugal, Angola and Brazil, working as a writer and journalist. His books have been translated into twenty languages...
  
   (1960– ), journalist and writer.
• Mário Pinto de Andrade
  Mário Pinto de Andrade
  Mário Coelho Pinto de Andrade was an Angolan poet and politician.He was born in Golungo-Alto, in Portuguese Angola, and studied philology at the University of Lisbon and sociology at the Sorbonne in Paris...
  
   (1928–1990), poet and politician
• Arlindo Barbeitos
  Arlindo Barbeitos
  Arlindo do Carmo Pires Barbeitos is an Angolan poet.- Works :*["por entre as margens da esperança"; "longe"; "borboletas de luz", Vozes Poéticas da Lusofonia]...
  
   (1940– ), poet
• Mendes de Carvalho, writing as Uanhenga Xitu, politician and Africanist writer in Portugese and Kimbundu.
• Lopito Feijóo (1963– ), poet.
• António Jacinto
  António Jacinto
  António Jacinto, full name António Jacinto do Amaral Martins, born in Luanda, Angola 28 September 1924, died 23 June 1991 in Lisbon, Portugal, was an Angolan poet.-Biography:...
  
   (1924–1991), poet and political activist.
• Sousa Jamba (1966– ), Anglophone journalist and novelist.
• Luis Kandjimbo (1960– ), essayist and critic.
• Dia Kassembe (1946– ), Francophone writer and novelist.
• Alda Lara
  Alda Lara
  Alda Ferreira Pires Barreto de Lara Albuquerque, known as Alda Lara . Created a large poetic output in the Portuguese language. Attended Coimbra and Lisbon Universities...
  
   (1930–1962), poet.
• Reis Luís, or "Mbwanga" (1968– ), Portugese-language novelist.
• João Maimona (1955– ), poet and essayist.
• Manuel Rui Monteiro (1941– ), poet.
• Agostinho Neto
  Agostinho Neto
  António Agostinho Neto served as the first President of Angola , leading the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the war for independence and the civil war...
  
   (1922–1979), poet.
• Ondjaki
  Ondjaki
  Ndalu de Almeida is a writer from Angola, writing under the pen name Ondjaki. He lives in Luanda, the capital of the country, and has written poetry, children's books, short stories, novels, drama and film scripts....
  
   (1977– ), poet, novelist and dramatist.
• Pepetela
  Pepetela
  Artur Carlos Maurício Pestana dos Santos is a major Angolan writer of fiction. He writes under the name Pepetela....
  
  , pen-name of Artur Carlos Maurício Pestana dos Santos (1941–), writer of fiction.
• Oscar Ribas
  Óscar Ribas
  Oscar Bento Ribas Angolan writer.Ribas was born in Luanda, the son of Arnaldo Gonçalves Ribas and Maria de Conceição Bento Faria...
  
   (1909–2004), novelist
• Paula Tavares (1952– ), poet.
• José Luandino Vieira
  José Luandino Vieira
  José Luandino Vieira is an Angolan writer of short fiction and novels.Vieira was born in Lagoa de Furadouro, Ourém, Portugal and was Portuguese by birth and ethnicity, but his parents immigrated to Angola in 1938 and he grew up immersed in the African quarters of Luanda...
  
   (1935– ), short-story writer and novelist.

Benin

Benin

Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...

• Stanislas Adotevi (1934– ), French-language academic and philosopher.
• Berte-Evelyne Agbo, French-language poet also connected with Senegal
  Senegal
  Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
  
  .
• Barbara Akplogan (1984 – ), French-language writer.
• Julien Alapini (1906–1971), ethnographer and playwright.
• Francis Aupiais (1877–1945), French-born missionary and anthopologist.
• Olympe Bhêly-Quenum
  Olympe Bhely-Quenum
  Olympe Bhêly-Quénum is a Beninese writer and journalist.Born in Ouidah, Benin, Bhêly-Quénum won the Grand prix littéraire de l'Afrique noire for Le Chant du lac in 1966.-Works:* Le Chant du lac...
  
   (1928 – ), writer and journalist.
• Jérôme Carlos (1944– ), poet.
• Florent Couao-Zotti
  Florent Couao-Zotti
  Florent Couao-Zotti is a writer of comics, plays, and short stories, who lives in Cotonou, Benin. He is fond of employing the short-story as a form. He is also editor of several satirical magazines and a cultural columnist.-Publications:...
  
   (1964), writer of comics, plays and short stories.
• Félix Couchoro (1900–1968), novelist.
• Moudjib Djinadou (1965– ), novelist.
• Paul Hazoumé (1890–19800, novelist.
• Gisèle Hountondji (1954– ), French-language novelist.
• Paulin J. Hountondji
  Paulin J. Hountondji
  Paulin Hountondji is a Beninese philosopher and politician.Hountondji was educated at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, graduating in 1966, and taking his doctorate in 1970...
  
   (1942– ), philosopher and politician.
• Paulin Joachim
  Paulin Joachim
  Paulin Joachim is a Beninese poet, journalist, and editor. He was educated in several places including Lyon and by 1971 was a French citizen. He also worked with French poet Philippe Soupault. His two volumes of poetry are Un nègre raconte in 1954 and Anti-grâce in 1967...
  
   (1931– ), poet, journalist and editor.
• Barnabé Laye (1941 – ), poet.
• Hortense Mayaba, French-language novelist and children's writer.
• José Pliva
  José Pliva
  José Pliya is an actor, stage director, and playwright from Benin. In 2003 he won the Young Writers' Award from the Académie française.-References:...
  
   (1966– ), actor and playwright.
• Jean Pliya
  Jean Pliya
  - Life :Born in what was then Dahomey, Pliya was educated at the University of Dakar and then the University of Toulouse. He graduated from the second in 1957 and in 1959 returned to his homeland to teach. He went on to hold ministerial positions in the Benin government.- Work :His work often...
  
   (1931– ), playwright and short story writer.
• Alidjanatou Saliou-Arekpa, French-language novelist.
• Arnold Sènou, French-language novelist.

Botswana

Botswana

Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...

• Galesiti Baruti, novelist and academic.
• Unity Dow
  Unity Dow
  Unity Dow is a judge, human rights activist, and writer from Botswana. She came from a rural background that tended toward traditional values of the African kind...
  
   (born 1959), judge, human rights activist and writer.
• Bessie Head
  Bessie Head
  Bessie Emery Head is usually considered Botswana's most influential writer.-Biography:Bessie Emery Head was born in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, the child of a wealthy white South African woman and a black servant when interracial relationships were illegal in South Africa...
  
   (1937—1986), novelist and short-story writer born in South Africa
  South Africa
  The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
  
  .
• Leetile Disang Raditladi
  Leetile Disang Raditladi
  Leetile Disang Raditladi was a Botswanan playwright and poet. He was born in Serowe and got his education in Tiger Kloof, Lovedale and Fort Hare University. He was banished from the Bangwato Reserve in 1937 after Tshekedi Khama, the Bangwato regent accused Raditladi of adultery with his wife and...
  
   (1910–1971), playwright and poet.
• Barolong Seboni
  Barolong Seboni
  Barolong Seboni is a poet and academic from Botswana. He received his BA from the University of Botswana and his Master's Degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has translated Botswana proverbs into English...
  
   (born 1957), poet and academic.

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...

• Angèle Bassolé-Ouédraogo
  Angèle Bassolé-Ouédraogo
  Angèle Bassolé-Ouédraogo is an Ivoirian born Canadian poet and journalist. She was born in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire and raised in Burkina Faso, and was educated at the University of Ouagadougou...
  
   (1967– ), French-language poet, also connected with Côte d'Ivoire
  Côte d'Ivoire
  The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
  
  .
• François Djobi Bassolet
  François Bassolet
  François Djobi Bassolet was a Burkina Faso journalist, historian, and cultural leader.Bassolet was the first director of the Agence voltaïque de presse from 1978 to 1981, which was later rename the Agence d'information du Burkina...
  
   (d. 2001), journalist, historian, and cultural leader.
• Jacques Prosper Bazié (born 1955), poet.
• Nazi Boni
  Nazi Boni
  Nazi Boni was a politician from Upper Volta . In 1951 Boni was elected to the French National Assembly on behalf of the Voltaic Union. In 1955 Boni founded the African Popular Movement after a split from the UV...
  
   (1909–1969), politician and writer.
• Sarah Bouyain
  Sarah Bouyain
  Sarah Bouyain is a French-Burkinabé writer and film director.-Biography:Bouyain's mother, who was French, and her father, who was half Burkinabé and half French, met in France while he was studying there....
  
   (1968– ), writer and film director
• Simporé Simone Compaore (born c. 1956), French-language playwright.
• Augustin-Sondé Coulibaly (1933– ), French-language novelist, poet and critic.
• Bernadette Sanou Dao
  Bernadette Sanou Dao
  Bernadette Sanou Dao is a Burkinabé author and politician. At age 11 her family returned to Burkina Faso from Mali. She attended Kolog-Naba college in Ouagadougou and later Ohio University in the United States and the Sorbonne in Paris, France. From 1986 to 1987 she was Burkina Faso's Minister for...
  
   (1952– ), politician, poet and children's writer.
• D. Jean Pierre Guingané (1947– ), playwright, actor and director.
• Zarra Guiro (1957– ), French-language autobiographical writer.
• Ignace Ansomwin Hien (1952– ), novelist, poet and storywriter.
• Monique Ilboudo, politician and writer.
• Pierre Claver Ilboudo (born 1948), French-language novelist.
• Sophie Heidi Kam (1968– ), French-language poet, playwright and novelist.
• Sandra Pierrette Kanzié, French-language poet.
• Joseph Ki-Zerbo
  Joseph Ki-Zerbo
  Joseph Ki-Zerbo was a Burkinabé politician and writer. He spent his youth in Toma where he grew up in a rural context inside a big family. Ki-Zerbo himself declared that his first 11 years passed in a rural context marked his personality and thoughts. He was recognized as one of Africa’s foremost...
  
   (1922–2006), politician and writer.
• Amadou Koné (1953– ), novelist, playwright and short story writer.
• Gaël Koné (1976– ), French-language poet.
• Honorine Mare (1972– ), French-language poet and academic.
• Roger Nikiéma (c.1935– ), French-language journalist, novelist and poet.
• Suzy Henique Nikiéma (1983– ). French-language novelist.
• Kollin Noaga, pseudonym of Ernest Nongma Ouedraogo, politician, novelist and playwright.
• Dim-Dolobsom Ouedraogo (1897–1940), intellectual.
• Titinga Frédéric Pacéré (1943–), museum curator and French-language writer.
• Adiza Sanoussi, French-language novelist.
• Etienne Sawadogo, French-language novelist.
• Marie-Simone Séri (born 1954), French-language autobiographical writer also connected with Ivory Coast.
• Jean-Baptiste Somé, novelist.
• Malidoma Patrice Somé
  Malidoma Patrice Some
  Malidoma Patrice Somé is a West African writer. He was born in Dano, Burkina Faso, among the Dagara.At the age of four he was kidnapped by Jesuit missionaries, to be raised in their boarding school, and given an education. The missionaries were attempting to train black Africans who might convert...
  
   (1956– ), writer about religion.
• Maxime Z. Somé (1959– ), academic, politician and novelist.
• Norbert Zongo
  Norbert Zongo
  Norbert Zongo was the publisher and editor of the Burkina Faso newspaper l'Indépendant. He was assassinated after his newspaper began investigating the murder of a driver who had worked for the brother of President Blaise Compaoré.On December 13, 1998, Zongo's burned body was found along with...
  
   (1949–1988), journalist and novelist.

Cameroon

Cameroon

Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...

• Severin Cecile Abega
  Severin Cecile Abega
  Severin Cecile Abega was a Cameroonian author, anthropologist and researcher.-Biography:Severin Cecile Abega was born in 1955 at Saa in the South of Cameroon...
  
   (1955–2008), French-language fiction writer and anthropologist, author of Les Bimanes, Le Bourreau and Entre Terre et Ciel.
• Marie-Therese Assiga Ahanda
  Marie-Thérèse Assiga Ahanda
  Marie-Thérèse Catherine Atangana Assiga Ahanda is a Cameroonian novelist and chemist and the paramount chief of the Ewondo people. Ahanda is the daughter of Charles Atangana—paramount chief of the Ewondo and Bane peoples under the German and French colonial regimes—by his second wife, Julienne Ngonoa...
  
  , chemist and novelist.
• Paul-Charles Atangana (1930– ), French-language poet.
• Philomène Bassek (1957– ), French-language novelist, author of La Tache de Sang.
• Francis Bebey
  Francis Bebey
  Francis Bebey was a Cameroonian artist, musician, and writer.Bebey attended the Sorbonne, and was further educated in the United States...
  
   (1929–2001), author of Les Trois Petits Cireurs, Agatha Moudio'son, The Ashanti Doll, Enfant Pluie and Ministre et le Griot.
• Bate Besong (1954– ), poet.
• Mongo Beti
  Mongo Beti
  Alexandre Biyidi Awala , known as Mongo Beti, was a Cameroonian writer.- Life :Though he lived in exile for many decades, Beti's life reveals an unflagging commitment to improvement of his home country...
  
   (pseudonym of Alexandre Biyidi Awala) (1932–2001), novelist writing in French.
• Calixthe Beyala
  Calixthe Beyala
  Calixthe Beyala is a Cameroonian writer who writes in French.She grew up in Douala with her sister. In 1978, She left Cameroon for France...
  
   (1961– ), novelist writing in French.
• Jacques Bonjawo
  Jacques Bonjawo
  Jacques Bonjawo is a software engineer, an author and a columnist in the application of technology to sustainable development. Jacques is most noted for his work at Microsoft in 1997–2006 as senior program manager for the MSN Group...
  
   (1960– ), software engineer and columnist.
• Bole Butake (1947– ), playwright.
• Fernando d'Almeida (1955– ), journalist and poet.
• Paul Dakeyo (1948– ), poet.
• Mbella Sonne Dipoko
  Mbella Sonne Dipoko
  Mbella Sonne Dipoko was a novelist, poet and painter from Cameroon. He is widely considered to be one of the foremost writers of Anglophone Cameroonian literature. -Works:...
  
   (1936– ), English-language novelist, poet and painter.
• Gaston-Paul Effa (1965– ), novelist.
• Jean Marc Ela
  Jean Marc Ela
  Jean-Marc Ela was a sociologist, Diocesan Priest, Professor and author of many books on theology, philosophy, and social sciences in Africa. His most famous work, African Cry has been called the "soundest illustration" of the spirit of liberation theology in sub-Saharan Africa...
  
   (1936– ), African liberation theologian
  Liberation theology
  Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...
  
  , author of African Cry and My Faith as an African
• Samuel-Martin Eno Belinga (1935– ), poet, geologist and civil servant.
• Professor Ndumbe Eyoh (1949–2006), playwright.
• Alexis Maxime Feyou de Happy, French-language playwright, author of Conscience Ouverte (1974), Dithy (2002), Fairy Tales from Propagamar (2006), Victus Libri/Classic African Art (2008), Les Mezzotiniales (2009), Bodanou le Petit Oiseau Rouge (2010), and La Septieme Colonne/L'Ombre de Meridor (2010).
• Joseph Feyou de Happy (1921– ), French-language politician and historian, author of L'esprit des lois grassfields.
• Patrice Kayo
  Patrice Kayo
  Patrice Kayo is an African scholar, poet, and author born in 1942 in Bandjoun, West Province, Cameroon.He is also known for his radical opposition to Paul Biya's political regime, and his advocacy for freedom of speech and human rights....
  
   (1942– ), poet, short story writer and oral storyteller.
• Yodi Karone (1954– ), novelist.
• Werewere Liking
  Werewere Liking
  Werewere Liking is a writer, playwright and performer based in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. She established the Ki-Yi Mbock theatre troupe in 1980 and founded the Ki-Yi village in 1985 for the artistic education of young people....
  
   (1950– ), novelist also associated with Côte d’Ivoire.
• Jeanne Ngo Mai (1933– ), French-language poet.
• Claude-Joseph M'Bafou-Zetebeg (1948– ), French-language poet.
• Achille Mbembe
  Achille Mbembe
  Achille Mbembe is a philosopher and political scientist. He was born in Cameroon in 1957. He obtained his Ph.D. in History at the University of Sorbonne in Paris, France, in 1989. He subsequently obtained a D.E.A. in Political Science at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in the same city...
  
