Infidel
By Ayaan Hirsi Ali, read by the author
Recorded Books
This memoir by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a controversial former member of Dutch parliament, is a gripping account of her Somali childhood, political asylum and international renown as a human-rights activist. The details of her Muslim childhood and of how her attempts today to reform Islam and protect female Muslim immigrants have led to repeated death threats are intriguing. Here are other memoirs centered on African childhoods:
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
By Alexandra Fuller, read by Lisette Lecat
Recorded Books
Alexandra Fuller writes of her youth in war-torn Rhodesia, Malawi and, later, Zambia in the 1970s. Fuller has a biting sense of humor, particularly when it comes to her peculiar family.
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier
By Ishmael Beah, read by the author
Audio Renaissance
One of the first first-hand accounts of a child soldier in Africa. Orphaned Ishmael Beah was forced to become a 13-year-old killing machine in his native Sierra Leone.
Rainbow’s End: A Memoir of Childhood, War and an African Farm
By Lauren St. John, read by Bianca Amato
Recorded Books
Lauren St. John recalls her tumultuous life as the child of white farmers in Rhodesia in the 1970s.
