A level syllabus - good fictional books about the colonisation of Africa and its aftermath

[Sparrows12]

Hello

This is one of the three subject areas my daughter will be covering in A level history starting in September. We don't know much about this field of history. Can anyone recommend any readable fiction? I thought straightaway of the amazing Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver. I also seem to remember Paul Theroux - Mosquito Coast? Is Heart of Darkness readable? Does anyone have any good ideas? She likes good quality descriptive writing that is readable, with a decent storyline.

Nadine Gordimer and JM Coetzee both write brilliantly on South Africa. So does Doris Lessing.
Albert Camus in translation might be good on Algiers as he lived there, and is a fantastic writer.

Elspeth Huxley - Red Strangers

A good man in Africa, by william Boyd.

Things Fall Apart or Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe

Definitely anything by Chinua Achebe. She might also like Half of a Yellow Sun or Purple Hibiscus by Chinamanda Ngozi Adiche. Set in Nigeria, more modern setting than Achebe but they are beautifully written.

These are really helpful - I had forgotten about William boyd, and never even heard of chinua achebe.

How about The River Between by Ngugi wa Thiongo. The missionaries come and attempt to stop FGM. It is written by a male author and I think it is quite interesting to question why women and women's bodies are the receptacles of tradition and whether a woman would have written the same book.