   (1957– ), political philosopher.
• Rémy Sylvestre Medou Mvomo (1938– ), novelist and playwright.
• Evelyne Mpoudi Ngole (1953–), French-language novelist, author of Sous La Cendre Le Feu and Petit Jo, Enfant Des Rues.
• Engelbert Mveng (1930– ), French-language poet, author of Balafon.
• Bill F. NDI (1964– ), English-language poet and playwright, author of K'cracy, Trees in the Storm and Other Poems, Mishaps and Other Poems, Toils and Travails, and Gods in the Ivory Towers.
• Bernard Nanga (1934–1985), French-language novelist, author of Les Chauve-Souris.
• David Ndachi Tagne (1958– ), novelist and journalist.
• Charles Ngandé, French-language poet.
• Simon Njami
  Simon Njami
  Simon Njami is an independent lecturer, art critic, novelist and essayist. He lives in France, and has Cameroonian roots....
  
   (1962– ), novelist.
• Jean-Jacques Nkollo (1962– ), novelist.
• Etienne B. Noume, pen-name of Etienne NKepndep (1944–1970), French-language poet.
• Jean-Paul-Nyunaï (1932– ), French-language poet.
• Joseph Owono
  Joseph Owono
  Joseph Owono was a Cameroonian writer and diplomat. He served as Cameroon's Ambassador to the United States in the 1970s. His novel Tante Bella published in 1959 was the first novel to be published in Cameroon. One of his granddaughters is singer Trebeka.-References:...
  
   (1921–1981), novelist and diplomat.
• Ferdinand Oyono
  Ferdinand Oyono
  Ferdinand Léopold Oyono was an author from Cameroon whose work is recognized for a sense of irony that reveals how easily people can be fooled...
  
   (1929– ), novelist.
• Guillaume Oyono-Mbia (1939– ), playwright writing in English and French, author of Trois Pretendants un mari.
• René Philombe, pseudonym of Philippe-Louis Ombede (1930–2001), novelist and editor.
• Francois Sengat-Kuo
  François Sengat-Kuo
  François Sengat-Kuo is better known as a politician and diplomat than as poet. François Sengat-Kuo completed elementary education at the Ecole Principale D’Akwa . He attended secondary school at the Lycée Leclerc and the Lyc.ée Pierre d’Ailly...
  
   (1931– ), French-language poet, author of Fleurs de Laterite, Heures rouges, and Collier de Cauris.
• Elolongué Epanya Yondo (1930– ), poet in French and Duala
  Duala language
  Duala is the language spoken by the Duala people of Cameroon. The language belonges to the Bantu language family, and a subgroup of it called the Duala languages...
  
  .
• Delphine Zanga Tsogo (1935– ), feminist and writer.

Central African Republic

Central African Republic

The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...

• Pierre Makombo Bamboté (1932– ), novelist and poet.
• Etienne Goyémidé (1942– ), novelist, poet and short story writer: Le Silence de la Foret.
• Blaise N'Djehoya (1953– ), novelist.
• Cyriaque Robert Yavoucko (1953– ), novelist.

Chad

Chad

Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...

• Marie-Christine Koundja
  Marie-Christine Koundja
  Marie-Christine Koundja is a Chadian writer and diplomat. She has written a novel, Al-Istifakh, ou, L'idylle de mes amis .She was the Ambassador to Cameroon, and is currently First Secretary at the Chadian Embassy in Nigeria....
  
   (1957– ), novelist and diplomat.
• Koulsy Lamko
  Koulsy Lamko
  Koulsy Lamko is a Chadian-born playwright, poet, novelist and university lecturer. Born in Dadouar, Lamko left his country for Burkina Faso in 1979 due to the beginning of the civil war. There, he became acquainted with Thomas Sankara and involved with the Institute of Black Peoples in Ouagadougou...
  
   (1959– ), playwright, poet, novelist and university lecturer.
• Joseph Brahim Seid
  Joseph Brahim Seid
  Joseph Brahim Seid was a Chadian writer and politician. He served as Minister of Justice from 1966 to 1975. As a writer he is known for the works Au Tchad sous les étoiles and Un enfant du Tchad , based on his own life.-References:* http://www.cp-pc.ca/english/chad/arts.html*...
  
   (1927–1980), writer and politician.
• Ali Abdel-Rhamane Haggar (1960– ), economist and writer.
• Ahmat Taboye
  Ahmat Taboye
  Ahmat Taboye is a literary critic from Chad. As head of the Department of Letters at the University of N'Djamena, he published Anthologie de la littérature tchadienne in 2003, which covers 40 years of Chadian literature. In May 2007, the Ministry of Cultural and Artistic Development named him a...
  
  , literary critic.
• Khayar Oumar Defallah (c.1944– ), politician and autobiographical writer.

Congo (Brazzaville)

Republic of the Congo

The Republic of the Congo , sometimes known locally as Congo-Brazzaville, is a state in Central Africa. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the Angolan exclave province of Cabinda, and the Gulf of Guinea.The region was dominated by...

• Adèle Caby-Livannah
  Adèle Caby-Livannah
  Adèle Caby-Livannah is a writer from the Republic of the Congo born in 1957. From 1983 on she was a school librarian in Mante, France. She is primarily a short fiction writer with in least two collections.-References:...
  
   (1957– )
• Emmanuel Dongala
  Emmanuel Dongala
  Emmanuel Boundzéki Dongala is a Congolese chemist and novelist. He is currently Richard B. Fisher Chair in Natural Sciences at Bard College at Simon's Rock....
  
   (1941– )
• Mambou Aimée Gnali
  Mambou Aimée Gnali
  Mambou Aimée Gnali was Minister of Culture and the Arts, in charge of Tourism, in the government of the Republic of the Congo from January 1999 to August 2002. In the 1950s she was among the few Congolese women to study in France. She has also written an autobiography.Gnali was appointed as...
  
  
• Sony Lab'ou Tansi (1947–1995), born in Congo-Kinshasa
• Henri Lopes
  Henri Lopès
  Henri Lopès is a Congolese writer, diplomat, and political figure. He was Prime Minister of Congo-Brazzaville from 1973 to 1975, and since 1998 he has been Congo-Brazzaville's Ambassador to France.-Political and diplomatic career:...
  
   (1937– ), born in Congo-Kinshasa
• Alain Mabanckou
  Alain Mabanckou
  Alain Mabanckou is an author and journalist who currently resides in the United States.-Life:Alain Mabanckou was born in Congo-Brazzaville in 1966. He spent his childhood in the coastal village of Pointe-Noire where he received his baccalaureate in Letters and Philosophy at the Lycée Karl Marx...
  
   (1966– )
• Jean Malonga
  Jean Malonga
  Jean Malonga is credited as one of the earliest of the modern Republic of Congo writers. Prior to Malonga, Congolese literature in Brazzaville consisted of scattered pre-World War II French language works. He began his career as a writer in the Congolese language magazine Liaison.-References:*...
  
  
• Victor N'Gembo-Mouanda
  Victor N'Gembo-Mouanda
  Victor N’Gembo-Mouanda is a contemporary Congolese author and translator of French.He studied at his early age in Loutété Carrefour Primary School...
  
   (1969– )
• Theophile Obenga
  Theophile Obenga
  Théophile Obenga is a professor emeritus, formerly at San Francisco State University, in the Africana Studies Center. He was born in 1936 in Brazzaville, French Equatorial Africa ....
  
  
• Tchicaya U Tam'si
  Tchicaya U Tam'si
  Tchicaya U Tam'si was a Congolese author. His official name is Gérald-Félix Tchicaya; his artist name means small paper that speaks for a country in Kikongo.-Life:...
  
   (1931–1988)
• Jean-Baptiste Tati-Loutard (1938–2009)
• Jeannette Balou Tchichelle
  Jeannette Balou Tchichelle
  Jeannette Balou Tchichelle is an author born in Republic of the Congo in 1947. She has lived in France since 1969 with her three sons. In books like her 1989 Coeur en exil [A Heart in Exile] ISBN 2-214-07893-2 she expresses a since of homesickness for her native country.-External links:*...
  
   (1947– )
• Marie-Leontine Tsibinda
  Marie-Leontine Tsibinda
  Marie-Léontine Tsibinda Bilombo is Congolese writer. In 1981, she received the National Prize for Poetry. In 1996, the received the Prize Unesco-Aschberg. A native of Girard, she fled the Republic of Congo in 1999 during its civil war, stopping briefly in Niamey before settling in Canada in...
  
  
• Brigitte Yengo
  Brigitte Yengo
  Sister Brigitte Yengo is a Roman Catholic Congolese nun, and the head of Sister Yengo's Children, Inc., a charitable organization founded to assist the population of sub-Saharan Africa.-Lifeline:...
  
  

Congo (Democratic Republic)– formerly Zaïre

Democratic Republic of the Congo

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...

• Léonie Abo
  Léonie Abo
  Léonie Abo is a Bambunda author born in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1945. Her mother died while having her so she was raised by an infertile woman named Mabiunga. She went on to have an arranged marriage, joined the maquis, and in 1968 her husband was assassinated. She has...
  
  , (1945– ), autobiographical writer.
• J’ongungu Lokolé Bolamba (1913–1990), poet.
• Raïs Neza Boneza (1979– ), poet and peace researcher.
• Amba Bongo
  Amba Bongo
  Amba Bongo is a writer and advocate for refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo-Amba Bongo is a writer and advocate for refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo-Amba Bongo is a writer and advocate for refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo-(Kinshasa. Bongo had been...
  
  , writer and advocate for refugees.
• Lima-Baleka Bosekilolo
  Lima-Baleka Bosekilolo
  Lima-Baleka Bosekilolo is a Congolese poet whose works include Les Marais brûlés [The Burnt Marais].-External links:*...
  
  , poet.
• Charles Djungu-Simba Kamatenda (1953– ), journalist, teacher, publisher, and writer.
• Buabua wa Kayembe Mubadiate (1950– ), playwright.
• Christine Kalonji, French-language fiction writer.
• Kama Sywor Kamanda
  Kama Sywor Kamanda
  Kama Sywor Kamanda is an award-winning African writer and poet.-Biography:Kama Sywor Kamanda was born on November 11, 1952, in Luebo, Democratic Republic of Congo, to a family of Bantu-Egyptian origin, father Malaba Kamenga and mother Kony Ngalula....
  
   (1952– ), writer and poet.
• Maguy Kabamba
  Maguy Kabamba
  Maguy Rashidi-Kabamba is a writer and translator from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She was educated at the University of Lubumbashi. Her novel La Dette coloniale came out in 1995. The book takes a critical look at the belief many Africans have that a better life can be found in Europe...
  
   (1960– ), writer and translator.
• Paul Lomami-Tshibamba
  Paul Lomami-Tshibamba
  Paul Lomami Tshibamba was a Congolese journalist and author.-Biography:Paul Lomami Tshibamba was born on 17 July 1914 in Brazzaville from Congolese parents. The family returned in 1920 to Léopoldville in the Belgian Congo....
  
   (1914–1985), novelist born in Congo-Brazzaville.
• V. Y. Mudimbe
  V. Y. Mudimbe
  V.Y. Mudimbe is a philosopher, professor, and author of books and articles about African culture, poems, and novels. Mudimbe was a former assistant of Michel Foucault. He was born in the Belgian Congo, which became Zaire and is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo...
  
   (1941– ), philosopher, academic and author.
• Ngal Mbwil a Mpaang (1933– ), novelist.
• Kavidi Wivine N'Landu
  Kavidi Wivine N'Landu
  Kavidi Wivine N'Landu is a poet and political figure from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 1980 she was appointed General Secretary of the Department of Women Affairs. This was during the reign of Mobutu Sese Seko. On the rise of Laurent Kabila, she fled to South Africa...
  
  , poet.
• Clémentine Nzuji
  Clémentine Nzuji
  Clémentine Faik Nzuji is an African poet; she was born in Tshofa, Kabinda District in the Belgian Congo on January 21, 1944. Albert S...
  
   (1944– ), poet.
• Sony Labou Tansi
  Sony Labou Tansi
  Sony Lab'ou Tansi was a Congolese novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and poet. Though he was only forty-seven when he died, Tansi remains one of the most prolific African writers and the most internationally renowned practitioner of the "New African Writing." His novel The Antipeople won...
  
   (1947–1995), novelist and poet.
• Kabika Tshilolo
  Kabika Tshilolo
  Marie-Jeanne Kabika Tshilolo is a French language writer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Educated by French nuns, she became a French lecturer after graduating from university, and subsequently a journalist...
  
  , French-language writer.
• Frederick Kambemba Yamusangie
  Frederick Kambemba Yamusangie
  Frederick Kambemba Yamusangie is a novelist, playwright and poet who was born and partly brought up in Zaire in Africa....
  
  , novelist, playwright and poet.
• Lye M. Yoka, playwright and short story writer.
• Batukezanga Zamenka (1933–2000), novelist and essayist.

Côte d'Ivoire

Côte d'Ivoire

The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...

• Marguerite Abouet
  Marguerite Abouet
  Marguerite Abouet was born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast in 1971. She is best known for her graphic novel series Aya.-Biography:At the age of twelve, Abouet and her brother moved to France with their great uncle. She currently resides in Romainville, a suburb just outside of Paris, with her husband,...
  
  , born in Abidjan
  Abidjan
  Abidjan is the economic and former official capital of Côte d'Ivoire, while the current capital is Yamoussoukro. it was the largest city in the nation and the third-largest French-speaking city in the world, after Paris, and Kinshasa but before Montreal...
  
   (1971– )
• Angèle Bassolé-Ouédraogo
  Angèle Bassolé-Ouédraogo
  Angèle Bassolé-Ouédraogo is an Ivoirian born Canadian poet and journalist. She was born in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire and raised in Burkina Faso, and was educated at the University of Ouagadougou...
  
  , also connected with Burkina Faso
  Burkina Faso
  Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
  
   (1967– )
• Tanella Boni
  Tanella Boni
  Tannella Boni is an Ivorian poet and novelist.Born in Abidjan, Tanella Boni did her advanced studies in Toulouse, France, and the University of Paris...
  
  
• Micheline Coulibaly
  Micheline Coulibaly
  Micheline Coulibaly was a writer from Côte d'Ivoire. She was born in Vietnam but went to school in Côte d'Ivoire. In 1990 she moved to Mexico, in 2000 to Dubai. She wrote short stories and children's books.-Bibliography:...
  
  , born in Vietnam
  Vietnam
  Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
  
   (1950–2003)
• Bernard Binlin Dadié
  Bernard Binlin Dadié
  Bernard Binlin Dadié is a prolific Ivorian novelist, playwright, poet, and ex-administrator...
  
   (1916– )
• Henriette Diabate
  Henriette Diabaté
  Henriette Diabaté is an Ivorian politician and writer. A member of the Rally of the Republicans , Diabaté was Minister of Culture from 1990 to 1993 and again in 2000; later, she was Minister of Justice from 2003 to 2005. She has been the Secretary-General of the RDR since 1999.Diabaté was born in...
  
  
• Richard Dogbeh
  Richard Dogbeh
  Richard Dogbeh was a novelist and educator. He served as Benin's Directeur de Cabinet of the National Ministry of Education from 1963 to 1966...
  
  , also connected with Benin
  Benin
  Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
  
  , Senegal
  Senegal
  Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
  
   and Togo
  Togo
  Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...
  
   (1932–2003)
• Werewere-Liking Gnepo, also connected with Cameroon
  Cameroon
  Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
  
   (1950– )
• Gilbert G. Groud
  Gilbert G. Groud
  Gilbert G. Groud is a painter, illustrator and author from Toulépleu, Côte d'Ivoire.- Biography :He was born around 1956 in a little village close to Toulépleu in Côte d'Ivoire. He had 23 siblings, not all of whom were born to the same mother since his father was polygamous. 7 siblings were of the...
  
   (1956– )
• Fatou Kéita
  Fatou Keïta
  Fatou Keïta is an Ivorian writer.She made her primary studies in Bordeaux where her father was studying surgery, she moved later to England and the United States and studied at the Université de Cocody...
  
  
• Adjoua Flore Kouame
  Adjoua Flore Kouamé
  -Life:Adjoua Flore Kouamé graduated with a master's degree in law from the National School of Administration of the Côte d’Ivoire. In the 1990s she became a civil administrator and deputy director at the Ministry of the Interior. In 2008 she held the position of Head of the Prime Minister's...
  
   (1964– )
• Ahmadou Kourouma
  Ahmadou Kourouma
  Ahmadou Kourouma was an Ivorian novelist.-Life:The eldest son of a distinguished Malinké family, Ahmadou Kourouma was born in 1927 in Côte d'Ivoire. Raised by his uncle, he initially pursued studies in Bamako, Mali...
  
   (1927–2003)
• Lauryn, also connected with Togo
  Togo
  Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...
  
   and Benin
  Benin
  Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
  
  , born in France
  France
  The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
  
   (1978– )
• Véronique Tadjo
  Véronique Tadjo
  Véronique Tadjo is a writer, poet, novelist, and artist from Côte d'Ivoire.Born in Paris, Véronique Tadjo was the daughter of an Ivorian civil servant and a French painter and sculptor. Brought up in Abidjan, she travelled widely with her family. Tadjo completed her BA degree at the University of...
  
