Chicago Rapper Noname Brings Her Radical Book Club to Africa

May 13, 2025

Fatimah Nyeema Warner, better known as Noname, is a Chicago rapper and activist committed to radical political education rooted in community. Now, her Noname Book Club—a reading collective focused on Black radical thought—is planting roots across the African continent.

Noname’s political awakening began in 2019, during a period of heightened awareness around systemic racism in the United States following the brutal murder of George Floyd by the U.S. police force. “I was like, ‘Okay,’ let me just shut up and do some reading. So I started the book club selfishly hoping to be in a community with people who can break some of it [politics] down for me,” she told OkayAfrica. This awakening led to her founding the Noname Book Club, a collective that connects Black readers with radical books by Black authors. Since April 2021, it has expanded from a series of book clubs on the South Side of Chicago to over 20 cities, with an emphasis on bringing the club to prisons. To date, has sent books to more than 1,500 incarcerated members.

Now, the Noname Book Club has made its way to the African continent. With chapters established in Lagos, Accra, Nairobi, Kampala, and Dakar, Noname describes this global extension as something deeply personal. “Well, I am kind of obsessed with Africa,” she shares with OkayAfrica. “I just wanted the book club to exist in all the places Black people are. I also wanted a reason to travel and globalize my understanding of Blackness and the diaspora.”

“Admittedly, Black Americans have regressive ideas about Africa, as we haven’t been taught or exposed to African cultures,” Noname acknowledged. She has been a vocal critic of Western media’s portrayal of Africa—like Beyoncé’s Black is King, on which she commented: “We love an African aesthetic draped in capitalism. Hope we remember the Black folks on the continent whose daily lives are impacted by US imperialism. If we can uplift the imagery, I hope we can uplift those who will never be able to access it. Black liberation is a global struggle.”

A sense of global Black kinship was front and center during the launch of the Nairobi chapter. Noname traveled to Kenya with artist and theorist Neema Githere Siphone, who had returned to her home city after years in the U.S. “I feel this Pan-African legacy reviving in Nairobi. It existed in decentralized ways, but now we have physical spaces, and those are still needed,” Siphone told OkayAfrica. Together, they exchanged typical tourist stops for literary landmarks such as McMillan Memorial Library and Eastlands Library, culminating in an intimate gathering at Cheche Books in Nairobi’s Lavington suburb. Noname shares that this trip also exposed her to the work of the Kenyan literary legend Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, known for his rejection of English in favor of Kikuyu, an indigenous African language.

The Nairobi launch was a success with around 30 participants. Noname, blending in without fanfare, greeted attendees and even took their portraits for the club’s website. “Seeing how the book club fit into the broader constellation of Nairobi’s literary scene, and how this was a product of so much collaboration, was surreal,” Siphone recalled. Noname’s presence at the Nairobi launch was notably unassuming. As one attendee put it, the most meaningful aspect of the event was how non-hierarchical it felt. Siphone agrees: “I think that’s what makes this model so powerful. You can show people that it’s okay to arrive not knowing everything.”

The discussion centered on Chain Gang All Stars by Ghanaian-American author Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, a novel steeped in abolitionist politics and the U.S. prison system. The emotional aspect of the community gathering was evident when Noname invited participants to share personal experiences with incarceration. Several spoke candidly about the challenges within Kenya’s prison system. One reader shared a harrowing story of having to bring syringes to an imprisoned friend, describing a lack of basic medical supplies. These moments made clear that the club’s mission—amplifying radical voices and building community—translates across continents.

“I’m so blessed with the turnout. I’m even more blessed that people were so kind,” Noname reflected at the end of the evening. She was surprised to discover how many attendees were fans of her music and hinted at a future performance in Nairobi. The rapper also announced plans to open a prison chapter in Abuja, Nigeria, having already secured government approval: “I want to be like the radical McDonald’s, where there’s a little library located in every Black hood. That’s my dream.”

This expansion is more than a logistical milestone—it’s a political and cultural one. In a world where celebrity often overshadows substance, Noname offers an alternative—a blueprint for using fame to cultivate solidarity and critique our socio-political moments.