12 Provocative African Books to Expect in 2026

In 2025, we witnessed the continent’s literary ecosystem buzz with an organic energy, from the blockbuster return of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie with Dream Count to the historic $100,000 Nigeria Prize for Literature, won by Oyin Olugbile, whose debut novel Sanya masterfully reimagined Yoruba mythology through a matriarchal lens. It was a year of looking back to leap forward: the Caine Prize celebrated its 25th anniversary by awarding NoViolet Bulawayo the “Best of Caine” for her iconic Hitting Budapest, while icons like Nobel Laureate Abdulrazak Gurnah helped usher in a new wave of Afrofantasy and speculative fiction that dominated bestseller lists. The literary wave in Nigeria also expanded with new book clubs and continued book events, including the annual Ake Festival that hosted prestigious authors from around the world. 

As we move away from the habits of traditional tropes, the upcoming year promises thrilling, educational, and entertaining African stories. From children’s books to speculative fiction and non-fiction collections, you can expect a diverse mix of palates in 2026. Here are the most anticipated books to expect in African literature.

Jollof Rice and Other Revolutions – Omolola Ijeoma Ogunyemi 

This arrived yesterday in its Nigerian edition from Masobe Books, this interconnected collection moves between Nigeria and America, featuring brief stops in Ghana, Poland, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. The stories span from 1897 to 2050, following four Nigerian women—Nonso, Remi, Aisha, and Solape—who form an unbreakable bond as students at a boarding school, forged during a student uprising that reverberates through their entire lives.

Originally published in the US by Amistad Books in 2022, this Nigerian edition brings the celebrated work home. The collection traces the trajectories of the girls’ lives as they grow into ambitious, cosmopolitan, globe-trotting women, examining family dynamics, race relations, and the challenges women navigate between career aspirations and personal fulfillment.

Grace – Chika Unigwe 

This profound story about motherhood, forgiveness and the lives women build from loss comes from the winner of the Nigeria Prize for Literature. The novel centers on a successful doctor whose carefully constructed existence begins to crumble when her estranged mother unexpectedly returns after twenty-six years. Grace runs a thriving medical practice, has a loving husband, and twin daughters—but she harbors a secret: at just fifteen years old, her parents forced her to give up her baby.

Unable to forgive that decision, she severed all family ties. Now, on Baby’s birthday, the fragile world she has built threatens to collapse. Unigwe crafts an emotionally resonant narrative exploring agency, the ethical complexities of motherhood, and the possibility of redemption. The book was released yesterday.

A Dying Giant in the Palm of Your Hand – Adelehin Ijasan 

This lyrical debut novel arrives at a crucial moment in climate consciousness. Written in the tradition of Ben Okri, Ijasan tells the story of ten-year-old Nimi, whose world transforms when his father retrieves an enigmatic creature from the ocean.

As his coastal community begins to fracture, Nimi witnesses the boundaries between reality and imagination, human and mythical, dissolve. The novel confronts the environmental crisis through a magical realist lens, exploring how communities reckon with ecological disaster and the collapse of familiar worlds. The book is scheduled to be published on January 20.

Forest Imaginaries: How African Novels Think – Ainehi Edoro 

This groundbreaking scholarly work by Brittle Paper’s founding editor Ainehi Edoro reexamines the forest as more than mere backdrop or symbol in African literature. Drawing connections between indigenous storytelling traditions and contemporary speculative fiction, she traces a literary lineage of forests from Chinua Achebe to Nnedi Okorafor.

The book foregrounds Indigenous concepts of temporality, spatiality, and narrative structure, arguing that forests function as generative forces that expand our understanding of what African novels can accomplish. This critical intervention reshapes how we read African literary history. Although the exact date is yet to be specified, the book is scheduled for release in January 2026.

Born at the End of the World – Donica Merhazion 

Publishing in February 2026, this historical novel inspired by the author’s parents plunges into Ethiopia’s Red Terror of the 1970s. Elen escapes a forced rural marriage to start anew in Asmara, while Girmai flees domestic violence, transforming from street hustler to businessman.