   (1955– )

Djibouti

Djibouti

Djibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti , is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east...

• Waberi Abdourahman (1965– ), novelist, poet and academic.
• Mouna-Hodan Ahmed (1972– ), French-language novelist.

Egypt

Egypt

Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

• Ahmed Shawki (1868–1932)
• Hafez Ibrahim
  Hafez Ibrahim
  Hafez Ibrahim was an Egyptian poet, called , means the Poet of the Nile. He was one of several poets that revived Arabic poetry during the latter half of the 19th Century. While still using the classical Arabic system of meter and rhyme, these poets wrote to express new ideas and feelings...
  
   (1872–1932)
• Salama Moussa
  Salama Moussa
  Salama Moussa Born into a wealthy, land owning Coptic family in the town of Zagazig located in the Nile delta. Salama Musa was a journalist, writer, advocator of secularism, and pioneer of Arab socialism. He wrote or translated 45 published books; his writings still influence Arab thought and he...
  
   (1887–1958)
• Taha Hussein (1889–1973)
• Fekry Pasha Abaza (1896–1979)
• Tawfik El Hakim (1898–1987)
• Muhammad Husayn Haykal
  Muhammad Husayn Haykal
  Muhammad Hussein Haekal was an Egyptian writer, journalist, politician and Minister of Education in Egypt.- Life :...
  
   (1909–1956)
• Abo El Seoud El Ebiary
  Abo El Seoud El Ebiary
  Abo El Seoud El Ebiary was an Egyptian comic screenwriter, playwright, lyricist, and also journalist. He discovered the Egyptian comedian Ismail Yasin and wrote most of his movies, as an artistic duet...
  
   (1910–1969)
• Naguib Mahfouz
  Naguib Mahfouz
  Naguib Mahfouz was an Egyptian writer who won the 1988 Nobel Prize for Literature. He is regarded as one of the first contemporary writers of Arabic literature, along with Tawfiq el-Hakim, to explore themes of existentialism. He published over 50 novels, over 350 short stories, dozens of movie...
  
  , (1911–2006), awarded the 1988 Nobel Prize in Literature
  Nobel Prize in Literature
  Since 1901, the Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded annually to an author from any country who has, in the words from the will of Alfred Nobel, produced "in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction"...
  
  
• Edmond Jabès
  Edmond Jabes
  ----Edmond Jabès was a Jewish writer and poet, and one of the best known literary figures to write in French after World War II.- Life :...
  
   (1912–1991)
• Tatamkulu Afrika
  Tatamkulu Afrika
  Tatamkulu Afrika was a South African poet and writer.-Writing:...
  
  , also connected with South Africa
  South Africa
  The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
  
   (1920–2002)
• Andrée Chedid
  Andrée Chedid
  Andrée Chedid was a French poet and novelist of Lebanese descent.-Life:Chedid was born in Cairo on 20 March 1920. When she was ten, she was sent to a boarding school, where she learned English and French. At fourteen, she left for Europe. She then returned to Cairo to go...
  
   (1920– )
• Mustafa Mahmoud (1921–2009)
• Yusuf Idris
  Yusuf Idris
  Yusuf Idris, also Yusif Idris was an Egyptian writer of plays, short stories, and novels. Idris originally trained to be a doctor, studying at the University of Cairo...
  
   (1927–1991)
• Alifa Rifaat
  Alifa Rifaat
  Fatimah Rifaat better known by her pen name Alifa Rifaat, was an Egyptian author whose controversial short stories are renowned for their depictions of the dynamics of female sexuality, relationships, and loss in rural Egyptian culture...
  
   (1930–1996)
• Mohammad Moustafa Haddara
  Mohammad Moustafa Haddara
  Professor Dr. Mohammad Moustafa Haddara was a distinguished Arabic scholar.Dr. Haddara was Professor of Arabic Literature, at Alexandria University, Egypt, and a Professor at King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia....
  
   (1930–1997)
• Samir Amin
  Samir Amin
  Samir Amin is an Egyptian economist. He currently lives in Dakar, Senegal.- Biography :Samir Amin was born in Cairo, the son of an Egyptian father and a French mother . He spent his childhood and youth in Port Said; there he attended a French High School, leaving in 1947 with a Baccalauréat...
  
   (1931– )
• Nawâl El Saadâwi
  Nawal El Saadawi
  Nawal El Saadawi , born October 27, 1931, is an Egyptian feminist writer, activist, physician and psychiatrist. She has written many books on the subject of women in Islam, paying particular attention to the practice of female genital mutilation in her society....
  
   (1931– )
• Sonallah Ibrahim
  Sonallah Ibrahim
  Son'allah Ibrahim is an Egyptian novelist and short story writer and one of the "Sixties Generation" who is known for his leftist and nationalist views which are expressed rather directly in his work...
  
   (1937– )
• Abdel Rahman El Abnudi (1938– )
• Leila Ahmed
  Leila Ahmed
  Leila Ahmed is an Egyptian American writer on Islam and Islamic feminism as well as being the first women's studies professor at Harvard Divinity School.- Background :...
  
   (1940– )
• Gamal Al-Ghitani
  Gamal Al-Ghitani
  Gamal el-Ghitani, is an Egyptian author of historical and political novels and cultural and political commentaries and was the editor-in-chief of the literary periodical Akhbar Al-Adab till 2011.-Biography:...
  
   (1945– )
• Ahdaf Soueif
  Ahdaf Soueif
  Ahdaf Soueif is an Anglo-Egyptian novelist and political and cultural commentator.-Life and career:Soueif was born in Cairo and educated in Egypt and England...
  
   (1950– )

Birth date not known

• Anis Mansour
  Anis Mansour
  Anis Mansour, also transliterated as Anīs Manṣūr was an Egyptian writer.Anis Mansour was born in Al-Mansoura. He obtained his BA in philosophy in 1947 and started his journalistic career in the same year by joining "al-asas" newspaper staff, and later he joined many other newspapers and...
  
  
• Salama Ahmed Salama
  Salama Ahmed Salama
  Salama Ahmed Salama is an Egyptian journalist and author. He served as the vice chief editor for Al-Ahram newspapers for 22 years. and is now the editor-in-chief of Al-Shourouk newspaper and the political magazine Points of View...
  
  
• Muhammad Aladdin
  Muhammad Aladdin
  Muhammad Aladdin, also known as Alaa Eddin is an Egyptian novelist, short story writer, and script writer. Aladdin has gained acclamation for his first novel published The Gospel According to Adam in January 2006...
  
  
• Hussein Bassir
  Hussein Bassir
  Hussein Bassir is an Egyptian archaeologist of Giza Pyramids and one of the directors of the excavation team in the Valley of the Golden Mummies at Bahariya Oasis. In 1994, he got his BA in Egyptology from Cairo University...
  
  
• Mona Soliman
  Mona Soliman
  Mona Soliman is the nom de plume of an Egyptian novelist and poetess.- Works :- External links :*...
  
  
• Abaza Family
  Abaza family
  The Abaza clan, "deeply rooted in Egyptian society and... in the history of the country" is an Egyptian family that has played a powerful and long-standing role in Egyptian economic, intellectual and political life...
  
  

Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea where the capital Malabo is situated.Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the...

• María Nsué Angüe
  María Nsué Angüe
  María Nsué Angüe is a noted contemporary Equatorial Guinean writer and former Minister of Education and Culture.-Background and early life:...
  
   (1945– ), novelist and writer.
• Juan Balboa Boneke
  Juan Balboa Boneke
  Juan Balboa Boneke is an Equatorial Guinean politician and writer.He studied at the Escuela Superior de Santa Isabel and at La Escuela social de Granada...
  
   (1938– ), politician and writer.
• Raquel Ilonbé
  Raquel Ilonbé
  Raquel Ilonbé, pseudonym of Raquel del Pozo Epita , was an Equatoguinean writer in Spanish.-Background and early life:...
  
   (1938–1992), Spanish-language writer.
• Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel
  Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel
  Juan Tomás Ávila Laurel is an Annobonese writer from Equatorial Guinea.-Background and early life:...
  
   (1966– ), Annobonese writer.
• Donato Ndongo-Bidyogo
  Donato Ndongo-Bidyogo
  Donato Ndongo-Bidyogo is an Equatorial Guinean writer/journalist and part of a movement of young Afro-descended authors who have contributed their African experience and traditions to Hispanic culture.-Writings:...
  
   (1950– ), writer and journalist.

Eritrea

Eritrea

Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...

• Alemseged Tesfai (1944– ), English-language playwright.
• Reesom Haile ( –2003), Tigrinya-language poet.

Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

• Haddis Alemayehu
  Haddis Alemayehu
  Haddis Alemayehu , also transliterated Hadis Alamayahu, was a Foreign Minister and novelist from Ethiopia. His Amharic novel is considered a classic of modern Ethiopian literature....
  
   (1910–2003)
• Michael Daniel Ambatchew
  Michael Daniel Ambatchew
  Michael Daniel Ambatchew is an Ethiopian children's book writer born March 7, 1967. He has written Sidama Tales and Alemayehu. Although an admirer of Western stories like Puss in Boots he has been active in improving the publishing of a more native Ethiopian children's literature and has also...
  
   (1967– )
• Āfawarq Gabra Iyasus (1868–1947)
• Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin
  Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin
  Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin was Poet Laureate of Ethiopia, as well as a poet, playwright, essayist, and art director.-Biography:...
  
   (1936–2006)
• Moges Kebede
  Moges Kebede
  Moges Kebede, sometimes credited as Moges Kebede Damte or Moges Damte, is an Ethiopian author, essayist, and editor. He is the publisher of Mestawet Ethiopian Newspaper, a monthly magazine for the Ethiopian immigrant community in the United States.Moges Kebede was born and raised in Addis Ababa,...
  
  
• Tāddasa Lībān
  Taddasa Liban
  -References:...
  
  
• Nega Mezlekia
  Nega Mezlekia
  Nega Mezlekia is an Ethiopian writer who writes in English. His first language is the Amharic language, but since the 1980s he has lived in Canada so speaks and writes in English....
  
   (1958– )
• Sahle Selassie
  Sahle Selassie
  Sahle Selassie was a Meridazmach of Shewa , an important noble of Ethiopia. He was a younger son of Wossen Seged...
  
   (1936– )
• Demese Tsege
  Demese Tsege
  Demese Tesege is an Ethiopian author and journalist. He works for the Addis Zemen newspaper. He writes in the Amharic language.-Publication:* Ye asenaqech debabe...
  
  
• Hama Tuma
  Hama Tuma
  Hama Tuma is an Ethiopian poet and writer of the Amharic language born in Addis Ababa. He studied Law in Addis Ababa University. He became an advocate for democracy and justice. This has caused him to be banned by three different Ethiopian governments. This situation sharpened his use of satire...
  
   (1949– )
• Mammo Wudneh
  Mammo Wudneh
  Mammo Wudneh is a playwright, journalist and Former President of the Ethiopian Writers' Association. He is actively involved as a peacemaker between Ethiopia and Eritrea working on an interfaith committee chaired by Abune Paulos, the Patriarch of the Tewahedo Church.-Early life:Mammo Wudneh was...
  
  
• Birhānu Zarīhun

Gabon

Gabon

Gabon , officially the Gabonese Republic is a state in west central Africa sharing borders with Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, and with the Republic of the Congo curving around the east and south. The Gulf of Guinea, an arm of the Atlantic Ocean is to the west...

• Jean-Baptiste Abessolo
  Jean-Baptiste Abessolo
  Jean-Baptiste Nguema Abessolo, also seen as J.-B. Abessolo-Nguema, is an educator and writer of Gabon.Born at Oyem, he was educated there and at Libreville, then studied educational administration at École des Cadres Superieures in Brazzaville and the École Normale Supérieure at Mouyondzi.He was a...
  
   (1932– ), educator and short story writer.
• Peggy Lucie Auleley, French-language poet.
• Bessora
  Bessora
  Bessora is a writer born in Brussels. Daughter of a Gabonese diplomat and granddaughter of a Swiss confectioner, she and her works have met with growing acclaim in Europe, the United States and Africa. After a career in international finance in Geneva, she studied anthropology and wrote her first...
  
   (born in Belgium
  Belgium
  Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
  
  ) (1968– ), novelist and short story writer.
• Rene Maran
  René Maran
  René Maran was a French Guyanese poet and novelist, and the first black writer to win the French Prix Goncourt .-Biography:...
  
  , born near Martinique
  Martinique
  Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of . Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados...
  
   (1887–1960), poet and novelist.
• Chantal Magalie Mbazoo-Kassa, French-language poet and novelist.
• Justine Mintsa (1967– ), French-language novelist.
• Nadège Noëlle Ango Obiang, French-language short story writer.
• Maurice Okoumba-Nkoghe (1954– ), poet and teacher.
• Laurent Owondo (1948– ), playwright.
• Angèle Ntyugwetondo Rawiri
  Angèle Rawiri
  Angèle Ntyugwetondo Rawiri was a Gabonese novelist.A daughter of Galoa politician and poet Georges Rawiri, she was born at Port-Gentil. Her mother, a teacher, died when she was six. Angèle studied at Alès in France, earned a bac from the Vanves girls' college, then a second bac, in English...
  
   (1954–2010), novelist.

The Gambia

The Gambia

The Republic of The Gambia, commonly referred to as The Gambia, or Gambia , is a country in West Africa. Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, surrounded by Senegal except for a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean in the west....

• William Conton
  William Conton
  William Farquhar Conton was an educator, historian and novelist from Sierra Leone.-Life:Conton was educated at Durham University in England. After graduating he taught at Fourah Bay College before becoming principal of Accra High School in Ghana...
  
   (1925– ), educator, historian and novelist also associated with Sierra Leone
  Sierra Leone
  Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
  
  .
• Ebou Dibba
  Ebou Dibba
  Ebou Dibba was a Gambian novelist who wrote in English.Dibba earned his B.A. in French Literature from Cardiff University. He earned his M.A...
  
   (1943–2000), English-language novelist.
• Nana Grey-Johnson (1951 – ), playwright.
• Lenrie Peters
  Lenrie Peters
  Lenrie Leopold Wilfred Peters ) was a Gambian surgeon, novelist, and poet.-Background:Peters was born in Bathurst to Lenrie Ernest Ingram Peters and Kezia Rosemary. Lenrie Sr. was a Sierra Leone Creole of West Indian or black American origin. Kezia Rosemary was a Gambian Creole of Sierra Leonean...
  
   (1932– ), poet and novelist also associated with Sierra Leone
  Sierra Leone
  Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
  
  .
• Tijan M. Sallah (1958–), poet.

Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

• Joseph Wilfred Abruquah (1921– ), novelist.
• Kobina Eyi Acquah (1952– ), poet.
• Ama Ata Aidoo
  Ama Ata Aidoo
  Professor Ama Ata Aidoo, née Christina Ama Aidoo is a Ghanaian author and playwright.-Life:She grew up in a Fante royal household, the daughter of Nana Yaw Fama, chief of Abeadzi Kyiakor, and Maame Abasema. She was sent by her father to the Wesley Girls' High School in Cape Coast from 1961 to 1964...
  
   (1940– ), playwright, poet, fiction writer and critic.
• Lawrence Darmani
  Lawrence Darmani
  Lawrence Darmani is a Ghanaian novelist, and publisher.His first novel, Grief Child won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, best first book, Africa.He is editor of Step magazine.He is CEO of Step Publishers.He is married; they live in Accra.-Works:...
  
   (1956– ), novelist, poet, playwright, inspirational writer
• Kofi Aidoo
  Kofi Aidoo
  Kofi Aidoo is a Ghanaian writer. He was born in the 1950s at Sagyimase in the Akim Abuakwa Traditional Area of Ghana where he also began his Elementary Education at Asikwa. The first of nine children born to a senior touring officer at the Ghana Prisons Services; his interests in writing began at a...
  
   (1950– ), short story writer.
• Mohammed Naseehu Ali
  Mohammed Naseehu Ali
  Mohammed Naseehu Ali is an author, originally from Ghana. He is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and Bennington College. His first book, a collection of short stories titled The Prophet of Zongo Street, was published in 2006 and received positive reviews...
  
  , short story and non-ficton writer.
• Kofi Anyidoho
  Kofi Anyidoho
  Kofi Anyidoho is a Ghanaian poet and academic who comes from a family tradition of Ewe poets and oral artists. He was educated in Ghana and the U.S., gaining his Ph.D. at the University of Texas...
  
   (1947– ), poet and academic.
• Anthony Appiah (1954– ), philosopher, cultural theorist and novelist.
• Ayertey Isaac, Pan-Africanist and Author
• Ayi Kwei Armah
  Ayi Kwei Armah
  -Early life and education:Born to Fante-speaking parents, and descending on his father's side from a royal family in the Ga nation, Armah was born in the port city of Sekondi-Takoradi in Ghana, Having attended Achimota School, he left Ghana in 1959 to attend Groton School in Groton, MA. After...
  
