Achebe's novel, Things Fall Apart, first published in 1958, is one of the most widely read African novels and is considered an international classic. It chronicles the life of an Ibo community leader in colonial Nigeria.

Wole Soyinka is a Nobel Prize-winning writer. His 1965 play, The Strong Breed, reveals his disillusionment with African authoritarian leadership and Nigerian society.

Destination Biafra (1982) is Nigerian writer Buchi Emecheta's novel about the Nigerian civil war.

Ngugi wa Thiongo' s (also known as James Ngugi) novel, A Grain of Wheat (1967), focuses on the social, moral, and racial issues of the Kenyan struggle for independence from its colonial rulers and its aftermath.