Safe House ― Explorations in Creative Nonfiction

Illuminating African narratives for readers both inside and outside the continent.

In a collection that ranges from travel writing and memoir to reportage and meditative essays, editor Ellah Wakatama Allfrey has brought together some of the most talented writers of creative non-fiction from across Africa.

A Ghanaian explores the increasing influence of China across the region, a Kenyan student activist writes of exile in Kampala, a Liberian scientist shares her diary of the Ebola crisis, a Nigerian journalist travels to the north to meet a community at risk, a Kenyan travels to Senegal to interview a gay rights activist and a South African writer recounts a tale of family discord and murder in a remote seaside town.

With an introduction by Binyavanga Wainaina, these are the stories of contemporary Africa, told by African writers for readers everywhere.

Ellah Wakatama Allfrey is a former deputy editor of Granta magazine and Chair of the 2014 Commonwealth Short Story Prize judging panel, a series editor for the Kwani? Manuscript Project, the Deputy Chair of the Caine Prize for African Writing, patron of the Etisalat Literature Prize, and a judge for the 2015 Man Booker Prize. She lives in London, England.

Binyavanga Wainaina is the founding editor of the literary magazine Kwani? and won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2002. He has written for theNew York Times, the Guardian, and National Geographic. He is the director of the Chinua Achebe Center for African Writers and Artists at Bard College.