   (1939– ), novelist.
• T. Q. Armar (1915–2000 ), publisher and textbook writer.
• Raphael Armattoe
  Raphael Armattoe
  Raphael Ernest Grail Armattoe was a Ghanaian doctor, author, poet and politician. He was nominated for the 1949 Nobel Peace Prize and was a campaigner for unification of British and French Togoland.-Early life and education:...
  
   (1913–1953), poet.
• Bediako Asare
  Bediako Asare
  Bediako Asare is an African journalist and author, initially from Ghana. He began his career working on local newspapers, then relocated to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to help launch The Nationalist newspaper...
  
  , journalist and non-fictionwriter also connected with Tanzania
  Tanzania
  The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...
  
  
• Meshack Asare
  Meshack Asare
  Meshack Asare is a popular African children's author. He was born in Ghana and currently resides in Degenfeld, Germany.-Life:Asare studied Fine Arts at the College of Art in Kumasi, and between 1967 and 1979 he was a teacher in Ghana...
  
   (1945– ), children's writer.
• Yaw Asare (1953-2002), dramatist and director.
• Stephen Atalebe
  Stephen Atalebe
  Stephen Atalebe is an emerging writer on deep rooted Northern Ghana Frafra Culture.His first book in the Cowboy trilogy, Cowboy: The Genesis, told of the young cowboys who decided to take destiny into their own hands and influence their future. They decided to steal their parents cows and absconded...
  
   (1983– ), novelist.
• Ayesha Harruna Attah, novelist.
• Kofi Awoonor
  Kofi Awoonor
  Kofi Awoonor is a Ghanaian poet and author, whose work combines the poetic traditions of his native Ewe people and contemporary and religious symbolism to depict Africa during decolonization....
  
   (1935– ), poet, novelist and critic.
• Mohammed Ben-Abdallah (1944 – ), playwright.
• J. Benibengor Blay
  J. Benibengor Blay
  J. Benibengor Blay was a Ghanaian journalist, writer, publisher and politician, who has been called "the father of popular writing in Ghana".-Life:...
  
   (1915– ), popular novelist, playwright and poet.
• Yaw M. Boateng (1950– ), novelist and playwright.
• William Boyd
  William Boyd (writer)
  William Boyd, CBE is a Scottish novelist and screenwriter.-Biography:Of Scottish descent, Boyd spent his early life in Ghana and Nigeria, in Africa...
  
   (1952– ), novelist.
• Kwesi Brew
  Kwesi Brew
  -Life:Born to a Fante family, Brew was brought up by a British guardian after his parents died. He was one of the first graduates from the University College of the Gold Coast in 1951. He was published in Okyeame, and four of his poems were included in the 1958 anthology Voices of Ghana...
  
   (1928– ), poet.
• Nana Brew-Hammond, journalist, poet, playwright and screenwriter.
• Margaret Busby, publisher and dramatist.
• Abena Busia (1953– ), poet and academic.
• Akosua Busia
  Akosua Busia
  Akosua Busia is a Ghanaian actress who now lives in the U.S..The daughter of Kofi Abrefa Busia, the ex-prime minister of the Republic of Ghana, Akosua is the daughter of a prince of the royal family of Wenchi, a subgroup of the Ashanti. She herself is not a princess, since the Akans of Ghana...
  
   (1966– ), actress, novelist and screenwriter.
• Jacobus Capitein
  Jacobus Capitein
  Jacobus Elisa Johannes Capitein was a Dutch Christian minister of Ghanaian birth who was one of the first known sub-Saharan Africans to study at a European university and one of the first Africans to be ordained as a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church...
  
   (1717–1747), minister and writer on slavery.
• Adelaide Smith Casely-Hayford (1868–1960), short story writer and educator.
• Gladys May Casely-Hayford (1901–1950), poet.
• J.E. Casely-Hayford (1866–1930), politician and novelist.
• Quobna Ottobah Cugoano
  Quobna Ottobah Cugoano
  Ottobah Cugoano was an African abolitionist who was active in England in the latter half of the eighteenth century.-Early life:...
  
   (1757?–1801?), freed slave and autobiographer.
• J. B. Danquah
  J. B. Danquah
  Nana Joseph Kwame Kyeretwie Boakye Danquah was a Ghanaian statesman, pan-Africanist, scholar and historian. He played a significant role in pre and post colonial Ghana. In fact, he is credited with giving Ghana its name...
  
   (1895–1965), scholar, lawyer and politician.
• Mabel Danquah (1910–1984), short story writer.
• Amma Darko
  Amma Darko
  Amma Darko is an African novelist.She was born in Koforidua, Ghana, and grew up in Accra. She studied in Kumasi, where she received her diploma in 1980. Then she worked for the Science and Technology Center in Kumasi. During the eighties, she lived and worked for some time in Germany. She has...
  
   (1956– ), novelist.
• Joe de Graft (1924–1978), playwright and poet.
• Michael Dei-Anang (1909–1977), poet, playwright and novelist.
• Amu Djoleto (1929– ), novelist, poet and educator.
• Cameron Duodo (1937– ), journalist, novelist and poet.
• Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawoo
  Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawoo
  Ferdinand Kwasi Fiawoo was a Ghanaian minister of religion, playwright and educator, founder of Zion College, the first secondary school in Ghana's Volta Region.-Life:...
  
   (1891–1969), playwright.
• Albert William Kayper-Mensah (1923– ), poet.
• Asare Konadu
  Asare Konadu
  Samuel Asare Konadu was a Ghanaian journalist, novelist and publisher, who also wrote under the pseudonym Kwabena Asare Bediako....
  
   (1932–1994), novelist.
• B. Kojo Laing (1946– ), novelist and poet.
• Bill Okyere Marshall (1936– ), playwright and novelist.
• Kwame Nkrumah
  Kwame Nkrumah
  Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana...
  
   (1909–1972), politician and political theorist.
• (John) Atukwei Okai (1941– ), poet.
• Martin Owusu (1943– ), playwright.
• Frank Kobina Parkes
  Frank Kobina Parkes
  Frank Kobina Parkes was a Ghanaian journalist, broadcaster and poet. He was the author of one book, Songs from the Wilderness , but is widely anthologised and is perhaps best known for his poem African Heaven, which echoes the title of Carl Van Vechten's controversial 1926 novel, Nigger Heaven, and...
  
   (1932–2005 ), poet.
• Nii Ayikwei Parkes (1974– ), poet.
• Carl Christian Reindorf
  Carl Christian Reindorf
  Carl Christian Reindorf was a Ghanaian pastor and historian. He wrote The History of the Gold Coast and Ashanti in the Ga language. The work was later translated into English and published 1889 in Switzerland...
  
   (1834–1917), pastor and historian.
• Kobina Sekyi
  Kobina Sekyi
  William Esuman-Gwira Sekyi, better known as Kobina Sekyi was a nationalist lawyer, politician and writer in the Gold Coast....
  
   (1892–1956), politician and writer.
• Francis Selormey (1927–1988), novelist.
• Efua Theodora Sutherland (1924–1996 ), playwright.
• Asiedu Yirenkyi
  Asiedu Yirenkyi
  Asiedu Yirenkyi is a Ghanaian playwright, the author of Kivuli and Other Plays.In the early 1960s Asiedu Yirenkyi became involved in the Ghana Drama Studio founded by Efua Sutherland, joining the Drama Studio Players. He later studied drama at the University of Ghana and Yale University, and...
  
   (1946– ), playwright.
• Mary Asabea Ashun (1968 - ), novelist.
• Sylvanus Bedzrah, novelist.

Guinea

Guinea

Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...

• Kesso Barry (1948– ), autobiographer also associated with Senegal
  Senegal
  Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
  
  .
• Saïdou Bokoum
  Saïdou Bokoum
  Saïdou Bokoum is a Guinean writer. Born in Dinguiraye, in 1974 he published Chaîne, a novel about the plight of Africans living in France. He has published several works related to theatre.-References:...
  
   (1945– ), novelist.
• Sory Camara, anthropologist.
• Ahmed Tidjani Cissé (1942– ), playwright.
• Koumanthio Zeinab Diallo (1956– ), poet and novelist.
• Boubacar Diallo
  Boubacar Diallo
  Boubacar Diallo is a Burkinabé film maker. The son of a veterinarian, he worked as a journalist, launching the satirical weekly magazine Journal du Jeudi and publishing two novels and a collection of short stories....
  
  , novelist, short story writer and film maker: La source enchantée, 1953
• Alioum Fantouré (1938– ), economist and novelist.
• Keïta Fodéba (1924–1969), poet and dancer.

Lansiné Kaba, historian.

• Siré Komara (1991– ), novelist: Mes Racines.
• Camara Laye
  Camara Laye
  Camara Laye was an African writer from Guinea. During his time at college he wrote The African Child , a novel based loosely on his own childhood. He would later become a writer of many essays and was a foe of the government of Guinea...
  
   (1928–1980), novelist: The black child.
• Tierno Monénembo
  Tierno Monénembo
  Thierno Saïdou Diallo, usually known as Tierno Monénembo , is a Francophone Guinean novelist. Born in Guinea, he later lived in Senegal, Algeria, Morocco, and finally France since 1973...
  
   (1947– ), novelist: The oldest Orphan, Les écailles du Ciel, Peulorihno, Le Roi de Kahel.
• Djibril Tamsir Niane
  Djibril Tamsir Niane
  Djibril Tamsir Niane is a historian, playwright, and short story writer, born in Conakry, Guinea. His secondary education was in Senegal and his degree from the University of Bordeaux. He is an honorary professor of Howard University and the University of Tokyo...
  
   (1932– ), novelist and historian.
• Williams Sassine
  Williams Sassine
  Williams Sassine was a Guinean novelist who wrote in French. His father was Lebanese Christian and his mother was a Guinean of Muslim heritage....
  
   (1944–1997), French-language novelist.

Guinea-Bissau

Guinea-Bissau

The Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Senegal to the north, and Guinea to the south and east, with the Atlantic Ocean to its west....

• Amílcar Cabral
  Amílcar Cabral
  Amílcar Lopes da Costa Cabral was a Guinea-Bissauan and Cape Verdean agricultural engineer, writer, and a nationalist thinker and politician. Also known by his nom de guerre Abel Djassi, Cabral led the nationalist movement of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde Islands and the ensuing war of independence...
  
   (1924–1973), agronomist, writer and politician.
• Carlos Semedo, poet.

Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

• Khadambi Asalache
  Khadambi Asalache
  Khadambi Asalache was a Kenyan poet and author who settled in London. He was later a civil servant at HM Treasury. He left his lavishly decorated South London terraced house to the National Trust.-Early life:...
  
   (1934– )
• Karen Blixen
  Karen Blixen
  Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke , , née Karen Christenze Dinesen, was a Danish author also known by her pen name Isak Dinesen. She also wrote under the pen names Osceola and Pierre Andrézel...
  
   aka Isak Dinesen (1885–1962)
• Rocha Chimera
  Rocha Chimera
  Rocha Chimera is a Kenyan writer. He received the Noma Award in 2000 for Ufundishaji wa Fasihi: Nadharia na Mbinu. Chimera holds a B.Ed. and M.A. from Kenyatta University, and a Ph.D. from Ohio University. He is Professor of Swahili and former chair of the Dept. of Languages and Linguistics at...
  
  
• Elspeth Huxley
  Elspeth Huxley
  Elspeth Joscelin Huxley CBE was a polymath, writer, journalist, broadcaster, magistrate, environmentalist, farmer, and government advisor. She wrote 30 books; but she is best known for her lyrical books The Flame Trees of Thika and The Mottled Lizard which were based on her experiences growing up...
  
   (1907–1997)
• Jomo Kenyatta
  Jomo Kenyatta
  Jomo Kenyattapron.] served as the first Prime Minister and President of Kenya. He is considered the founding father of the Kenyan nation....
  
   (1892?–1978)
• Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye
  Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye
  Marjorie Oludhe Macgoye is an English/Kenyan novelist, essayist and poet.-Biography:Macgoye was born in 1928 in Southampton, England. She moved to Kenya in 1954 and married a Kenyan man in 1960. In 1971 an anthology entitled Poems from East Africa which included the acclaimed poem "A Freedom Song"...
  
   (1928– )
• Charles Mangua
  Charles Mangua
  Charles Mangua is a Kenyan fiction writer. His novels explore, among other issues, the "hardship and urban poverty" experienced by ordinary people in places such as Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.Sobania, N. 2003, , Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, CT, pp. 74-75.Mangua's style is irreverent...
  
   (c.1940– )
• Ali A. Mazrui (1933– )
• Mwana Kupona binti Msham (died c.1865)
• Micere Mugo (1942– )
• Wahome Mutahi (−2003)
• Joseph Muthee
  Joseph Muthee
  Joseph Muthee is an Kenyan writer and Kikuyu sage who wrote about his experience as a detainee of the British colonial government at Kapenguria during the Mau Mau Uprising. He was released in 1959, and entered politics as the KANU Party Locational Branch Chairman of Magutu between 1960 and 1968...
  
   (1928– )
• Meja Mwangi
  Meja Mwangi
  Meja Mwangi is one of Kenya's leading novelists. Mwangi has worked in the film industry, including screenwriting, assistant directing, casting and location management....
  
   (1948– )
• Ngugi wa Mirii
  Ngugi wa Mirii
  Ngugi wa Mirii was a Kenyan playwright. He was known for his play, I Will Marry When I Want, which he co-authored with fellow Gikuyu writer Ngugi wa Thiongo....
  
   (1951– )
• Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (1938– )
• Chacha Nyaigotti-Chacha
  Chacha Nyaigotti-Chacha
  Professor Chacha Nyaigotti-Chacha born in Kuria District, Nyanza Province is a Kenyan playwright and Swahili Language educationalist, the executive secretary of the Inter-University Council for East Africa, and a former secretary of the Kenyan Higher Education Loans Board. Educated at Kenyatta...
  
   (1952– )
• Atieno Odhiambo
  Atieno Odhiambo
  Eisha Stephen Atieno Odhiambo was a Kenyan academic known for his contributions to the understanding of dangers inherent in politics of knowledge and sociology of power. Dr Odhiambo was professor of history at Rice University in United States where he led in the study of cultures...
  
   (1945–)
• Margaret Ogola
  Margaret Ogola
  Margaret Atieno Ogola was the celebrated Kenyan author of the novel The River and the Source, and its sequel, I Swear by Apollo. The River and the Source follows four generations of Kenyan women in a rapidly changing country and society...
  
  
• Grace Ogot
  Grace Ogot
  Grace Ogot is a Kenyan author, nurse, journalist, politician and diplomat.Ogot was born Grace Emily Akinyi in Asembo, in the district of Nyanza. She trained as a nurse in Uganda and in England. She has worked as a midwife, a tutor, as journalist, as a BBC Overseas Service broadcaster, and in a...
  
   (1930– )
• Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
  Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
  Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor is a Kenyan writer who was educated at Jomo Kenyatta University and the University of Reading. She won the Caine Prize for the story Weight of Whispers, which considers an aristocratic Rwandan refugee in Kenya.-References:...
  
   winner Caine Prize
  Caine Prize
  The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. The £10,000 prize was founded in the United Kingdom in 2000, and was named in memory of the late Sir Michael...
  
   2003
• M. G. Vassanji
  M. G. Vassanji
  Moyez G. Vassanji, CM is a novelist and editor, who writes under the name M. G. Vassanji. A citizen of Canada, Vassanji's identity easily straddles three continents.M. G. Vassanji was born in Kenya and raised in Tanzania...
  
   (1950– )
• Koigi wa Wamwere
  Koigi wa Wamwere
  Koigi wa Wamwere is a Kenyan politician, human rights activist, journalist and writer. Koigi became famous for opposing both the Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel arap Moi regimes, both of which sent him to detention....
  
   (1949– )
• Charity Waciuma
  Charity Waciuma
  Charity Waciuma is a Kenyan writer, who wrote several novels for adolescents and an autobiographical novel, Daughter of Mumbi .Charity Waciumbi grew up in pre-Independence Kenya, during the violent anti-colonial struggle between the Mau-Mau and British rulers...
  
   (1936– )
• Binyavanga Wainaina
  Binyavanga Wainaina
  Binyavanga Wainaina is a Kenyan author, journalist and winner of the Caine Prize.-Early life and education:Binyavanga Wainaina was born in Nakuru in Rift Valley province. He attended Moi Primary School in Nakuru, Mangu High School in Thika, and Lenana School in Nairobi...
  
   winner Caine Prize
  Caine Prize
  The Caine Prize for African Writing is an annual literary award for the best original short story by an African writer, whether in Africa or elsewhere, published in the English language. The £10,000 prize was founded in the United Kingdom in 2000, and was named in memory of the late Sir Michael...
  
