Route map of Ugandan railway - which went through Kenya. Source: Telegraph stamps of the World

Last night, I had the pleasure of listening to Peter Kimani, who was in conversation with Fiammetta Rocco – Culture Correspondent at Economist, about his novel Dance of the Jakaranda, which has been recently published in the UK by Saqi Books. The insightful conversation touched upon the novel's focus on an Indian character as one of the main protagonist, whether Peter Kimani – as a Black Kenyan could write about a Kenyan Asian, how the book has been received by Asians in Kenya, as well a Kenyans more broadly, about where the story came from, why it was set in a hotel, the significance of music and dance in the story and more.

Dance of the Jakaranda by Peter Kimani (March 2018 | Saqi Books)

1963. Kenya is on the verge of independence from British colonial rule. In the Great Rift Valley, Kenyans of all backgrounds come together in the previously white-only establishment of the Jakaranda Hotel. The resident musician is Rajan Salim, who charms visitors with songs inspired by his grandfather's noble stories of the railway construction that spawned the Kenya they now know.

One evening, Rajan is kissed by a mysterious woman in a shadowy corridor. Unable to forget the taste of her lavender-flavoured lips, Rajan sets out to find her. On his journey he stumbles upon the murky, shared history of three men – his grandfather, the owner of the Jakaranda and a British preacher – who were implicated in the controversial birth of a child. What Rajan unearths will open his eyes about the birth not just of a child, but of an entire nation.

Woman of the Ashes: A Novel by Mia Couto; Translated by David Brookshaw (April 2018 | Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

The first in a trilogy about the last emperor of southern Mozambique.

Southern Mozambique, 1894. Sergeant Germano de Melo is posted to the village of Nkokolani to oversee the Portuguese conquest of territory claimed by Ngungunyane, the last of the leaders of the state of Gaza, the second-largest empire led by an African. Ngungunyane has raised an army to resist colonial rule and with his warriors is slowly approaching the border village. Desperate for help, Germano enlists Imani, a fifteen-year-old girl, to act as his interpreter. She belongs to the VaChopi tribe, one of the few who dared side with the Portuguese. But while one of her brothers fights for the Crown of Portugal, the other has chosen the African emperor. Standing astride two kingdoms, Imani is drawn to Germano, just as he is drawn to her. But she knows that in a country haunted by violence, the only way out for a woman is to go unnoticed, as if made of shadows or ashes.

Alternating between the voices of Imani and Germano, Mia Couto’s Woman of the Ashes combines vivid folkloric prose with extensive historical research to give a spellbinding and unsettling account of war-torn Mozambique at the end of the nineteenth century.

The Hundred Wells of Salaga by Ayesha Haruna Attah (May 2018 | Cassava Republic Press)

Aminah lives an idyllic life until she is brutally separated from her home and forced on a journey that turns her from a daydreamer into a resilient woman. Wurche, the willful daughter of a chief, is desperate to play an important role in her father's court. These two women's lives converge as infighting among Wurche's people threatens to cleave the region, during the height of the slave trade at the end of the 19th century. Set in pre-colonial Ghana, The Hundred Wells of Salaga is a story of courage, forgiveness, love and freedom. Through the experiences of Aminah and Wurche, it offers a remarkable view of slavery and how the scramble for Africa affected the lives of everyday people.

The man at the centre of the photo is one of many Africans from Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and the Swahili coast sold to Persians to work as servants. Photo by Antoin Sevruguin who photographed in Iran and Armenia from 1870 to 1930 when the Qajar dynasty ruled Persia. Source: Sailors & Daughters Exhibition.