5 books by Black authors - BLM

We should all be supporting Black creators and Black Lives Matter by signing petitions, donating where you can, educating ourselves, and writing to our MPs. Even if you’re unable to protest, allow Black voices to be heard – not just right now, in this critical and devastating moment, but forever and always.

This brilliant piece by Layla F Saad highlights a number of anti-racist books that I will be with engaging with and, if you too are white, I encourage you to do so too. It’s not enough to not be racist – we must be anti-racist by actively challenge our own white privilege and educating ourselves to be the best allies possible.

Below are 5 books by Black authors I’ve read and love. This list is just a snapshot and by no means fully represents the brilliant, different, and exciting voices out there, and I encourage you to look through the many reading lists and recommendations by Black bloggers, booksellers, and content creators. 

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

The first book published by a Black woman from Zimbabwe in English, Nervous Conditions is a semi-autobiographical novel that focuses on a Shona family in post-colonial Rhodesia in the 1960s. Exploring post-colonial education and female bodies, Dangarembga’s novel navigates issues of race, colonialism, and gender. A second book, The Book of Not followed in 2006 and Dangarembga published a third novel in 2019, This Mournable Body.

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Documenting the Biafran War through the lives of Olana, Ugwu and Richard, Adichie’s beautiful writing explores memory, power, bodies, and resistance. Spanning the years of the Nigerian Civil War, the novel illustrates how the brutality of war and oppression can map onto individual’s lives, and the complex relationships between those living through it. This is a moving and powerful novel, and it won the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction (now the Women’s Prize for Fiction) and was included in the BBC’s list of the 100 most influential novels.

Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

Winner of the 2011 World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, as well as the 2010 Carl Brandon Kindred Award, Who Fears Death is a science fiction fantasy novel that takes place in a post-apocalyptic future version of Sudan. Onyesonwu (Igbo for “who fears death”) goes on a quest to defeat her father (who raped her mother) and discovers the powers that she has. This is a fantasy novel that has stayed with me since I first read it, and I’ve picked up Okorafor’s work since.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Focusing on a number of families living in London, and the relationships they form between themselves Smith’s novel explores how three generations of families navigate their pasts, friendships, love, and cultures. A chunky novel to sink your teeth into, Smith’s prose is funny and captivating, and cleverly explores the bonds that bring people with different live experiences together.

Lilith’s Brood/Xenogenesis by Octavia E. Butler

A collection of three volumes, Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago, this science fiction series is based on the premise that a nuclear war has left humankind near enough wiped out, and Lilith Iyapo wakes on a spaceship after a centuries-long sleep. A seemingly benevolent alien race intervened at the crisis point and a number of human beings have been saved. I’ve only read the first book in this series, but Butler’s writing is so captivating, and if you like science fiction I can really recommend picking up Dawn!

Black Lives Matter.