Black women writers

From the age of thirteen, Noni Jabavu was schooled in England, and continued to live there for many years. In 1955 she returned to South Africa for a three-month stay. She visited her father, Professor D.D.T. Jabavu, of Fort Hare, as well as relatives in the Eastern Cape and Johannesburg. The Ochre People, first published in 1963, is a poignant account of her trip, and contains vivid and perceptive memories of the country she loved and of the people she met.

The Schomburg Library of Nineteenth-Century Black Women Writers is Dedicated in Memory of Pauline Augusta Coleman Gates 1916-1987

In this gritty urban drama, New York Times bestselling author Wahida Clark tells the story of a woman who thinks she has everything, but who really has everything to lose—starting with her best friend, and ending with her life… Brianna and Shan couldn’t be more different. From her $1,200 weave to her closet full of Gucci, Prada, and Chanel, Brianna believes that men were born to bankroll her lifestyle. Shan likes to make her own money by working for a living at a men’s prison—and prefers Sean John, Baby Phat, and Fubu to Jimmy Choo. Still, despite appearances, Shan and B are sisters where it counts—or so they think… For B, lying is part of the hustle, and the hustle is what gets her sex, clothes, cars—pretty much whatever she wants. She couldn’t care less who gets hurt along the way, as long as it isn’t her. But it’s one thing to hustle tricks, and quite another to betray the one person who really cares. When one of B’s schemes goes too far, blood is spilled—and Shan is caught in the crossfire. Now, with friendship and lives on the line, Brianna’s got one last chance to change her ways—or suffer the consequences…

Nouadhibou is a jumping off point from West Africa to Europe and the Americas. Its inhabitants, many recently arrived or preparing to leave, all hope for a better future, a longing summed up by the title (translation: Waiting for Happiness). Abdallah comes to visit his mother before emigrating to Europe. Unable to speak the local dialect, he keeps to himself, observing the villagers from a distance, reading and watching French TV. The orphan boy, Khatra, apprentice and adoptive son to waits for and fears Maata's death, the moment when he'll be his own master. A Chinese immigrant gives voice to the feeling of permanent exile. But amid this rootlessness, strong traditions live on. [The book] embraces the rhythms of a patient people, while the dreamlike passage of time and windswept desert locale create an aura of comforting timelessness, broken only by an exploding lightbulb or a sudden death. Maybe, muses Sissako, Waiting is actually the happiness.-