African Novels: Where Are They All?

A Blog by Steve Braker

8 minute Read

As a writer, I find myself in a unique place; a writer who writes action thrillers set in Africa, when I set out some twenty years ago, I thought I was onto a winner. However, the average person seems uninterested in reading about such foreign places as deepest darkest Africa. Some of you will say, “But what about Wilbur Smith or Mr Patterson!” True they have penned some excellent novels set in Africa, but both of these goliaths already had a large following before they set their eyes on the African Continent.

When I was a kid, I watched Jonny Weissmuller as he ran around the jungle playing Tarzan and was captivated by John Wayne in Hatari (which means danger in Kiswahili.) Then I read every Gerald Durrel book about his exploits in Africa catching everything from pangolins to lions.

As everyone was worrying about the 1999 computer virus forcing all computers to fall into the world where time stood still, I was packing a bag and heading to deepest darkest Africa. To be honest, I was not heading to the continent to be an author and draft the greatest African novels the world had ever seen; that came later!

I arrived bushy-eyed and ready to have the adventure of a lifetime. And to be honest, it has been an adventure of a lifetime, enough to fill rooms with African novels. The first time I went to the Maasai Mara in Kenya, I thought I was on a Tarzan set. Although most of the Johnny Weissmuller movies were actually shot in the Everglades. The animals were everywhere just huge herds of them wandering around. Until you actually see this it is very hard to comprehend the sheer size of the herds of elephants and buffalo is quite awe inspiring.

My family and I flourished in Africa, it is strange as the information we all see is kids with flies on their faces with hungry women sitting outside a thatched rondavel begging from some white man who has too many pockets on his jacket.

But that is not everywhere, some areas need help as is the way in any country. I visited Somalia in the early 2000s and was shocked at the destruction people can inflict on each other. However, when I was in Mogadishu, I found so many happy faces and people looking forward to a future. In my novels I always try and develop a feeling of hope in my characters as this is one thing I have taken from this continent. People are always looking forward to the future.

My travels and adventures all over East Africa finally led me to settle in Mombasa on the Eastern Coast of Kenya. I love the ocean so there was very little to decide, and the place is beautiful. I married an African lady who has looked after me very well and encouraged me to start writing African action thriller novels. I thought it would be an easy task, as everyone is interested in Africa, right?

It turns out I was wrong; I am a lone man standing on a very lonely hill in the middle of a vast empty savannah. I am surprised as there is so much to write about on this continent an African Novel around every corner. I read a lot of American authors who seem to cross paths in the Florida Keys and Washington. Their characters drive huge SUVs and talk to the president daily. Whereas here I focus my African novels on a small part of the continent where I have spent a considerable amount of my time. I use an area from Somalia along the coast through Kenya to Tanzania. There are enough stories to tell in this area to last a lifetime, and I will do my best to churn out as many as I can.

The great writer Mark Twain once said, “Write what you know.” I think a truer word has never been said and this is why so few authors venture down into deepest darkest Africa to conjure up novels. Whenever I see one, I grab it and read it like a man coming across an oasis after days in the desert. But invariably, the story either covers North Africa which is well known with the pyramids and Egypt, or it just tries to talk about a jungle. One book, which will remain nameless, had a group of mercenaries stomping around Kinshasa, in the Congo, I had to stop reading when one of the big tough men went into a restaurant and ordered a bacon sandwich! It might not seem like much, but to find a bacon sandwich here in my relatively cosmopolitan Mombasa is virtually impossible. If I were to go back to Kinshasa even now and ask for a bacon sandwich all I would get is very odd looks.

This continent is blessed with so much culture and history that a writer is sorely tested when he has to choose which story to tell. They just abound everywhere. I concentrate on one of my favorite tribes the Swahili, as I speak Kiswahili and have spent many a long night sailing across the ocean chatting with my shipmates. I only take this one small tribe from the coastal strip of East Africa and the stories just keep flowing. I have written about child slavery in African Slaver, Strange Cults taking over Pemba in African Treasure, Real-life terrorist attacks in African Paradise, the ubiquitous ivory trade in African Ivory, to name just a few.

My next adventure will probably relate to when the Chinese came to the coast in the 6^th Century, this idea came to me when I was visiting an island a while ago called Manda Toto. I heard there were some people that still vaguely resembled the Chinese, and they had a particular type of weaving that was only found in a small part of southern China. I was amazed that the people did exist in a small tribe, and they had distinctive Chinese features. To an author such as me, this is an African novel in the making.

If you are an African novelist then drop me a line at [email protected].

If you would like to grab one of my books for a fantastic voyage into deepest darkest Africa then click on the series link just below. Otherwise have a great day and keep on writing!