African Babes Book Club

I’ve always wanted to start a book club. But you know how it goes, just never enough time. Then 2020 happened and the pandemic hit. Suddenly while in isolation in my London flat, I started leisurely reading a lot more than usual and noticed many of my friends were doing the same. I often commented on friends’ book posts on social media—it seemed I had a few friends who shared the same taste in books as me. I messaged my friend Tania in Maryland and she suggested we start a book club to discuss the books we’ve read. Then I extended the invitation to our mutual friend Naz in Ohio. Before you know it we had Julia in Minnesota, Mardieh and Siobhan in Liberia, Tiwi in Kenya, Annick in Zambia, and finally my good college mate Akoua in Virginia—although she’s the newest member. All of sudden, we had a book club. Our first meeting set for the third Sunday in May.

It all happened so fast. Hmmmm Google, “How to start a book club?” I collected email addresses, and formed a Whats App group. Welcomed the ladies and asked everyone to submit titles of books they’d like the group to read. The theme of our book club — books by African or Black authors focusing on Black stories. I didn’t want the book club to be all about me. Instead, involve the collective group of dynamic members where everyone had an opportunity to lead discussions. The rules are simple. Whomever recommends the book is responsible to submit questions prior to the meeting and lead the discussion on the book. So there are rotating moderators each month. Video calls can get a bit chaotic, so we tag one another into the conversation after each person speaks like, “I felt this character is terrible, what did you think Chantal?” For one meeting, we had the privilege of having author Wayetu Moore join us for a special session to discuss her book, The Dragons, The Giant, The Women — the book of the month.

Meetings are held 4-6 weeks depending on the length of the book. We also decide on the date of the next meeting at the end of each meeting which always falls on a Sunday. I handle all the admin such as calendar invites and question circulation for the book of the month. We chat about book topics in the Whats app group and how we relate to the stories or characters. It’s been an enjoyable experience for us all especially during these social distance times when we all long for a bit of normalcy and girlfriend social interaction— albeit online.

I hope African Babes Book Club encourage other women around the world to replicate book clubs of their own or simply read with us. If you would like to read along with us. Follow our Instagram page @africanbabesbookclub.

Reading List

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