"Wherever the Bus Is Headed": Recent Developments in the African Novel

Seven novels are discussed in detail, published between 2015 and 2018, in order to demonstrate the current diversity of African fiction in respect of subject-matter, theme, form, and narrative technique (especially focalization). The limitations of the study are noted, in particular its almost exclusive focus on novels written in English. Despite the diversity noted above, the following recognizable trends are identified and discussed: an increasing willingness to explore issues and fields of experience previously marginalized or considered taboo, especially in the realm of sexual relationships; a concern with intersectional and interstitial experience; closely related to the above, an exploration of Afropolitanism; and a concern with ways of seeing and ways of telling that sometimes draws these works into the realm of metafiction.