   2002 (1971– )
• Gakaara Wanjau
• Miriam Were
  Miriam Were
  Miriam K. Were is a Kenyan public health advocate, academic, and recipient of the first Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize.-Academic experience:...
  
   (1940– )
• Emily Kwamboka Mogeni (1977-)
• Mona L. Nduilu (1976 -)

Liberia

Liberia

Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...

• Edwin Barclay
  Edwin Barclay
  Edwin James Barclay was a Liberian politician. A member of the True Whig political party, he served as the 18th President of the country from 1930 until 1944. Under his leadership, Liberia was an ally of the United States during World War II....
  
   (1882–1955)
• Edward Wilmot Blyden
  Edward Wilmot Blyden
  Edward Wilmot Blyden was an Americo-Liberian educator, writer, diplomat, and politician primarily in Liberia. He also taught for five years in Sierra Leone, and his writings were influential in both countries....
  
   (1832–1912), born in the Virgin Islands
  Virgin Islands
  The Virgin Islands are the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean...
  
   (see also Sierra Leone
  Sierra Leone
  Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
  
  )
• Wilton G. S. Sankawulo
  Wilton G. S. Sankawulo
  Wilton Gbakolo Sengbe Sankawulo, Sr. was a Liberian politician and author.Sankawulo was born in 1937 in Haindii in Lower Bong County. He entered Cuttington College and Divinity School in 1960. He began his literary career there by publishing his short stories in the Cuttington Review, the...
  
   (1937–2009)
• Bai T. Moore
  Bai T. Moore
  Bai Tamia Johnson Moore , commonly known by his pen-name, Bai T. Moore, was a Liberian poet, novelist, folklorist and essayist. He also held various cultural, educational and tourism posts both for the Liberian government and for UNESCO, and was the founder of Liberia's National Cultural Center...
  
   (1916– )

Libya

Libya

Libya is an African country in the Maghreb region of North Africa bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....

• Sadiq Al-Nayhum (1937–1994), Islamic writer, critic and journalist.
• FKhalifa al-Fakhri, short story writer.
• Ahmad Ibrahim al-Faqih (1942– ), novelist.
• Muammar al-Gaddafi
  Muammar al-Gaddafi
  Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
  
   (1942– ), politician and occasional novelist.
• Ibrahiem El-kouni (1948– ), novelist.

Madagascar

Madagascar

The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean off the southeastern coast of Africa...

• Elie-Charles Abraham (1919– ), poet.
• David Jaomanoro (1953– ), poet, short story writer and playwright.
• Esther Nirina (1932– ), poet.
• Hajasoa Vololona Picard-Ravololonirina (1956– ),, academic, politician and poet.
• Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo
  Jean Joseph Rabearivelo
  Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo is widely considered to be Africa's first modern poet. Born Joseph-Casimir, in Tananarive , the capital of Madagascar, just five years after the island nation had become a French colony, he was the only child of an unwed mother whose family wealth had been lost...
  
   (1903–1937), poet and novelist.
• Jacques Rabémanajara (1913– ), poet, playwright and politician.
• Raymond William Rabemananjara (1913– ), historian and writer.
• Charlotte Arisoa Rafenomanjato (1938– ), writer and translator.
• Elie Rajaonarison (1951–2010), poet.
• Régis Rajemisa-Raolison (1913– ), poet and educator.
• Jean-Luc Raharimanana (1967– ), French-language writer.
• Michèle Rakotoson
  Michèle Rakotoson
  Michèle Rakotoson is a writer, journalist, and film maker from Madagascar. Her novels include Dadabé. Since 1983, she has lived mainly in France.- Bibliography :From the collection of the Library of Congress, Washington, DC:...
  
   (1948– ), novelist, short story writer and playwright.
• Flavien Ranaivo (1914– ), poet and writer.

Malawi

Malawi

The Republic of Malawi is a landlocked country in southeast Africa that was formerly known as Nyasaland. It is bordered by Zambia to the northwest, Tanzania to the northeast, and Mozambique on the east, south and west. The country is separated from Tanzania and Mozambique by Lake Malawi. Its size...

• Steven Chimombo (1945– )
• Frank Chipasula
  Frank Chipasula
  Dr. Frank M. Chipasula is a Malawian writer, editor and university professor. Previously a professor of Black Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Howard University, Chipasula has also worked as the education attache at the Malawian embassy in Washington, D.C.. Chipasula went into...
  
   (1949– )
• Aubrey Kachingwe
  Aubrey Kachingwe
  Aubrey Kachingwe is a Malawian novelist and short-story writer. He was educated in Malawi and Tanzania. His first major publication was No Easy Task .-Sources:* African People Database...
  
   (1926– )
• William Kamkwamba
  William Kamkwamba
  William Kamkwamba is a Malawian inventor and author. He gained fame in his country when, in 2002, he built a windmill to power a few electrical appliances in his family's house in Masitala using blue gum trees, bicycle parts, and materials collected in a local scrapyard...
  
   (1987– )
• Legson Kayira
  Legson Kayira
  Legson Didimu Kayira is a Malawian novelist. Kayira, an ethnic Tumbuka, received an education at Skagit Valley College, University of Washington and St Catharine's College, Cambridge. His early works focused on Malawi's rural life, while his later writings satired the Hastings Banda...
  
   (1942– )
• Stanley Onjezani Kenani
  Stanley Onjezani Kenani
  Stanley Onjezani Kenani is a Malawian writer born in 1976. A poet, Kenani has performed at the Arts Alive Festival in Johannesburg, South Africa, Poetry Africa in Durban, South Africa, Harare International Festival of the Arts in Harare, Zimbabwe, and at the Struga Poetry Evenings in Macedonia...
  
   (1976– )
• Ken Lipenga
  Ken Lipenga
  Dr. Ken Lipenga was born on February 14th, 1952 at in Chiringa, Phalombe. He is a Malawian politician, journalist, and writer. He is the current Minister of Tourism and Parliamentarian for Phalombe East.. He is the current Minister of Finance in Malawi....
  
   (1954– )
• Jack Mapanje
  Jack Mapanje
  Jack Mapanje is a Malawian writer and poet. He was the former head of English at the University of Malawi, and is currently a senior lecturer in English at Newcastle University.-Works:* Of Chameleons and Gods, 1981...
  
   (1944– )
• Felix Mnthali
  Felix Mnthali
  Felix Mnthali is a Malawian poet, novelist and playwright. Educated at what is now the National University of Lesotho, Mnthali has been published several times, including a book of poetry called When Sunset Comes to Sapitwa and a novel called My Dear Anniversary...
  
   (1933– )
• D.D.Phiri (Desmond Dudwa Phiri)
  Desmond Dudwa Phiri
  Desmond Dudwa Phiri, is popularly known as DD Phiri.He is a Malawian Author, Economist, Historian, and Playwright. He was born in Mzimba, Malawi and is the Principal and proprietor of the Aggrey Memorial School in Blantyre...
  
  
• David Rubadiri
  David Rubadiri
  James David Rubadiri is a Malawian diplomat, academic and poet. At independence in 1964, Rubadiri was appointed Malawi's first ambassador to the United States and the United Nations...
  
   (1930– )
• Paul Tiyambe Zeleza
  Paul Tiyambe Zeleza
  Paul Tiyambe Zeleza is a Malawian historian, literary critic, novelist, short-story writer and blogger at The Zeleza Post -. He is currently president of the African Studies Association...
  
   (1955– )

Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

• Ahmad Baba al Massufi
  Ahmad Baba al Massufi
  Ahmad Baba al-Massufi al-Tinbukti, full name Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Ahmad al-Takruri Al-Massufi al-Timbukti , was a medieval West African writer, scholar, and political provocateur in the area then known as the Western Sudan...
  
   (1556–1627), writer and scholar.
• Abdoulaye Ascofaré
  Abdoulaye Ascofaré
  Abdoulaye Ascofaré is a Malian poet and filmmaker.-Biography:Ascofaré was a radio host until 1978, at which point he became a teacher at the Institut National des Arts in Bamako...
  
   (1949– ), poet and filmmaker.
• Ibrahima Aya
  Ibrahima Aya
  -Biography:Ibrahima Aya studied agronomy in the Moldavian SSR. He became an agronomist, notable for an integrated lake development project, and a consultant for the organisation for Malian aid and development, Aide et Développement au Mali. Since 2001, he has worked as an independent consultant. In...
  
   (1967– )
• Amadou Hampâté Bâ
  Amadou Hampâté Bâ
  Amadou Hampâté Bâ was a Malian writer and ethnologist.-Biography:...
  
   (1900 or 1901–1991), historian, theologian, ethnographer, novelist and autobiographer.
• Adame Ba Konaré
  Adame Ba Konaré
  Adame Ba Konaré is a noted Malian historian and writer who is married to Alpha Oumar Konaré, former President of Mali. She is active in several causes for newborns and refugees....
  
   (1947– ), historian and writer.
• Seydou Badian Kouyaté
  Seydou Badian Kouyaté
  -Life:Born in Bamako, Kouyaté studied medicine at the University of Montpellier in France before returning to Mali. Under president Modibo Keïta, he wrote the words for Mali's national anthem, Pour l'Afrique et pour toi, Mali...
  
   (1928– ), novelist and politician.
• Massa Makan Diabaté
  Massa Makan Diabaté
  Massa Makan Diabaté was a Malian historian, author, and playwright.-Biography:Born in 1938 in Kita, Massa Makan Diabaté was the descendant of a long line of West African poets ....
  
   (1938–1988), historian, author and playwright.
• Souéloum Diagho
  Souéloum Diagho
  Souéloum Diagho, the contemporary Tuareg poet, comes from Tessalit in the North of Mali. His father is a Tuareg and his mother a Fula. He is married and lived for a time in Belgium...
  
  , poet.
• Aïda Mady Diallo
  Aïda Mady Diallo
  Aïda Mady Diallo is a French-born Malian novelist and director. After passing her childhood in France and receiving a college degree in Uzbekistan, Diallo moved to Mali...
  
  , novelist and director.
• Aly Diallo, French-language novelist first published in German translation.
• Alpha Mandé Diarra
  Alpha Mandé Diarra
  Alpha Mande Diarra is a Malian author, born in 1954. He studied veterinary medicine in France at the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire d'Alfort. He is a practicing veterinarian at Bamako and Fara in his native Mali.-Bibliography:* 1981 Sahel, sanglante sécheresse - Présence Africaine *...
  
   (1954– )
• Oumou Diarra (1967– ), born in Yugoslavia
  Yugoslavia
  Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
  
  .
• Doumbi Fakoly
  Doumbi Fakoly
  -Biography:Born in 1944 in Kita, Mali, Doumbi Fakoly spent his childhood in Senegal. He went on to study in France, where he obtained a degree in banking...
  
   (1944– ), non-fiction writer.
• Aïcha Fofana (1957–2003), novelist.
• Aoua Kéita
  Aoua Kéita
  Aoua Kéita was a Malian independence activist and writer from Mali. She was a member of the African Democratic Rally and has been described as a militant member. In 1950 renounced her French citizenship and in the following year she led to the party's success in elections...
  
   (1912–1980), independence activist and autobiographer.
• Moussa Konaté
  Moussa Konaté
  Moussa Konaté is a Malian writer, born in 1951 in Kita, Mali.A graduate in Humanities at Mali's Ecole Normale Supérieure in Bamako, he was a teacher for several years before turning to writing...
  
   (1951– ), French-language writer.
• Yambo Ouologuem
  Yambo Ouologuem
  Yambo Ouologuem is a Malian writer. His first novel, Le Devoir de Violence , won the Prix Renaudot. He later published Lettre à la France nègre , and Les mille et une bibles du sexe under the pseudonym Utto Rodolph...
  
   (1940– ), novelist.
• Bernadette Sanou Dao
  Bernadette Sanou Dao
  Bernadette Sanou Dao is a Burkinabé author and politician. At age 11 her family returned to Burkina Faso from Mali. She attended Kolog-Naba college in Ouagadougou and later Ohio University in the United States and the Sorbonne in Paris, France. From 1986 to 1987 she was Burkina Faso's Minister for...
  
   (1952– ), author and politician.
• Fanta-Taga Tembely (1946– ), French-language novelist.
• Aminata Traoré
  Aminata Traoré
  Aminata Dramane Traoré is a Malian author, politician, and political activist. She served as the Minister of Culture and Tourism of Mali from 1997 to 2000 and is a former coordinator of the United Nations Development Programme...
  
   (1942– ), author, politician and political activist.
• Falaba Issa Traoré
  Falaba Issa Traoré
  Falaba Issa Traoré was a Malian writer, comedian, playwright, and theatre and film director.Born in Bougouni, Traoré directed an amateur theater troupe before taking over direction of the regional troupe of Bamako between 1962 and 1968...
  
   (1930–2003), writer, comedian, playwright and director.

Mauritania

Mauritania

Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...

• Ahmad ibn al-Amin al-Shinqiti
  Ahmad ibn al-Amin al-Shinqiti
  Ahmad ibn al-Amin al-Shinqiti is one of Mauritania's most famous writers. He is the author of the geographical, literary and historical compendium Al-Wasit fi tarájim udaba al-Shinqit, ed. Fuad Sayyid, Cairo 1958...
  
   (1872–1913), Arabic-language writer.
• Amadou Oumar Bâ (1917– ), poet.
• Ibn Razqa
  Ibn Razqa
  Ibn Razqa or Abdallah Ould Maham Ould Qadi was a well known poet and scholar from Mauritania. He is sometimes called "the father of the Mauritanian poets". He was the grand-son of Abd-Allah al-Qadi...
  
   (died 1144 AH/1731 AD), poet and scholar.
• Moussa Diagana
  Moussa Diagana
  Moussa Diagana is a Mauritanian French language writer. He studied in Nouakchott, Tunisia and the Sorbonne and works currently in Mali.-Works:*La Légende du Wagadu, vue par Sïa Yatabéré, 1988 *Targuiya, 2001...
  
   (1946– ), French-language writer.
• Moussa Ould Ebnou
  Moussa Ould Ebnou
  Moussa Ould Ebnou is one of Mauritania’s greatest novelists. He has written two novels: L’amour impossible and Le Barzakh .-Notes and External Links:*UNESCO.org...
  
  , French-language novelist.
• Mohammed al-Shankiti (1907–1973, Islamic scholar.
• Abderrahmane Sissako
  Abderrahmane Sissako
  Abderrahmane Sissako is an award-winning film director and producer who has often worked in Mali and France. Sissako is, along with Ousmane Sembène, Souleymane Cissé, Idrissa Ouedraogo and Djibril Diop Mambety, one of the few filmmakers from Sub-Saharan Africa to reach a measure of international...
  
   (1961– ), filmmaker.

Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

• Richard Sedley Assonne (1961– ), Francophone journalist and poet.
• Thomi Pitot de la Beaujardière (born 1779), Francophone poet.
• Lilian Berthelot, poet.
• Jean Blaize (1860–1937), Francophone writer.
• Marcel Cabon (1912–1972), Francophone novelist.
• Charles Castellan (1812–1851), Francophone poet.
• Raymond Chasle (1930–1996), Francophone diplomat and poet.
• Malcolm de Chazal
  Malcolm de Chazal
  Malcolm de Chazal was a Mauritian writer, painter, and visionary, known especially for his Sens-Plastique, a work consisting of several thousand aphorisms and pensées. He was born in Vacoas of a French family long established in Mauritius and wrote all his works in French...
  
   (1902–1981), writer, painter and visionary.
• François Chrestien (1767–1846), Mauritian Creole
  Mauritian Creole
  Mauritian Creole is a French-based creole language spoken in Mauritius. In addition to the French base of the language, there are also some words from English and from the many African and Asian languages that have been spoken on the island.- Sociolinguistic Situation :Mauritian Creole is the...
  
   poet and singer.
• Lindsey Collen
  Lindsey Collen
  Lindsey Collen is a Mauritian novelist, and activist.She won the 1994 and 2005 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, Best Book, Africa.Her work has appeared in the New Internationalist....
  
