Books to begin ‘decolonising’ the English secondary curriculum

Author: Camille London-Miyo

Below is a selection of books by Global Majority Writers chosen by educators at the NEU Decolonising the Curriculum Conference in December 2019 

Participants who attended a workshop entitled “How to make the English Secondary Curriculum more relevant for the communities we seek to serve “ were asked to list texts written by Global Majority writers that they have used within the Curriculum from Key stage 2 to Key Stage 4. 

Our aim was to challenge and widen the resources available to English teachers within the reformed curriculum.  

Suggested titles: 

Under the Udala Trees	Chinelo Okparanta
Half of a yellow sun	Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The God of Small things	Arundhati Roy
Things fall apart	Chinua Achebe
Arrow if God	Chinua Achebe
No longer at ease	Chinua Achebe
The Rice Mother	Rani Manicka
A Small Place	Jamaica Kincaid
Purple Hibiscus	Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Telephone Conversation	Wole Soyinka
Refugee mother and Child	Chinua Achebe
Roll of thunder	Mildred Taylor
47	Walter Moseley
Anita and Me	Meera Syal
City of Brass	S.A. Chakraborty
The hate u give	Angie Thomas
The House on Mango Street	Sandra Cisneros
That thing around your neck	Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Buddha of Suburbia	Hanif Kureishi
White Teeth	Zadie Smith
David’s story	Zoe Wicomb
The beautiful ones are not yet born	Ayi kwei armah
Kite Runner	Khaled Hosseini
A thousand splendid suns	Khaled Hosseini
I know why the caged birds sing	Maya Angelou
Face	Benjamin Zephaniah
The Lonely Londoners	Samuel Selvon
Migritude	Shailja Patel
Everfair	Nisi Shawl
Friday Black	Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Children in blood and bone	Tomi Adeyemi
River of Fire	Helen Prejean
Noughts and Crosses	Malorie Blackman
Brick Lane	Monica Ali
Sea of Poppies	Amitav Ghosh
River of Smoke	Amitav Ghosh
Flood of Fire	Amitav Ghosh
And the mountains echoed	Khaled Hosseini
The bluest eye	Toni Morrison
Their eyes were watching God	Zora Neale Hurston