The roots of our storytelling

Africa Is a Country | 19.02.2026 03:08
A week after I interviewed writer, critic, and academic Ainehi Edoro on her debut book Forest Imaginaries: How African Novels Think, I went on a road trip from Accra to Elmina. When we drove past a sprawling green landscape, whose lushness stood out in contrast to the beige city view to its left, I was informed that the green belt was Achimota Forest, where runaway slaves hid and found refuge. It was later established as a reserve for fuelwood plantation for a nearby school. Such is the immediacy of Edoro’s book; its focus, the forest, is not only pervasive in African landscapes, but is strongly echoed in African histories. But, of course, Edoro is not speaking about real-life forests but, instead, those we find in African fiction.