Aliens, Super Powers, and High School Drama: 7 African YAs to Get You Ready for Back-to-School!

September 13, 2024

With summer holiday ending and a new school term beginning for many around the world, we wanted to share a collection of African fiction that explore the exciting side of student life. We’re hoping these page-turning YAs will help ease you into the grind of textbooks and homework. From real-world high schools to fantastical academies, these books will get you excited for the new school year.

Get ready to explore haunted hallways, solve mind-bending mysteries, and battle supernatural creatures. Whether you’re a fan of vampires, aliens, or just good old-fashioned high school drama, there’s something for everyone in this list. So, grab your favorite snacks, find a cozy spot, and let’s get this school year started with a literary adventure!

Akata Witch

384 pages

BUY NOW

Sunny lives in Nigeria, but she was born in New York City. She looks West African, but is so sensitive to the sun (due to her albinism) that she can’t play soccer during the day. She doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere. Then she learns why. Her classmate Orlu and his friend Chichi reveal that they have magical abilities- and so does she. Sunny is a “free agents,” overflowing with latent power. And she has a lot of catching up to do. Orlu and Chichi have been working with their teacher for years. Sunny needs a crash course in magical history, spells, juju, shape-shifting and dimensional travel. Her new world is a secret from her family, but it’s well worth all of the silence, exhaustion and sneaking around. Still, there is a dark side. After she’s found her footing, Sunny, Orlu, Chichi, and their American friend Sasha are asked by the magical authorities to help track down a criminal. Not just a run-of-the-mill bad guy. A real-life hardcore serial killer-with abilities far stronger than theirs.

Aluta

216 pages

BUY NOW

For eighteen-year-old Charlotte, university life is better than she’d ever dreamed — a sophisticated and generous roommate, the camaraderie of dorm living, parties, clubs and boyfriends. Most of all, Charlotte is exposed to new ideas, and in 1981 Ghana, this may be the most exciting – and most dangerous — adventure of all. At first Charlotte basks in her wonderful new freedom, especially being out of the watchful eye of her controlling and opinionated father. She suddenly finds herself with no shortage of male attention, including her charismatic political science professor, fellow student activist Banahene, and Asare, a wealthy oil broker who invites Charlotte to travel with him and showers her with expensive gifts, including a coveted passport. But Ghana is fraught with a history of conflict. And in the middle of her freshman year, the government is overthrown, and three judges are abducted and murdered. As political forces try to mobilize students to advance their own agendas, Charlotte is drawn into the world of student politics. She’s good at it, she’s impassioned, and she’s in love with Banahene. “The struggle continues! Aluta! Aluta continua!” she shouts, rallying the crowd with the slogan of the oppressed. But her love of the spotlight puts her in the public eye. And when Asare entrusts her with a mysterious package of documents, she suddenly realizes she may be in real danger. But it’s too late. As she is on her way to a meeting, Charlotte is picked up by national security, and her worst nightmares come true. And in the end, she must make a difficult and complicated decision about whether to leave her education, and her beloved Ghana, behind. A heartfelt story told with uncompromising honesty, about what happens when youthful idealism meets the harsh realities of power.

Immortal Dark

432 pages

BUY NOW

The Cruel Prince meets Ninth House in this dangerously romantic dark academia fantasy, where a lost heiress must infiltrate an arcane society and live with the vampire she suspects killed her family and kidnapped her sister. It began long before my time, but something has always hunted our family. Orphaned heiress Kidan Adane grew up far from the arcane society she was born into, where human bloodlines gain power through vampire companionship. When her sister, June, disappears, Kidan is convinced a vampire stole her—the very vampire bound to their family, the cruel yet captivating Susenyos Sagad. To find June, Kidan must infiltrate the elite Uxlay University—where students study to ensure peaceful coexistence between humans and vampires and inherit their family legacies. Kidan must survive living with Susenyos—even as he does everything he can to drive her away. It doesn’t matter that Susenyos’s wickedness speaks to Kidan’s own violent nature and tempts her to surrender to a life of darkness. She must find her sister and kill Susenyos at all costs. When a murder mirroring June’s disappearance shakes Uxlay, Kidan sinks further into the ruthless underworld of vampires, risking her very soul. There she discovers a centuries-old threat—and June could be at the center of it. To save her sister, Kidan must bring Uxlay to its knees and either break free from the horrors of her own actions or embrace the dark entanglements of love—and the blood it requires.

True Murder

272 pages

BUY NOW

Eleven year old Ajuba has been abandoned at a Devon boarding school by her Ghanaian father. Haunted by the circumstances of her mother's breakdown and the ghosts of the life she left behind in Ghana, she falls under the spell of new girl Polly Venus and her chaotic, glamorous family. But all is not what it might seem in the Venus household and Ajuba struggles to make sense of things as they tear each other apart in front of her. One day the girls find what they think are a dead kittens wrapped up in an old coat in the attic of the Venus' manor house...the bones turn out to be those of a dead baby. Obsessed with the detectives of the American magazine serial "True Murder", the girls set out to find out what happened to the baby. As the summer draws to a close, three tragedies conflate, with catastrophic results. In this assured debut, Yaba Badoe explores a passionate, if unlikely friendship between two troubled adolescent girls and the dysfunctional and ultimately destructive power of love.

Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun

320 pages

BUY NOW

Black Panther meets X-Men in this action-packed and empowering middle grade adventure about a British Nigerian girl who learns that her Afro hair has psychokinetic powers—perfect for fans of Amari and the Night Brothers! (McElderry/2022)

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

432 pages

BUY NOW

When two Niveus Private Academy students, Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, are elected as class prefects, it looks like their year is off to an amazing start. But someone named Aces begins using text messages to reveal secrets that threaten their carefully planned futures. (Feiwel and Friends/2021)

Binti

96 pages

BUY NOW

Her name is Binti, and she is the first of the Himba people to be offered a place at Oomza University, the finest institution of higher learning in the galaxy. But knowledge comes at a cost and her journey will not be easy. The world she seeks to enter has long warred with an alien race, the Meduse. Oomza University has wronged the Meduse, and Binti's stellar travel will bring her within their deadly reach. (Tor/2015)

Brittle Paper | author

COMMENTS -

Aliens, Super Powers, and High School Drama: 7 African YAs to Get You Ready for Back-to-School!

Akata Witch

Akata Witch

Aluta

Aluta

Immortal Dark

Immortal Dark

True Murder

True Murder

Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun

Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Ace of Spades by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

Binti

Binti

Reader Interactions

LEAVE A COMMENT Cancel reply

Like African literature? Follow us on Twitter.

Support Brittle Paper

Footer