Whilst Granta 48 was mostly European or American writers writing about Africa, almost all of the contributors to Granta 92 are actually African (the issue closes with one entirely non-African piece, a topical essay by John Biguenet on the experience of losing his home in New Orleans to hurricane Katrina).

There are some unexpected viewpoints, though, which is fun: Ghanaian-born poet Kwame Dawes writes about the prejudice he experienced growing up as an African in Jamaica; Segun Afolabi's story "Gifted" is set in an expat Nigerian family in snowy Japan; Adewale Maja-Pearce writes about growing up in the cultural tension between his estranged British and Nigerian parents. The stories by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Moses Isegawa are more conventional "African writing", and maybe at least on the fringes of the territory that Binyavanga Wainaina mocks in his satirical essay "How to write about Africa" ("Some tips: sunsets and starvation are good"). That essay seems to have sparked off quite some discussion at the time.

In "The master", Adichie presents us a charming picture of a naive teenage boy from a village who comes to work as servant for a university professor in the city, with lots of buried little jokes about sixties intellectuals; Isegawa's "The war of the ears" follows a Ugandan teacher under the threat of attack by rebel child-soldiers.

Nadine Gordimer's story "Beethoven was one-sixteenth black" and a selection of Ivan Vladislavić's "Joburg" microessays give interestingly different views of post-apartheid South Africa.

On the documentary side, there's a photo-essay by Geert van Kesteren about the Ogiek, indigenous people under threat in Kenya, and a sample from Santu Mofokeng's "Black albums", a collection of family photographs of black people in South Africa around 1900, showing us some of the rising aspirations that were slapped down in the course of the 20th century.

A lot of interesting samples to follow up. ( )

A collection of extracts, short stories and articles with an African connection. The book covers many topics, from race and nationality to the very different countries in Africa. I enjoyed the variety of the book, and will definitely look out more by some of the authors.

I got a page into the first story, The Master, when I clicked why it was so familiar, it was part of Half of a Yellow Sun, an excellent book I read recently. Adichie is a great writer, so this is a good way to sampler her work. I would also recommend "Policeman to the World" by Daniel Bergner, a non-fiction piece with great insight into working in Liberia. "Passport Control" by Kwame Dawes is about the more and more common situation of dual nationality, how the individual feels and is perceived by those around them. There is also a photo essay, pictures of the Ogiek people, they are stunning pictures.

Recommended for people looking for a taster of a vast and varied continent. ( )

A collection of pieces about Africa (or being African), including fiction, accounts of experiences, and a photo-essay.

Not the greatest collection, but worth it for the Ivan Vladislavic short alone. ( )

short stories, anthology, journal, African literature