Best Memoirs by African Women.
These seven memoirs span the continent and very different lives — a Nobel Peace laureate, a genocide survivor turned refugee advocate, and a novelist grieving her father. Together they cover ground that memoirs by African men too often leave out.
1. Unbowed by Wangari Maathai
Kenya's Nobel Peace Prize laureate tells her story: from a childhood in rural Nyeri, through her groundbreaking academic career as the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a PhD, to founding the Green Belt Movement, which has planted tens of millions of trees across Kenya while empowering rural women and challenging a corrupt political establishment.
2. This Child Will Be Great by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Sirleaf, who became Africa's first elected female head of state as President of Liberia, tells the story of her rise through decades of Liberian political turmoil, coups, civil war, and exile — including multiple imprisonments before eventually reaching the country's highest office.
3. The Bite of the Mango by Mariatu Kamara
Kamara was a twelve-year-old girl in Sierra Leone when rebel soldiers attacked her village, amputated both her hands, and left her for dead. Her memoir tells the story of her survival, her time as a beggar and refugee, and her eventual path to becoming an advocate for war-affected children and a UNICEF Special Representative.
4. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Hirsi Ali's memoir traces her childhood in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, and Kenya, including undergoing female genital mutilation as a child, an arranged marriage she fled, and her eventual asylum in the Netherlands, where she became a member of parliament and a prominent, controversial critic of Islam following the murder of her collaborator, filmmaker Theo van Gogh. One of the more polarizing books on this list, but a significant and widely read account of one woman's path out of a life she didn't choose.
5. Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A short, intensely personal essay-length memoir written in the immediate aftermath of her father's death in 2020, capturing grief in something close to real time rather than with the distance most memoirs allow. Brief enough to read in a single sitting, and a striking departure in form from Adichie's novels.
6. The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya
Wamariya was six years old when she and her older sister fled the Rwandan genocide, spending the next six years moving through refugee camps across seven African countries before eventually resettling in the United States. Her memoir moves between her wartime childhood and her difficult adjustment to American life, resisting the neat "resilience" narrative many readers expect from refugee stories.
7. Left to Tell by Immaculée Ilibagiza
Ilibagiza survived the 1994 Rwandan genocide by hiding, along with seven other women, in a small bathroom for 91 days while her family was murdered outside. Her memoir is as much about her faith, which she credits with helping her survive without succumbing to hatred, as it is a direct account of the genocide itself.
Where to Find These Books in Kenya
All the titles above are in stock at Readers' Republik, with delivery across Nairobi and the rest of Kenya. Explore more in these collections:
Frequently Asked Questions,
Which of these memoirs deals directly with the Rwandan genocide? The Girl Who Smiled Beads and Left to Tell both center on the 1994 genocide, though from different angles — Wamariya's account follows years of displacement afterward, while Ilibagiza's focuses more tightly on the genocide itself and her survival.
Which of these memoirs is the shortest? Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which is closer to a long essay than a full-length memoir.
Why is Ayaan Hirsi Ali's inclusion here controversial? Her later career as a public critic of Islam has made her a divisive figure, and some of her positions are strongly contested. Infidel itself is included for its significance as a widely read account of her own personal history, not as an endorsement of her later political views.
Are these memoirs all difficult, heavy reads? Most deal with real trauma, war, or loss, though Unbowed balance that with substantial focus on achievement and legacy, making them somewhat less unrelentingly heavy than the more survival-focused memoirs on this list.