Their lives intersect as the Derg regime consolidates power, pulling both into the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front as underground operatives. Against a backdrop of political violence and state terror, an intense romance develops. Born at the End of the World is the Eritrean-Ethiopian author’s debut historical novel. 

The Shipikisha Club – Mubanga Kalimamukwento 

This novel set in Kabwe, Zambia, centers on Salifyanji, a mother on trial for murdering her husband. Through alternating perspectives of Sali, her daughter Ntashé, and her mother Peggy, the narrative interrogates the Zambian cultural concept of shipikisha—the expectation that wives must endure all marital hardships.

The courtroom drama becomes a vehicle for examining broader questions about duty, agency, and the limits of cultural obligation. The novel balances intimate family dynamics with pressing social commentary about gendered expectations and women’s autonomy within marriage. The book is scheduled for release on March 10.

Ará’lúèbó: The Immigrant Monologues – Kányin Olorunnisola 

Out March 15, this experimental debut features five fictional poet-speakers exploring Nigerian-American identity. Olorunnisola pushes formal boundaries, incorporating musical and theatrical elements, blending linguistic influences, and presenting poems as diary entries, dictionary definitions, pie charts, flowcharts, and screenplay fragments.

The collection interrogates what it means to inhabit multiple identities simultaneously, to be Nigerian and American, to navigate the complicated terrain of belonging across cultures and continents. It’s a formally innovative meditation on diaspora, hybridity, and the immigrant experience.

Three Is A Crowd – Chinasa Anaele 

Releasing April 15, 2026, this provocative novel follows Cheta, whose carefully planned future unravels when she feels an undeniable attraction to her fiancé’s older brother. Torn between competing desires—guilt, lust, loyalty—she must navigate the grey spaces between right and wrong.

The novel pulses with erotic tension while exploring forbidden attraction’s moral complexities. Anaele refuses easy judgments, instead examining how desire disrupts social order and the difficult choices people make when caught between passion and duty.

One Leg On Earth – Pemi Aguda

Arriving May 5, 2026, this haunting novel follows Aguda’s Ghostroots (2024). Twenty-three-year-old Yosoye arrives in Lagos seeking reinvention through an architectural firm internship, until she discovers she’s pregnant.

As Omi City, a development reclaimed from the ocean, rises around her, rumors spread of a mysterious force targeting pregnant women and claiming lives in Lagos waters. Joy transforms into dread as Yosoye senses an inescapable presence threatening both her child and future. The novel probes motherhood, belonging, and the sinister undercurrent beneath Lagos’s glossy progress narrative.

Chino’s Treasure Hunt – Chimamanda Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s second children’s book returns to familiar characters from Mama’s Sleeping Scarf (2023) for a gentle story about family and love.

Written under the pseudonym Nwa Grace-James, the book continues Adichie’s children’s literature project, making themes of belonging, heritage, and affection accessible to young readers through engaging narrative and relatable characters. It’s set to be released on June 19.

Dancing with Jinns: Black Women Write on Taboo – Edited by Ellah Wakatama and Momtaza Mehri 

This anthology features eleven African women breaking cultural silences, writing on subjects often deemed unspeakable: AIDS, sexuality, menstruation, mental health, and patriarchy.

The essays blend intimate personal experience with cultural analysis and theoretical reflection, creating work that is simultaneously deeply individual and universally resonant. Born from Cassava Republic’s African Women’s Non-Fiction Writing Workshop, this brave collection challenges taboos and expands the possibilities of African women’s non-fiction. It’s set to debut on June 23.

Hassan and Hassana Share Everything – Elnathan John 

Elnathan John’s first children’s book follows identical twins Hassan and Hassana, who share everything. On their eighth birthday, they receive a bicycle and drums. Hassan faces a difficult choice when told that girls don’t ride bikes.

Through this story, John illustrates how gender norms infiltrate children’s lives early, and how, with kindness and sensitivity, they can be questioned. The book tackles gender socialization accessibly for young readers, promoting equity and challenging stereotypes. It’s set for launch on November 10.