   (1948– ), novelist and activist also associated with South Africa
  South Africa
  The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
  
  .
• Carl de Souza (1949– ), Francophone novelist.
• Ananda Devi (1957– ), Francophone novelist and poet.
• Maurice Duverge (1849–1891), Francophone poet.
• Jacques Edouard (1964– ), Francophone journalist, poet and writer.
• Jean Fanchette (1932–1992), Francophone poet and psychoanalyst.
• Charles Gueuvin (1834–1905), Francophone poet.
• Robert-Edward Hart (1891–1954), francophone poet and novelist.
• Stefan Hart De Keating (1971– ), Francophone slam poet.
• J. M. G. Le Clézio (1940– ), Francophone writer also associated with France.
• Léoville L'Homme (1857–1928), Francophone poet.
• Yusuf Kadel (1970– ), Francophone poet and playwright.
• Raymonde de Kervern (1899–1973), Francophone poet.
• Félicien Mallefille (1813–1868), Francophone novelist and playwright.
• Edouard Maunick
  Edouard Maunick
  Edouard Joseph Marc Maunick is a Mauritian, African poet, critic, and translator.Maunick is a métis or mulatto, and as such was the subject of discrimination from both blacks and whites. He worked briefly as a librarian in Port-Louis before going to Paris in 1960, where he wrote, lectured, and...
  
   (1931– ), Francophone poet, writer, and diplomat.
• Jean-Georges Prosper (1933– ), poet.
• Camille de Rauville (1910– ), Francophone writer.
• Pierre Renaud (1921–1976), Francophone poet.
• Amal Sewtohul (1971– ), diplomat and writer in French and Mauritian Creole
  Mauritian Creole
  Mauritian Creole is a French-based creole language spoken in Mauritius. In addition to the French base of the language, there are also some words from English and from the many African and Asian languages that have been spoken on the island.- Sociolinguistic Situation :Mauritian Creole is the...
  
  .
• Khal Torabully
  Khal Torabully
  Khal Torabully is a Mauritian and French poet, who has coined the concept of "coolitude." Born in Mauritius in 1956, in the capital city Port Louis, his father was a Trinidadian sailor and his mother was a descendant of migrants from India and Malaysia....
  
   (1956– ), Francophone poet.
• Paul-Jean Toulet
  Paul-Jean Toulet
  Paul-Jean Toulet was a French poet, novelist and feuilleton writer.- Life and works :Paul-Jean Toulet was a descendant of Charlotte Corday, and son of a wealthy man living in Mauritius...
  
   (1867–1920), Francophone poet and writer in French and Mauritian Creole
  Mauritian Creole
  Mauritian Creole is a French-based creole language spoken in Mauritius. In addition to the French base of the language, there are also some words from English and from the many African and Asian languages that have been spoken on the island.- Sociolinguistic Situation :Mauritian Creole is the...
  
  .
• Abhimanyu Unnuth (1937– ), Hindi writer.
• Dev Virahsawmy
  Dev Virahsawmy
  Dev Virahsawmy , is a politician, playwright, poet and advocate of the Mauritian Creole language.-Early life:...
  
   (1942– ), politician and playwright.

Mozambique

Mozambique

Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...

• Paulina Chiziane
  Paulina Chiziane
  Paulina "Poulli" Chiziane is an author of novels and short stories in the Portuguese language. She studied at Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo. She was born to a Protestant family that moved from Gaza to the capital Maputo during the writer's early childhood...
  
   (1955– ), Portugese-language novelist and short-story writer.
• Mia Couto
  Mia Couto
  António Emílio Leite Couto , better known as Mia Couto, is a world-renowned Mozambican writer.-Early years:Couto was born in the city of Beira, Mozambique’s second largest city, where he was also raised and schooled. He is the son of Portuguese emigrants who moved to the former Portuguese colony in...
  
   (1955– ), novelist and short story writer.
• José Craveirinha
  José Craveirinha
  José Craveirinha , was born in Maputo, Mozambique and is today considered the greatest poet of that country....
  
   (1922–2003), Portugese-language poet.
• Luis Bernardo Honwana
  Luis Bernardo Honwana
  -Biography:Luís Bernado Honwana was born Luís Augusto Bernardo Manuel in Lourenço Marques , Mozambique. His parents, Raúl Bernardo Manuel and Naly Jeremias Nhaca, belonged to the Ronga people from Moamba, a town about 55 km northwest of Maputo.He studied law in Portugal and worked for some...
  
   (1942– ), Portugese-language short story writer.
• Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa
  Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa
  Francisco Esaú Cossa is a Mozambican writer born August 1, 1957, in Inhaminga, Sofala Province....
  
   (1957– ), Portugese-language novelist and short-story writer.
• Lina Magaia
  Lina Magaia
  Lina Magaia was a Mozambican writer, journalist and veteran of the war for the independence of Mozambique. It was a woman of many facets, which stood out during the life in areas such as writing, film, rural development, or even as a soldier of the liberation of the country from colonial rule.Lina...
  
   (1940s– ), Portugese-language novelist and short-story writer.
• Orlando Marques de Almeida Mendes (1916–1990), Portugese-language novelist.
• Lília Momplé
  Lília Momplé
  Lília Maria Clara Carrièrre Momplé is a Mozambican writer.-Biography:Lília Momplé was born on the Island of Mozambique, into a family of mixed ethnic origins, including Makua, French, Indian, Chinese, and Mauritian...
  
   (1935– ), Portugese-language fiction writer.
• Amélia Muge
  Amélia Muge
  Amélia Muge is a Mozambiqua-born Portuguese singer, instrumentalist, composer and lyricist. She is noted for her fine fado voice and poetic lyrics.-Discography:* Múgica * Todos os Dias...
  
   (1952– ), writer and singer.
• Glória de Santana (1925– ), poet.
• Noémia de Sousa
  Noémia de Sousa
  Carolina Noémia Abranches de Sousa Soares was a poet from Mozambique who wrote in the Portuguese language. She is also known as Vera Micaia. She is of mixed Portuguese and Bantu descent....
  
   (1926–2003), Portugese-language poet.

Namibia

Namibia

Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and east. It gained independence from South Africa on 21 March...

• Joseph Diescho
  Joseph Diescho
  Joseph Diescho is a Namibian writer and political analyst. In 1988, he wrote Born of the Sun, the first novel by a native-born Namibian author.-Education:...
  
   (1955– ), novelist.
• Dorian Haarhoff
  Dorian Haarhoff
  Dorian Haarhoff is a South African-Namibian writer and poet. Haarhoff was born in 1944 in Kimberley, Northern Cape, then part of the Cape Province. He is a naturalized citizen of Namibia. He wrote his first poem in 1955 and has been published numerous books. He was also a professor of English at...
  
   (1944– ), poet and academic.
• Giselher Werner Hoffmann (1958– ), German-language novelist.
• Anoeschka von Meck
  Anoeschka von Meck
  Anoeschka von Meck is an Afrikaans language writer.She lived in Henties Bay before moving to California in the United States to complete her high school studies. She studied marine biology and comparative religions in San Francisco...
  
  , journalist and Afrikaans language writer.

Niger

Niger

Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...

• Ide Adamou (1951– ), poet and novelist.
• Ousmane Amadou (1948– ), poet, novelist, lawyer and journalist.
• Djibo Bakary
  Djibo Bakary
  Djibo Bakary was a socialist politician and important figure in the independence movement of Niger. Bakary was the first Nigerien to hold local executive power since the beginning of French colonialism...
  
   (1922–1998), politician and writer.
• Andrée Clair
  Andrée Clair
  Andrée Clair was a writer who was born in France, but is associated with Niger. She was noted for her ethnographic study of Niger and writing children's books set in Africa. From 1961 to 1974 she was on a cultural mission to the President of Niger. Her books include Bemba [An African...
  
  , born and died in France
  France
  The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
  
   (1916–1982), ethnographer and children's writer.
• Mahamadou Halilou Sabbo (1937– ), novelist and playwright.
• Boubou Hama
  Boubou Hama
  Boubou Hama was a Nigerien author, historian, and politician. He was President of the National Assembly of Niger under President of Niger, Hamani Diori.- Life and works :Hama was born at Fonéko, a small Songhai village in western Niger...
  
   (1906–1982), politician and writer.
• Hawad (1950– ), poet who advocates Tuareg independence.
• Salihu Kwantagora (1929– ), songwriter and poet.
• Hélène Kaziende (1967– ), teacher, journalist and short story writer.
• Abdoulaye Mamani
  Abdoulaye Mamani
  Abdoulaye Mamani was a Nigerien poet, novelist and trade unionist.-Biography:Mamani was born in 1932 in Zinder, Niger. He was a trade unionist. In 1980 he published his novel Sarraounia, based on the real-life Battle of Lougou between Azna queen Sarraounia and French Colonial Forces. To write the...
  
   (1932–1993), poet, novelist and trade unionist.
• Ide Oumarou
  Ide Oumarou
  Ide Oumarou was a Nigerien diplomat, government minister, and journalist. He served as ambassador to the United Nations between 1980 and 1983. He then served as the foreign minister between 1983 and 1985 and was secretary-general of the Organisation of African Unity between 1985 and 1988. He was...
  
   (1937–2002), politician, diplomat and writer.
• Oum Ramatou
  Oum Ramatou
  Oum Ramatou is a writer born in Niamey in 1970. She wrote Le Regard and Désiré. She also worked on a doctorate in medicine.-External links:**...
  
   (1970– ), French-language novelist.
• Andre Salifou
  André Salifou
  André Salifou is a Nigerien politician, diplomat, and professor. He was President of the High Council of the Republic during the 1991–93 transitional period, Foreign Minister in 1996, and an unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1999....
  
   (1942– ), politician, diplomat and academic.

Rwanda

Rwanda

Rwanda or , officially the Republic of Rwanda , is a country in central and eastern Africa with a population of approximately 11.4 million . Rwanda is located a few degrees south of the Equator, and is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo...

• Maggy Correa, French-language autobiographical writer.
• Edouard Gasarabwe (1938– ), novelist and folklorist.
• Jeannine Herrmann-Grisius, French-language novelist.
• Alexis Kagame
  Alexis Kagame
  Alexis Kagame was a Rwandan philosopher, linguist, historian, poet and Catholic priest. His main contributions were in the field of "ethnophilosophy" ....
  
   (1912–1981), priest, scholar, and writer.
• Immaculée Ilibagiza
  Immaculée Ilibagiza
  Immaculée Ilibagiza is a Rwandan author and motivational speaker. She is also a Roman Catholic and Tutsi. Her first book, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust , is an autobiographical work detailing how she survived during the Rwandan Genocide and how she felt when all of her...
  
   (c.1970– ), autobiographical and religious writer.
• Thérèse Muamini, French-language novelist.
• Yolande Mukagasana (1954– ), French-language autobiographical writer.
• J. Savério Nayigiziki (1915–1984), educator, translator and writer.
• Cyprien Rugumba (1935–1994), scholar, poet and composer.
• Benjamin Sehene
  Benjamin Sehene
  Benjamin Sehene is a Rwandan author whose work primarily focuses on questions of identity and the events surrounding the Rwandan genocide. He has spent much of life in Canada and France....
  
   (1959– ), novelist and non-fiction writer.
• Marie-Aimable Umurerwa, French-language autobiographical writer.
• Marie Béatrice Umutesi (1959– ), French-language autobiographical writer.

São Tomé and Príncipe

São Tomé and Príncipe

São Tomé and Príncipe, officially the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, is a Portuguese-speaking island nation in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western equatorial coast of Central Africa. It consists of two islands: São Tomé and Príncipe, located about apart and about , respectively, off...

• Olinda Beja (1946– ), novelist.
• Sara Pinto Coelho
  Sara Pinto Coelho
  Sara Pinto Coelho was a writer of fiction and plays in the Portuguese language.Pinto Coelho grew up in Portugal. Most of her adult life she spent in Mozambique, where she taught primary school and wrote radio plays, novels, short stories, and children's books...
  
   (1913–1990), fiction writer and playwright.
• Conceição Lima
  Conceição Lima
  Maria da Conceição de Deus Lima , also known as Conceição Lima, is a Santomean poet from the town of Santana in São Tomé, one of two islands in the small nation of São Tomé and Príncipe situated in the Gulf of Guinea, off the western coast of Africa...
  
   (1962– ), Portugese-language poet.
• Caetano da Costa Alegre
  Caetano da Costa Alegre
  Caetano da Costa Alegre was a Portuguese poet. Born to a Crioulo family in the Portuguese colony of São Tomé, off the coast of Africa, he settled in Portugal in 1882 and attended medical school in Lisbon, hoping to become a naval doctor, but died of tuberculosis before he could fulfill his...
  
   (1864–1890), Portugese-language poet.
• M. Manuela Margarido (1925–2007), Portugese-language poet.
• Alda do Espírito Santo (1926– ), Portugese-language poet.
• Mário Domingues (1899–1977), novelist.
• José Francisco Tenreiro (1921–1963), literary critic and poet.

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...

• Ishmael Beah
  Ishmael Beah
  Ishmael Beah is a former Sierra Leonean child soldier and the author of the published memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.-Early years:...
  
   (1980– ), child soldier and memoirist.
• Edward Wilmot Blyden
  Edward Wilmot Blyden
  Edward Wilmot Blyden was an Americo-Liberian educator, writer, diplomat, and politician primarily in Liberia. He also taught for five years in Sierra Leone, and his writings were influential in both countries....
  
   (1832–1912), born in the Virgin Islands
  Virgin Islands
  The Virgin Islands are the western island group of the Leeward Islands, which are the northern part of the Lesser Antilles, which form the border between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean...
  
   (see also Liberia
  Liberia
  Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...
  
  )
• Adelaide Casely-Hayford
  Adelaide Casely-Hayford
  Adelaide Casely-Hayford, née Smith , was a Sierra Leonean Creole advocate, an activist for cultural nationalism, educator, short story writer, and feminist. She established a school for girls in 1923 to instill cultural and racial pride during the colonial years under British rule...
  
   (1868–1960), short story writer and educator.
• Gladys Casely-Hayford (1904–1950), poet also associated with Ghana
  Ghana
  Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
  
  .
• Syl Cheney-Coker
  Syl Cheney-Coker
  Syl Cheney-Coker is a poet, novelist, and journalist from Freetown, Sierra Leone. Educated in the United States, he has a global sense of literary history, and has introduced styles and techniques from French and Latin American literatures to Sierra Leone...
  
   (1945/47– ), poet, journalist and novelist.
• William Conton
  William Conton
  William Farquhar Conton was an educator, historian and novelist from Sierra Leone.-Life:Conton was educated at Durham University in England. After graduating he taught at Fourah Bay College before becoming principal of Accra High School in Ghana...
  
   (1925– ), educator, historian, and novelist also associated with The Gambia
  The Gambia
  The Republic of The Gambia, commonly referred to as The Gambia, or Gambia , is a country in West Africa. Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, surrounded by Senegal except for a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean in the west....
  
  .
• R. Sarif Easmon (1913– ), doctor, playwright and novelist.
• Aminatta Forna
  Aminatta Forna
  Aminatta Forna is a British writer of Sierra Leonean and Scottish heritage. She is the author of a memoir, The Devil that Danced on the Water and two novels, Ancestor Stones and The Memory of Love...
  
   (1964– ), memoirist and novelist.
• Africanus Horton
  Africanus Horton
  Africanus Horton , also known as James Beale, was a Creole African nationalist writer and an esteemed Medical Surgeon in the British Army from Freetown, Sierra Leone....
  
   (1835–1883), Creole African nationalist writer.
• Delia Jarrett-Macauley, academic and novelist.
• Lemuel A. Johnson (1940/41–2002), poet and academic.
• Yulisa Amadu Maddy (1936– ), playwright, novelist, and choreographer.
• Abioseh Nicol
  Abioseh Nicol
  Abioseh Davidson Nicol was a Sierra Leonean academic, diplomat, physician, writer and poet. He has been considered as one of Sierra Leone’s most educated citizens of recent times, as he was able to secure degrees on the art, science and commercial disciplines.-Early life:Nicol was born as Davidson...
  
   (1924–1994), doctor and short story writer.
• Lenrie Peters
  Lenrie Peters
  Lenrie Leopold Wilfred Peters ) was a Gambian surgeon, novelist, and poet.-Background:Peters was born in Bathurst to Lenrie Ernest Ingram Peters and Kezia Rosemary. Lenrie Sr. was a Sierra Leone Creole of West Indian or black American origin. Kezia Rosemary was a Gambian Creole of Sierra Leonean...
  
   (1932–2009), poet also associated with The Gambia
  The Gambia
  The Republic of The Gambia, commonly referred to as The Gambia, or Gambia , is a country in West Africa. Gambia is the smallest country on mainland Africa, surrounded by Senegal except for a short coastline on the Atlantic Ocean in the west....
  
  .

Somalia

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

• Ahmed Ismail Samatar
  Ahmed Ismail Samatar
  Ahmed Ismail Samatar is a prominent Somali writer, professor and dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship at Macalester College. He is the editor of Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies and brother of Abdi Ismail Samatar....
  
  
• Abdi Ismail Samatar
  Abdi Ismail Samatar
  Abdi Ismail Samatar is Professor of Geography at the University of Minnesota. He is the author of An African Miracle published by Heinemann that was a finalist for the 2000 Herskovits Prize.-References:...
  
