Five books by writers from Namibia, set there, that give a real sense of the place, starting with The Purple Violet of Oshaantu and Born of the Sun.
Namibian writing is closely bound up with the struggle against South African rule, which ended in independence in 1990. English has been the official language since then, though Namibians also speak and write in Afrikaans, German, Oshiwambo, Otjiherero and other languages. A good deal of it is memoir and fiction shaped by exile, armed struggle and the colonial years.
Sam Nujoma, SWAPO's founding leader and Namibia's first president, tells his story in Where Others Wavered, from exile to independence. Ellen Ndeshi Namhila's The Price of Freedom recalls growing up in northern Namibia during the liberation war. Joseph Diescho's Born of the Sun sends a young man from the countryside to the mines and cities under South African rule, and Neshani Andreas's The Purple Violet of Oshaantu centres on a husband's sudden death in a northern village, the suspicion that falls on his wife, and the lives of its women.
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A husband's sudden death and the suspicion that falls on his wife in a northern Namibian village, showing widowhood, gossip, tradition and women's lives in Owambo society.
A young man leaves rural Namibia to work in the mines and cities under apartheid-era South African rule, showing migrant labour and colonial control.
The memoir of SWAPO's founding leader and Namibia's first president, covering exile, armed struggle and the road to independence.
A memoir of growing up in northern Namibia during the liberation war, including detention, exile and education under colonial rule.
An autobiographical account of a SWAPO fighter's experiences in the Namibian independence struggle, from the north into exile.
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