Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe (1958)

This classic novel of English-language modern African fiction is considered Achebe’s masterpiece and comprises the first part of his African Trilogy, along with No Longer at Ease (1960) and Arrow of God (1964). Things Fall Apart addresses the same problem of Tradition Versus Modernity seen in “Dead Men’s Path” by exploring the impact of European colonization on an Igbo village, tracing life from the precolonial to the colonial period.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (1899)

This provocative tale is at once damning of colonization’s horrors while simultaneously repeating many of the Orientalist stereotypes and tropes that can be found throughout Western fiction about Africa. Achebe cited this novel as one of his main motivations for writing about Africa, as he wanted to share more realistic and nuanced depictions of Africans.