By Ditebogo Tshaka
Edited by Yumna Bodiat & Imaan Moosa
I’m Ditebogo or Didi (@biblioborn). I’m 23-years-old and studying for an honors degree in internal auditing. When I’m not reading the tomes they call textbooks, I’m immersed in other worlds, other lives, and other words. I’m basking in blurbs.
Steve Biko wrote what he liked and I read what I like. I love and read almost all genres (except horror), but I especially love romance. It’s a genre that can describe what is the most deeply personal. And the personal is political.
I’m grateful to see people — women — who look like me write these stories. I love that they don’t toxically glorify or fetishize a black woman’s strength because doing this can actually rob us of our humanity. Stories that are not just about our suffering, trauma, and oppression but about so much of the black lived experience. About our joy, aspirations, love, our family, and friends.
They show our ‘normalcy’. It’s just a devastating reality that our normal is colored by systemic injustice, prejudice, and hate, which is why reading beyond just what I love is so important because this ‘normal’ is brutal, crushing, and deadly. And this ‘normal’ must end. And one of the many ways we can do that is by reading diverse books.
Black women authors/books recommended by Didi:
Young Adult:
Brittany Morris — "Slay"
Maika & Maritza Moulite — "Dear Haiti, Love Elaine"
Angie Thomas — "The hate you give", "On the come up"
Nicola Yoon — "Everything, everything", "The sun is also a star"
Tomi Adeyemi — "Children of blood and bone"
Dhonielle Clayton — "The belles"
Fiction:
Bernardine Evaristo — "Girl, woman, other"
Kiley Reid — "Such a fun age"
Candice Carty-Williams — "Queenie"
Beverly Daniel Tatum — "Can we talk about race?", "Why are all the black kids sitting together in the cafeteria?"
Michelle Alexander — "The new Jim Crow"
Ijeoma Oluo — "So you want to talk about race?"
Maya Angelou — "Beloved"
Michelle Obama — "Becoming"
Romance:
Contemporary romance authors
Kennedy Ryan
Brittany C Cherry
Talia Hibbert
Alyssa Cole
Naima Simone
Rebekah Weatherspoon
Nana Malone
Historical romance
Beverly Jenkins
Pick up a read, and Biblio On!
Comments