African-inspired Fantasy
Fantasy settings based on African geography, cultures, folklore, myths, legends, or histories — inspired by the Quest with Asian stories of this kind. Suggestions welcome!
created by kishmish
last updated April, 2026
Comments
Love the list! Bout to beef up my TBR. One recommendation for your consideration:
- Scarlet Odyssey by C. T. Rwizi
kishmishOP
This sounds great! Some of the other titles from this author sound interesting too. 👀 Thank you so much for the rec! 🫶🏽
You’re welcome. I’ve read and own all three books in the Scarlet Odyssey series, and they were very entertaining and well-written. It’s hard not to love Salo (the MC), and the setting was so real but also so fantastical. You can tell it’s Africa, but there’s also a binary star system, so it gives you that other worldly feeling. I recommend them to anyone who will listen, lol.
kishmishOP
I just started it, and it really is already so, so excellent. Thank you so much for this recommendation! It’s always a struggle for me with books as severely underrated as this one—makes you just want to shake the world awake to alert everyone, doesn’t it?
I’m happy you’re enjoying it. It still surprises me that I don’t see it around much. It’s well-written and entertaining. The world building was well done. I clearly don’t understand publishing and what makes a book a big hit. Maybe it’ll blow up in some years.
Race is socially constructed and categorizations/conceptions vary culturally, but here are the authors on this list who, as far as I could tell, do not identify or would not be racialized as Black:
Soraya Bouazzaoui Deena Mohamed S.A. Chakraborty
If you think otherwise of any of these, or know of others that belong here, please let me know! I may have missed things 😅
Edited: removed Michelle Jabès Corpora’s book His Face Is the Sun from the list
For further African literature recommendations (not limited to fantasy, but by authors from the countries/areas they write about) check out vumaisbooked’s wonderful list 🔗What do you know about Africa?
Thank you for linking 🥰💐!!
The two other short stories set in The Dead Djinn Universe called The Haunting of Tram Car 015 and A Dead Djinn in Cairo would be great additions, imo. I love this list!
kishmishOP
thanks, polter! 🫶🏽 i’ve added them! (i was really shocked this didn’t already exist and am still kind of worried that i just messed up my searches somehow)
I don't think I've seen a list like it but honestly I'm surprised no one has done it yet?? It's such a good list idea and I like the way you executed it
I was surprised to see that I already have a few of these on my TBR! I need to start reading them ASAP!
I can't wait to read all the books in this list. Thank you for creating it ❤️. There are many cultures and myths in our continent that make for great foundations for fantasy books.
kishmishOP
I’m so glad! 🫶🏽 Some of my favorite books are on here, and I found some new ones for my TBR too. I hope you love the ones you read! I do wish there were more inspired by places other than Nigeria and Egypt (as beautiful and interesting as both countries are). If you come across any, please let me know!
I wish as well but it is mostly up to us to promote our cultures and sadly creative writing is quite neglected in most African countries from what I know. In Morocco I was always discouraged from pursuing literature in my studies because of this.
kishmishOP
I found one based on Moroccan myth & history! Aicha by Soraya Bouazzaoui—it may not be out yet, it’s a 2026 release and I think I’ve just seen ARC reviews so far. But just wanted to comment in case you hadn’t seen it yet! 🫶🏽
Omg thank youuuu ❤️ I look forward to it. Aicha is an iconic figure of moroccan folklore
Gorgeous list!
kishmishOP
thank you so much! 🫶🏽 I really love your African literature list—I’ve linked to it in the pinned comment, though feel free to let me know if you’d like it removed!
I’ve just seen it now! Thank you so much, that’s more than okay!
