Don’t Whisper Too Much and Portrait of a Young Artiste from Bona Mbella by Frieda Ekotto

Don't Whisper Too Much was the first work of fiction by an African writer to present love between African women in a positive light; Bona Mbella is the second. Ekotto sets the emotional and romantic lives of African women who love women within post-colonial Africa, its history and the question of who writes it. Don't Whisper Too Much follows village girl Ada's quest to tell her story on her own terms; Bona Mbella follows a young woman from a poor neighborhood of an African megalopolis; and the love story 'Panè' draws the collection's themes together. Each story shows female sexuality marked by violence yet also a place of connection, pleasure and agency.