2023 Releases Coming to a Bookstore Near You!

Just like everyone, we look forward to a new year, not for new beginnings alone but also the new titles we’ll be publishing. This year is no different.

We are excited to share our forthcoming titles, which features some of your favourite authors, promising debut voices across genre from children’s picture books, literary fiction, to non-fiction. Expect the best of African writing as we bring you stories of authentic Black experiences.

Anticipate Cassava Republic 2023!

Obioma Plays Football by Chika Unigwe

8 year-old Obioma is a football star. She uses a special stick to score goals and never loses a race in her wheelchair! But when she moves to a new city, she has to go to a new school where she has no friends, and everyone calls her “the girl with the wheelchair”. Obioma misses playing football most of all, until one day a girl named Ayana asks her to race. Once they start playing football, everyone joins in and Obioma finds a new team to play with!

Pub. date: 23rd May 2023 | ISBN: 9781913175368 | Children’s Picture Book

Birds of West Africa: A Child’s Guide by Virginia W. Dike

Birds of West Africa is a child’s guide to West African birds with the aim of introducing children to some of the many fascinating birds that they may not be familiar with. It explains the basic features of birds and key things to note in observing them and is accompanied by beautiful paintings by illustrator Robin Gowen of 25 birds representing the major species in the region.

Pub. date: UK: 13th June 2023 US: 13th June 2023 | ISBN: 9781913175436 | Children’s Non-fiction

Crossing the Stream by Elizabeth-Irene Baitie

Young Ato and his friends enter a school competition hoping to win a trip to Nnoma, a bird sanctuary Ato’s father helped build before his death. When he’s not working on the project, he spends his weekends with his estranged grandmother, although the local gossip about her scares him. When his project at the community gardens is threatened, Ato learns to overcome his fears and sets out to bring the secrets of his community to light, as well as setting a path to healing family wounds. Set in Ghana, this heartwarming coming-of-age tale is packed with adventure from its captivating characters.

Pub. date: 27th July 2023 | ISBN: 9781913175467 | Middle Grade

Hassan and Hassana by Elnathan John

Hassan and Hassana are twins, and they’re practically identical. Even though one is a boy and the other a girl, ever since they were babies people have had trouble telling them apart. For their 8th birthday, Hassan gets a bike and Hassana gets drums. Hassan’s friends tell him that girls can’t ride bikes, leaving him with an important decision to make. Will he decide to share or will he let Hassana feel left out? A beautiful story about sharing, kindness and standing up for what is right.

Pub. date: UK: 18th July 2023 US: 19th Sep 2023 | ISBN: 9781913175405 | Children’s Picture Book

Love Offers No Safety edited by Olumide F Makanjuola & Jude Dibia

Gathering first-hand accounts, Love Offers No Safety tells the stories of queer men in Nigeria, in their own words. This powerful anthology documents their everyday lives, including stories of love, heartbreak, tenderness, and struggle, and shows that there is no one universal queer experience. from finding love and facing heartbreak, to the power of community, and the struggles faced. Love Offers No Safety also serves as an exploration of what it is to be a man – how societal pressures foster toxic masculinity, and the barriers this creates for learning to understand one another.

Pub. date: UK: 20th June 2023 US: 14th Feb 2024 | ISBN: 9781913175481 | Non-fiction

Avenues by Train by Farai Mudzingwa

Jedza is a down-and-out electrician who moves to Harare in the hopes of escaping the darkness and superstitions of his small town, Miner’s Drift. But living in the restless atmosphere of the Avenues with its mysterious pools of water rising under musasa trees, he is tormented by the disappearance of his sister and their early encounters with ancestral spirits, the shapeshifting power of the njuzu and a vengeful ngozi. To move forward, he must stop running away and confront the trauma of his past. Avenues by Train is a brash and confident debut by an exciting new voice.

Pub. date: UK: 26th Sept 2023 | ISBN: 9781913175504 | Literary Fiction

The World Was in Our Hands by Chitra Nagarajan

A moving, often provocative, and ultimately vital collection of first hand accounts of people living through the Boko Haram conflict. From abducted girls to brash soldiers, and from community leaders to simple fishermen, this collection provides an insight into the realities of those living through the conflict, making this an essential cultural archive. The World Was in Our Hands covers themes of patriarchy, the economy, climate change, and corruption, to paint a picture that is much broader than what has been captured through news coverage.

Pub. date: UK: 21st Nov 2023 US: 21st March 2023 | ISBN: 9781913175566 | Non-fiction

Henrietta Lacks: The Mother of Modern Medicine by Dawne Allette

A fascinating melding of science and history that introduces young readers to the remarkable story of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman whose cancer cells revolutionised medical science. Henrietta Lacks: The Mother of Modern Medicine charts Henrietta’s life, from her upbringing in Virginia through to the births of her five children, before she passed away aged 31 from cervical cancer. Henrietta’s cells lived on, taken from her tumour while she was undergoing surgery without her knowledge, leading to the discovery of the first ‘immortal cell line’, and giving Henrietta the name ‘the mother of modern medicine’. It tracks the ongoing impact of the HeLa cells, as well as exploring the intersection between race and medicine.

Pub. date: 3rd Oct 2023 | ISBN: 9781913175276 | Children’s Middle Grade Non-Fiction