The African Literary Catalogue
African writers, catalogued
Writers, books and the traditions they wrote from — the oldest oral records to what published this month, and growing.
By Tradition
Yoruba / Ifá · Mandé / Griot · Dogon · Kemet · Bantu · Amazigh · Kongo — the tradition each book was written from.
02Through Time
Oral epics to Timbuktu manuscripts to the writers publishing this month — the full arc of African literary form.
03By Region
West, East, North, Southern and Central Africa, and the Horn — the continent’s writers, region by region.
04By Structure
Cyclical, Web, Spiral, Non-Conflict, Negotiation — the story architectures identified so far, and the writers who used each one.
05The Market
The full catalogue — every book with a buy link, filterable by author, tradition, region and form.
06The Magazine
Mythology and origins features, new releases, writer profiles, and the African literary market report.
African writers and the books they made — and the writers publishing this month. Books filed in the catalogue appear here as they are added.
Browse the full market →Each tradition entry carries the books written from inside it, the oral and manuscript forms that came before them, and the scholars who recorded the structure.