4 must-read books from east Africa in 2023: from Tanzanian masters to Ugandan queens

& Peter Kimani, Aga Khan University Graduate School of Media and Communications (GSMC) East African literature continues to grow and reshape itself in exciting new ways – and 2023 was no exception. The world really did take notice of the region when Tanzanian-British author Abdulrazak Gurnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2021. Interest in Gurnah’s work continued last year when he made a homecoming to east Africa. But it is in Tanzania that Gurnah made a proper homecoming in 2023 – through the first ever Kiswahili translation of Paradise, now out as Peponi. I am an interdisciplinary scholar with a research focus that cuts across journalism, creative writing, African literature and postcolonial studies. I’m also a big reader of books from the region. My highlights of 2023 range from the masterful Gurnah to stunning newcomers, a bold biography to a pacy memoir. 1. Abdulrazak Gurnah in Kiswahili Now aged 74, Gurnah has recently headlined a literary festival in Kenya which seeks to foster conversations between and among Anglophone (English-speaking) and Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) Africa. Just the other day in Uganda, his life and work was celebrated by the creative collective Femrite. But it is in Tanzania that Gurnah made...