  
• Abdisalam Issa-Salwe
  Abdisalam Issa-Salwe
  Dr. Abdisalam Mohamed Issa-Salwe is a Somali writer and scholar.-Career:Issa-Salwe is currently Asst. Professor in Information Systems in the Faculty of Computer Science and Engineering at Taibah University in Medina, Saudi Arabia...
  
  
• Abdurahman H. H. Osman 'Mallay'
  Abdurahman H. H. Osman 'Mallay'
  Abdurahman H. H. Osman was an ambassador of Somalia to Germany. He also wrote and published poetry in Somali and German.- References :...
  
  
• Abdi Sheik Abdi
  Abdi Sheik Abdi
  Abdi Abdulkadir Sheik-Abdi is a Somali author based in the United States.-Biography:Sheikh-Abdi holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in English Literature and African Studies from the State University of New York and a doctorate in African History from Boston University...
  
  
• Abdi Kusow
  Abdi Kusow
  -Biography:Kusow studied at Michigan State University, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in 1990. He later earned a Master of Urban Planning from the University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning in 1992. He also holds a Ph. D...
  
  
• Abukar Arman
• Ahmed Farah Ali 'Idaja'
  Ahmed Farah Ali 'Idaja'
  Ahmed Farah Ali is a Somali language writer and publisher of Somali written folklore.-Background:...
  
  
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  Ayaan Hirsi Ali
  Ayaan Hirsi Magan Ali is a Somali-Dutch feminist and atheist activist, writer, politician who strongly opposes circumcision and female genital cutting. She is the daughter of the Somali politician and opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse and is a founder of the women's rights organisation the AHA...
  
   (1969– )
• Cali Xuseen Xirsi
  Cali Xuseen Xirsi
  Cali Xuseen Xirsi is a Somali poet who wrote his poems in the 1960s. He was the first Somali poet to put his poems on paper and in print. Two of his poems appeared in the magazines Sahan and Horseed , although most of them still reached the public in oral form. Cali often wrote on social topics...
  
   (1949– )
• Cristina Ali Farah
  Cristina Ali Farah
  Cristina Ali Farah is an Italian writer of Somali and Italian origin.- Biography :Born in Italy to a Somali father and an Italian mother, Farah grew up in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia...
  
  
• Faarax Maxamed Jaamac 'Cawl' (1937–1992)
• Jaamac Cumar Ciise
  Jaamac Cumar Ciise
  Sheikh Jaamac Cumar Ciise is a Somali veteran historian and collector of oral literature of Somalia. Jaamac has spent some twenty years collecting and transcribing orally transmitted poetry before publishing it in Diiwaanka Sayid Maxamed, edited by Madbacadda Qaranka, Xamar, 1974...
  
  
• Maxamed Daahir Afrax
  Maxamed Daahir Afrax
  Maxamed Daahir Afrax Ph. D. is a Somali novelist, playwright, journalist and scholar.-Biography:Afrax was born and raised in Somalia. He belongs to the Majerteen sub-clan of the Darod Somali clan.A polyglot, he writes in Somali, Arabic and English...
  
  
• Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi
  Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi
  Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi is a Somali-Canadian scholar, linguist, writer and translator.-Biography:Formerly a journalist in his native Somalia, Abdullahi emigrated to Canada, where he earned a Master's degree and a Ph.D. in linguistics from the Université de Montréal in Montreal...
  
  
• Mohamed Haji Mukhtar
  Mohamed Haji Mukhtar
  -Biography:Mukhtar was born in the town of Koorkoor in the Bakool region of southern Somalia. He is the son of Malak Mukhtar Malak Hassan, a highly respected chief of the Digil and Mirifle Somali clans, and belongs to the Leysan subdivision of the latter....
  
  
• Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame 'Hadrawi' (1941–)
• Nuruddin Farah
  Nuruddin Farah
  Nuruddin Farah is a prominent Somali novelist.-Early years:Born in Baidoa, Somalia, Farah is the son of a merchant father and a poet mother. As a child, he attended school at Kallafo in the Ogaden, and studied English, Arabic, and Amharic. In 1963, three years after Somalia's independence, Farah...
  
   (1945– )
• Rageh Omaar
  Rageh Omaar
  Rageh Omaar , is a Somali born British journalist and writer. His latest book Only Half of Me deals with the tensions between these two sides of his identity. He used to be a BBC world affairs correspondent, where he made his name reporting from Iraq...
  
  , journalist
• Said S. Samatar
  Said S. Samatar
  -Early years:Said was born in 1943 in the Ogaden in Ethiopia to Faduma and Sheikh Samatar. He comes from a large family consisting of fourteen people, including his father's second wife....
  
  
• Said Salah Ahmed
• Waris Dirie
  Waris Dirie
  Waris Dirie is a Somali model, author, actress and human rights activist.-Early years:Waris Dirie was born into a nomadic clan in Galkacyo, Somalia in 1965. At the age of thirteen, she fled her family in order to escape an arranged marriage to a much older man. She landed in London where she...
  
   (1965– )
• Yaasiin Cismaan Keenadiid
  Yaasiin Cismaan Keenadiid
  Yaasiin Cismaan Keenadiid is a Somali intellectual. He is one of the founders of the Somali Youth League and an influential literary scholar, having written a seminal dictionary of the Somali language.-Family and name:...
  
  

Swaziland

Swaziland

Swaziland, officially the Kingdom of Swaziland , and sometimes called Ngwane or Swatini, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south and west by South Africa, and to the east by Mozambique...

• Modison Salayedvwa Magagula
  Modison Salayedvwa Magagula
  Modison Salayedvwa Magagula is a Swazi playwright, poet and short-story writer.-Biography:Magagula attended William Pitcher College in Manzini where he obtained a diploma in teaching. He began his career as a playwright in 1986 after attending a workshop for writers in the Swazi capital of Mbabane...
  
   (1958– ), playwright.
• Stanley Musa N. Matsebula (1958), economist and writer.
• Elias Adam Bateng Mkhonta (1954–2001), novelist.
• Sarah Mkhonza (1957– ), novelist, short story writer and journalist.
• Gladys Lomafu Pato, short story writer.

Tanzania

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

• Agoro Anduru (1948–1992), short story writer.
• Mark Behr
  Mark Behr
  Mark Behr is a Tanzanian writer in South Africa. He is currently professor of Creative Writing at Rhodes College, Memphis, TN. He has been professor of World Literature and Fiction Writing at the College of Santa Fe in Santa Fe, New Mexico...
  
   (1963– ), fiction writer also connected with South Africa
  South Africa
  The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
  
  .
• Chachage Seithy Chachage ( –2006), sociologist and Swahili novelist.
• Abdulrazak Gurnah
  Abdulrazak Gurnah
  Abdulrazak Gurnah is a Tanzanian novelist based in the United Kingdom.- Career :From 1980 to 1982, Gurnah lectured at the Bayero University Kano in Nigeria. He then moved to the University of Kent, where he earned his PhD in 1982...
  
   (1948– ), novelist and critic.
• Ebrahim N. Hussein (1943– ), playwright, essayist, poet and translator.
• Euphrase Kezilahabi
  Euphrase Kezilahabi
  Euphrase Kezilahabi is a Tanzanian novelist, poet, and scholar. Born in Ukerewe, Tanganyika , he is currently based at the University of Botswana, where he is an Associate Professor at the Department of African Languages....
  
   (1944– ), novelist, poet and scholar.
• Jacqueline Kibacha, poet.
• Aniceti Kitereza
  Aniceti Kitereza
  Aniceti Kitereza was a Tanzanian novelist, was born in 1896 to Muchuma and her husband Malindima in Ukerewe, Tanzania. He was the grandson of the king Machunda from the Silanga clan of the island of Ukerewe in the lake Victoria...
  
   (1896–1981), novelist.
• Amandina Lihamba (1944– ), playwright.
• Ismael R. Mbise, novelist and academic.
• Penina Mlama, playwright.
• Sandra A. Mushi, poet.
• Elvis Musiba ( –2010), businessman and swahili novelist.
• Godfrey Mwakikagile
  Godfrey Mwakikagile
  Godfrey Mwakikagile is a prominent Tanzanian scholar, writer and specialist in African studies.-Childhood:He was born in the town of Kigoma in western Tanzania - what was then Tanganyika - on 4 October 1949 and was baptised Godfrey about two months later on Christmas day, 25 December 1949, as a...
  
  , writer and specialist in African studies.
• Ras Nas
  Ras Nas
  Born in Morogoro , Ras Nas aka Nasibu Mwanukuzi, is a musician and poet from Tanzania who blends African music and reggae with a dash of poetry. Ras Nas' latest album, Dar-es-Salaam, contains roots reggae, soukous and dub poetry. It is released by , KonPro...
  
  , musician and poet.
• Julius Nyerere
  Julius Nyerere
  Julius Kambarage Nyerere was a Tanzanian politician who served as the first President of Tanzania and previously Tanganyika, from the country's founding in 1961 until his retirement in 1985....
  
   (1922–1999), politician and writer.
• Peter Palangyo (1939–1993), novelist.
• Prince Kagwema (1931– ), novelist.
• Hammie Rajab, Swahili novelist.
• Shaaban Robert (1909–1962), Swahili novelist and poet.
• Gabriel Ruhumbika (1938– ), novelist and short story writer.
• Edwin Semzaba
  Edwin Semzaba
  Edwin Semzaba is a Tanzanian novelist, playwright, actor and director. He writes his works mainly in Swahili. He teaches in the Department of Fine and Performing Arts at the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania...
  
  , novelist, playwright, actor and director.
• Robert Bin Shaaban
  Robert Bin Shaaban
  Shaaban bin Robert, also known as Shaaban Robert , was a Tanzanian poet, author, and essayist who supported the preservation of African verse traditions. He was born in Vibamba in the country's Tanga Region...
  
   (1902–1962), poet, author and essayist.
• Shafi Adam Shafi, Swahili novelist.
• Neema Komba, Poet.

Togo

Togo

Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...

• Gad Ami (1958– ), French-language novelist.
• David Ananou
  David Ananou
  David Ananou was a writer from Togo, and the author of Le Fils du fétiche....
  
   (1917–2000), novelist.
• Félix Couchoro (1900–1968), novelist, also connected with Benin
  Benin
  Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
  
  .
• Richard Dogbeh
  Richard Dogbeh
  Richard Dogbeh was a novelist and educator. He served as Benin's Directeur de Cabinet of the National Ministry of Education from 1963 to 1966...
  
  , also connected with Benin
  Benin
  Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
  
  , Senegal
  Senegal
  Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
  
   and Côte d'Ivoire
  Côte d'Ivoire
  The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
  
   (1932–2003), novelist and educator.
• Kossi Efoui
  Kossi Efoui
  Kossi Efoui is a Togolese writer.He studied Philosophy in the University of Lomé, and he took part in Gnassingbé Eyadéma's non-conformist movement for which he lives nowadays in France. He is playwright, chronicler and novelist.-Bibliography:* L'Ombre des choses à venir, novel, ed. Le Seuil,...
  
   (1962– ), playwright.
• Emilie Anifranie Ehah, also connected with Senegal
  Senegal
  Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
  
  .
• Christiane Akoua Ekue (1954– ), French-language novelist.
• Koffi Gomez (1941– ), novelist and playwright.
• Alemdjrodo Kangni (1966– ), playwright.
• Kodjo Adabra (1974– ), novelist and academic.
• Tété-Michel Kpomassie
  Tété-Michel Kpomassie
  Tété-Michel Kpomassie is an explorer and writer from Togo, and the author of An African in Greenland.- Biography :Kpomassie was born in 1941, in Togo, and received only six years of elementary education. His father, a prominent man in the village, had eight wives and 26 children...
  
   (1941– ), explorer and writer.
• Pyabelo Chaold Kouly
  Pyabelo Chaold Kouly
  Pyabelo Chaold Kouly is a Togolese author. Born in 1943 in Pagouda, Togo, she subsequently migrated to Germany in 1961 to study as a laboratory assistant...
  
   (1943– ), autobiographical writer and novelist.
• Senouvo Agbota Zinsou
  Senouvo Agbota Zinsou
  Senouvo Agbota Zinsou is a Togolese playwright and theatre director.-Career:Born in Lorné, Zinsou studied in France, receiving degrees in theatre and communications. In 1968, after working with several student companies, he co-founded a university theatre company...
  
   (1946– ), playwright and short story writer.
• Yves-Emmanuel Dogbé (1939– ), novelist, fable writer, poet and essayist.
• Jeannette D. Ahonsou
  Jeannette D. Ahonsou
  Jeannette Délali Ahonsou-Abotsi is a Togolese novelist. She holds an English Degree from the University of Benin and is a retired English instructor. She has two published books, Une Longue Histoire, which earned her the Prix Littéraire France-Togo in 1995, and Le Trophee de Cristal published in...
  
   (1954– ), novelist.

Tunisia

Tunisia

Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...

• Mahmoud Aslan (1902–?).
• Hachemi Baccouche
  Hachemi Baccouche
  Mhamed Hachemi Baccouche, known as Hachemi Baccouche was a Tunisian writer, humanist, and pyschosociologist. The nephew of former grand vizier Slaheddine Baccouche, he was exiled in France from 1957 to 2000, but returned to Tunis in 2006...
  
   (1916–2008), novelist and essayist.
• Tahar Bekri (1951– ), poet in French and Arabic.
• Rafik Ben Salah (1948– ), novelist.
• Claude Bénady (1922– ), poet.
• Slaheddine Bhiri (1947– ), novelist and poet.
• Robert Blum
  Robert Blum
  thumb|Painting by August Hunger of Robert Blum between 1845 and 1848Robert Blum was a German democratic politician, publicist, poet, publisher, revolutionist and member of the National Assembly of 1848. In his fight for a strong, unified Germany he opposed ethnocentrism and it was his strong...
  
   (1901–?), French-language writer.
• Hédi Bouraoui
  Hédi Bouraoui
  Hédi Bouraoui is a Tunisian/Canadian poet, novelist and academic, who regularly deals with themes involving the transcendence of cultural boundaries....
  
   (1932– ), poet, novelist and academic.
• Hafedh Djedidi (1953– ), poet and novelist.
• 'Ali al-Du'aji (1909–1949), novelist.
• Aboul-Qacem Echebbi
  Aboul-Qacem Echebbi
  Abou-Al-kacem El-chebbi was a Tunisian poet. He is probably best known for writing the final two verses of the current National Anthem of Tunisia, Humat al-Hima , that was written originally by the Egyptian poet Mustafa Sadik el-Rafii.Echebbi was born in Tozeur, Tunisia, on 24 February 1909, the...
  
   (1909–1934), poet.
• Salah Garmadi (1933–1982), linguist and poet.
• Moncef Ghachem (1946– ), poet.
• Sophie el Goulli (1932– ), novelist and art historian.
• Gisèle Halimi
  Gisèle Halimi
  Gisèle Halimi, born Zeiza Gisèle Élise Taïeb in 1927, is a French-Tunisian lawyer, feminist activist, and essayist.-Career:Born in La Goulette, to a Jewish mother and father, she was educated at a French lycée in Tunis, and then attended the University of Paris, graduating in law and philosophy...
  
   (1927– ), lawyer, feminist activist and essayist.
• Muhammad Rachad Hamzaoui (1934– ), short story writer, playwright and novelist.
• Muhammad al-Mukhtar Jannat (1930– ), novelist and short story writer.
• Ibn Khaldoun (1332–1406), polymath.
• Bashir Khrayyef (1917–1983), writer and teacher.
• Muhyi al-Din Khrayyif (1932– ), poet.
• 'Izz al-Dīn al-Madanī (1938– ), playwright and short story writer.
• Mahmud al-Mis'adi (1911– ), novelist and playwright.
• Abdelwahab Meddeb
  Abdelwahab Meddeb
  Abdelwahab Meddeb is an award-winning French-language poet, novelist, essayist, translator, editor, Islamic scholar, cultural critic, political commentator, radio producer, public intellectual and professor of comparative literature at the University of Paris X-Nanterre.- Biography and career...
  
   (1946– ), novelist and poet.
• Fawzi Mellah (1946–), playwright and novelist.
• Albert Memmi
  Albert Memmi
  Albert Memmi is a Tunisian Jewish writer and essayist who migrated to France.- Biography :Born in colonial Tunisia,from a Tunisian Jewish mother and a Tunisian-Italian Jewish father, he speaks Hebrew and Tunisian-Arabic...
  
   (1920– ), sociologist, novelist and essayist.
• Mohamed Moncef Metoui (1943– ), playwright, director and novelist.
• Chams Nadir (1949– ), novelist and short story writer.
• Ryvel, the pseudonym of Raphael Levy (1898–1972), writer and journalist.
• Youssef Rzouga
  Youssef Rzouga
  Youssef Rzouga is a Tunisian poet, born on March 21, 1957 in Mahdia, Tunisia. He began writing in 1967. His first published text was "Something called need," a short story in the magazine Radio et Télévision .- Studies:*Primary :...
  
   (1957– ), poet.
• Amina Saïd
  Amina Said
  Amina Said, also spelled Amina Saïd is a francophone Tunisian author.Said was born to a Tunisian father and a French mother and has been living in Paris since 1978 where she studied Literature at the Sorbonne. She has published several books of poetry, Tunisian folk stories, short stories and essays...
  
   (1953– ), poet.
• Walid Soliman
  Walid Soliman
  Walid Soliman is writer, essayist and translator, born on April 11, 1975 in Tunis, Tunisia.-Biography:Walid Soliman followed his secondary studies in the "Sadikia"...
  
   (1975– ), writer, essayist and translator.
• Ahmad al-Tifashi
  Ahmad al-Tifashi
  Ahmad al-Tifashi , born in Tiffech, a village near Souk Ahras in Algeria was an Arabic poet, writer, and anthologist.-Biography:...
  
   (?–1253), poet, writer and anthologist.
• Mustapha Tlili (1937– ), novelist and academic.

Uganda

Uganda

Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

• Moses Isegawa
  Moses Isegawa
  Moses Isegawa, also known as Sey Wava , is a Ugandan author. He has written novels set against the political turmoil of Uganda, which he left in 1990 for the Netherlands. His debut novel Abyssinian Chronicles, was first published in Amsterdam in 1998, selling more than 100,000 copies and gaining...
  
   (1963– )
• Catherine Samali Kavuma
  Catherine Samali Kavuma
  Catherine Samali Kavuma is a novelist and a prominent Ugandan personality.She was born in Nkokonjeru. At the age of eight she moved with her family to Great Britain where her father was employed by the Uganda Coffee Marketing Board. In the early 1970s, her family moved to Ethiopia...
  
   (1960– )
• China Keitetsi
  China Keitetsi
  China Keitetsi is a Ugandan activist who has won international renown as a campaigner for the plight of child soldiers. The memoirs of Keitetsi, a former child-soldier herself, have been translated into French, German, Japanese, Chinese and other languages....
  
   (1967– )
• Henry Kyemba
  Henry Kyemba
  Henry Kyemba is a Ugandan political figure who held several high positions and finally became Minister of Health during Uganda's rule by Idi Amin. He is also the author of State of Blood, a 1977 book he wrote after his flight from Uganda that describes Amin's tyrannical rule.-References:...
  
   (1939– )
• Rajat Neogy
  Rajat Neogy
  Rajat Neogy , a Ugandan of Indian ancestry, was a writer, poet, publisher and founder of Transition Magazine.-External links:*Paul Theroux, "" Transition, No. 69 , pp. 4-7....
  
   (1938–1995)
• Julius Ocwinyo
  Julius Ocwinyo
  Julius Ocwinyo is a Ugandan editor, poet and novelist. His novels include Fate of the Banished , The Unfulfilled Dream , and Footprints of the Outsider. Ocwinyo was born in Teboke village in Apac District...
  
   (1961– )
• Monica Arac de Nyeko
  Monica Arac de Nyeko
  Monica Arac de Nyeko is a Ugandan writer of short fiction, poetry, and essays. She was educated at Makerere University and the University of Groningen...
  
   (1979– )
• Doreen Baingana
  Doreen Baingana
  Doreen Baingana is a Ugandan short story writer. Her book, Tropical Fish won the 2006 Commonwealth Writers' Prize, best first book, Africa, and an AWP Short Fiction Award....
  
  
• Jane Musoke-Nteyafas
  Jane Musoke-Nteyafas
  Jane Musoke-Nteyafas is a poet, writer, visual artist, columnist and playwright.Born in Moscow, Russia, to Truman Musoke-Nteyafas, an Ugandan diplomat and politician, and Beatrice Musoke-Nteyafas, a visual artist and fashion designer....
  
   (c.1976 – )
• Mahmood Mamdani
  Mahmood Mamdani
  Mahmood Mamdani is an academic, author and political commentator. He is a Professor and Director of the at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, and the Herbert Lehman Professor of Government at Columbia University, New York. He grew up in Uganda and acquired his B.A from the University of...
  
   (1933– )
• John Nagenda
  John Nagenda
  John Nagenda, born 25 April 1938, Gahim, Ruanda-Urundi , is a former cricketer who played one One Day International in the 1975 World Cup for East Africa. He also appeared in one first-class cricket match in England in 1975, and played cricket for Uganda.-References:...
  
   (1938– )
• Glaydha Namukasa
• Peter Nazareth
  Peter Nazareth
  Peter Nazareth is a major critic and writer of fiction and drama. He was born in Uganda of Goan and Malaysian ancestry, and was educated at Makerere University and at the universities of London and Leeds in England....
  
   (1940– )
• Michael B. Nsimbi
  Michael B. Nsimbi
  Dr. Michael Bazzebulala Nsimbi, MBE, , considered the Father of Ganda literature, was a pioneer of Luganda language, culture and written forms....
  
  
• Okello Oculi
  Okello Oculi
  Okello Oculi , is a Ugandan novelist, poet, and chronicler of rural African village life. Currently, he is a private political and social consultant based in Abuja, Nigeria...
  
   (1942– )
• Okot p'Bitek
  Okot p'Bitek
  Okot p'Bitek was a Ugandan poet, who achieved wide international recognition for Song of Lawino, a long poem dealing with the tribulations of a rural African wife whose husband has taken up urban life and wishes everything to be westernised...
  
   (1931–1982)
• Timothy Wangusa
  Timothy Wangusa
  Timothy Wangusa is a Ugandan poet and novelist.Wangusa is an ethnic Mumasaaba, born in Bugisu, in eastern Uganda. He studied English at Makerere University where he later served on faculty, and the University of Leeds . He wrote his MA and PhD on British and African poetry, respectively.Wangusa...
  
   (1942– )
• Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu
  Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu
  Elvania Namukwaya Zirimu was a Ugandan poet and dramatist.Born Elvania Namukwaya, she attended high school at King's College Budo. At Budo, a coeducational school, Namukwaya distinguished herself as an actor and writer of plays. She repeatedly featured in the school's many theatrical productions...
  
   (1938–1979)

Western Sahara

Western Sahara

Western Sahara is a disputed territory in North Africa, bordered by Morocco to the north, Algeria to the northeast, Mauritania to the east and south, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Its surface area amounts to . It is one of the most sparsely populated territories in the world, mainly...

• Mohamed Fadel Ismail Ould Es-Sweyih
  Mohamed Fadel Ismail Ould Es-Sweyih
  Mohamed-Fadel Ould Ismail Ould Es-Sweyih was a Sahrawi nationalist politician, member of the Polisario Front. He was a prominent member of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic diplomatic corps, holding several posts as SADR ambassador or Polisario Front representative.In 1972 he got involved in...
  
   (1958–2002), journalist and politician.
• Ahmed Baba Miské
  Ahmed Baba Miské
  Ahmed Baba Miské is a writer, diplomatic and politician, author of Lettre ouverte aux elites du Tiers-monde , and former Mauritanian ambassador.-References:...
  
  , writer, diplomat and politician.

Zambia

Zambia

Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....

• Kenneth Kaunda
  Kenneth Kaunda
  Kenneth David Kaunda, known as KK, served as the first President of Zambia, from 1964 to 1991.-Early life:Kaunda was the youngest of eight children. He was born at Lubwa Mission in Chinsali, Northern Province of Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia...
  
   (1924– ), nationalist and writer.
• Chibamba Kanyama, journalist and business writer.
• Andreya Sylvester Masiye (1922– ), diplomat and novelist.
• Dominic Mulaisho (1933– ), novelist.
• Charles Mwewa, poet and non-fiction writer.
• Keith Nalumango (1952– ), novelist and former head of programming at the Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation
  Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation
  Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation is a Zambian state owned TV station. Established during British rule, it remains the biggest TV station with most parts of the country covered now....
  
  .
• Princess Zindaba Nyirenda, novelist.
• Binwell Sinyangwe
  Binwell Sinyangwe
  Binwell Sinyangwe is a Zambian novelist writing in English.He studied industrial economics in Bucharest.-Books:*Quills of Desire, Baobab Books, 1996. Republished by Heinemann , 2001...
  
   (1956– )

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

• N. H. Brettell (1908–1991), poet.
• Patrick Chakaipa (1932–2003). novelist.
• Paul Chidyausiku (1929– ), preacher and writer.
• Bernard Chidzero
  Bernard Chidzero
  Bernard Thomas Gibson Chidzero was a Zimbabwean economist, politician, and writer. He served as the independent Zimbabwe's second finance minister.-Early life and education:...
  
   (1927– 2002), economist and novelist.
• Samuel Chimsoro (1949– ), novelist and poet.
• Shimmer Chinodya
  Shimmer Chinodya
  Shimmer Chinodya is an Zimbabwean novelist.He studied at Mambo Primary School.He was expelled from Goromonzi after demonstrating against Ian Smith's government....
  
   (1957– ), poet, short story writer, novelist, and textbook writer.
• Edmund Chipamaunga (1938– ), novelist.
• Raymond Choto (1962– ), journalist and novelist.
• A. S. Cripps (1869–1952), priest, short story writer and poet.
• Tsitsi Dangarembga
  Tsitsi Dangarembga
  Tsitsi Dangarembga is a Zimbabwean author and filmmaker.- Biography :Dangarembga was born in Mutoko, Zimbabwe , in 1959 but spent part of her childhood in England. She began her education there, but concluded her A-levels in a missionary school back home, in the town of Mutare...
  
   (1959– ), novelist.
• John Eppel
  John Eppel
  John Eppel was born in Lydenburg, South Africa. He moved to Colleen Bawn, a small mining town in the south of Southern Rhodesia , at the age of four. He was educated at Milton High School in Bulawayo, and later attended the University of Natal in South Africa. He married at the age of 34 and has...
  
   (1947– ), novelist, poet and short story writer.
• Chenjerai Hove
  Chenjerai Hove
  Chenjerai Hove , is a Zimbabwean poet, novelist and essayist. He was educated at the University of South Africa and the University of Zimbabwe, and has worked as an educator and journalist...
  
   (1956– ), novelist, poet, critic and editor.
• Adin Kachisi
  Adin Kachisi
  Adin Kachisi is a Zimbabwean born award winning writer. He currently lives in New York.-Publications:* Rise of the Anakim: Tablets of Destiny, a novel, 2009* Keys of Destiny, novel, 2008* Beyond The Talented Tenth, non fiction, 2004...
  
  , science fiction writer and poet.
• Wilson Katiyo (1947/49– ), novelist.
• Giles Kuimba (1936– ), novelist.
• Doris Lessing
  Doris Lessing
  Doris May Lessing CH is a British writer. Her novels include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, and five novels collectively known as Canopus in Argos....
  
  , born in Persia (now Iran
  Iran
  Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
  
  ) (1919– ), novelist and short story writer.
• Ignatius Tirivangani Mabasa (1971– ), poet and novelist.
• Nevanji Madanhire (1961– ), novelist and editor of the Zimbabwe Standard.
• Wiseman Magwa
  Wiseman Magwa
  -Biography:Magwa is a lecturer at Gweru Teacher's College. He is one of very few Shona writers using oral performances and texts to educate communities on social issues including nationalism, promiscuity and AIDS...
  
   (1962– ), playwright.
• John Marangwanda (1923– ), Shona novelist.
• Dambudzo Marechera
  Dambudzo Marechera
  Dambudzo Marechera was a Zimbabwean novelist and poet.-Early life:...
  
   (1952–1987), novelist.
• Nozipa Maraire
  Nozipa Maraire
  J. Nozipo Maraire is a Zimbabwean doctor and writer. She is the author of Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter. She is a practicing neurosurgeon in Klamath Falls, Oregon. She got her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and then attended The Columbia University College of Physicians and...
  
   (1966– ), doctor and writer.
• Edmund Masundire (1966– ), novelist.
• Timothy O. McLoughlin (1937– ), novelist, poet and editor.
• Cont Mhlanga
  Cont Mhlanga
  Cont Mdladla Mhlanga is a Zimbabwean playwright, actor and theatre director. He is also the founder and head of the Amakhosi Theatre Productions company, formed in 1982....
  
  , playwright, actor and theatre director.
• S. O. Mlilo (1924–1995), Ndebele
  Northern Ndebele language
  The Northern Ndebele language, isiNdebele, or Ndebele is an African language belonging to the Nguni group of Bantu languages, and spoken by the Ndebele or Matabele people of Zimbabwe. It is commonly known as Sindebele....
  
   novelist.
• Aaron Chiwundura Moyo (1959– ), novelist and playwright.
• George Mujajati (1957–), playwright and novelist.
• Charles Mungoshi
  Charles Mungoshi
  Charles Lovemore Mungoshi is a writer from Zimbabwe.Mungoshi's works include short stories and novels in both Shona and English. He also writes poetry, but views it as a "mere finger exercise." He has a wide range, including anti-colonial writings and children's books...
  
   (1947– ), writer and editor.
• Solomon Mutswairo
  Solomon Mutswairo
  Solomon Mangwiro Mutswairo also spelt Mutsvairo, is a Zimbabwean novelist and poet. A member of the Zezuru people of central Zimbabwe, Mutswairo wrote the first novel in the Shona language, Feso....
  
   (1924– ) (see also Zambia
  Zambia
  Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
  
  ), novelist and poet.
• Geoffrey Ndhlala (1949– ).
• Emmanuel Ngara
  Emmanuel Ngara
  Emmanuel Ngara is a Zimbabwean academic and Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. He has also served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University of Fort Hare, South Africa, and the University of Zimbabwe.-References:...
  
   (1947– ), academic.
• Mthandazo Ndema Ngwenya (1949–1992), novelist, radio playwright and poet.
• Stanley Nyamfukudza
  Stanley Nyamfukudza
  Stanley Nyamfukudza is a Zimbabwean writer.He was born in Wedza, Zimbabwe. In 1973, he was ejected from Salisbury University for participation in student riots against racism on the campus. From there, he moved to England where he was awarded a scholarship to study literature at the University of...
  
   (1951– ), novelist and short story writer.
• Freedom Nyamubaya (1958– ), poet.
• Kristina Rungano (1963– ), the first published woman poet in Zimbabwe.
• Stanlake Samkange
  Stanlake J. W. T. Samkange
  Stanlake John William Thompson Samkange was a Zimbabwean historiographer, educationist, journalist, author, and African nationalist...
  
   (1922–1988), historian and novelist.
• Ben Sibenke (1945– ), playwright.
• Ndabezinhle S. Sigogo (1932–2006), novelist and editor.
• Ndabaningi Sithole
  Ndabaningi Sithole
  Ndabaningi Sithole founded the Zimbabwe African National Union, a militant organization that opposed the government of Rhodesia, in July 1963. A member of the Ndau ethnic group, he also worked as a Methodist minister. He spent 10 years in prison after the government banned ZANU...
  
   (1922–2000), historian, politician, and novelist.
• Alexander McCall Smith
  Alexander McCall Smith
  Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE, is a Rhodesian-born Scottish writer and Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. In the late 20th century, McCall Smith became a respected expert on medical law and bioethics and served on British and international committees...
  
  , also connected with Botswana
  Botswana
  Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. The citizens are referred to as "Batswana" . Formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, Botswana adopted its new name after becoming independent within the Commonwealth on 30 September 1966...
  
   (1948– ), lawyer and novelist.
• T. K. Tsodzo / Thompson K. Tsodzo (1947– ), novelist.
• Lawrence Vambe (1917– ).
• Yvonne Vera
  Yvonne Vera
  Yvonne Vera was an award-winning author from Zimbabwe. Her novels are known for their poetic prose, difficult subject-matter, and their strong women characters, and are firmly rooted in Zimbabwe's difficult past...
  
  , also connected with Canada
  Canada
  Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
  
   (1964–2005), novelist, short story writer and editor.
• Andrew Whaley (1958– ).
• Paul Tiyambe Zeleza
  Paul Tiyambe Zeleza
  Paul Tiyambe Zeleza is a Malawian historian, literary critic, novelist, short-story writer and blogger at The Zeleza Post -. He is currently president of the African Studies Association...
  
   (1955– ), historian, critic, novelist and short story writer.
• Musaemura Zimunya
  Musaemura Zimunya
  Musaemura Bonas Zimunya is one of Zimbabwe's most important contemporary writers.-Life:Zimunya was born in Umtali, Rhodesia , to Mandiera Watch and Kufera Zimunya. In 1973 he was expelled from the University of Rhodesia for 'disturbing the peace'. While exiled in Great Britain he studied at the...
  
  (1949– ), poet, critic and short story writer.

External links

• Contemporary African Writers/Authors
• Africa Resource Research Data
• Lire les femmes – African women writers