Books reading recommendations Ten(ish) of the Best African Speculative Short Fiction Stories of 2025 Here are some of the speculative fiction gems that may have flown under the radar in 2025… By Wole Talabi | Published on February 4, 2026 Art by Jacobi Myles Comment 0 Share New Share Art by Jacobi Myles Another year has come and gone and with it, lots of good stories, despite the increasingly strange madness of the world at large. I spent most of my literary year writing my forthcoming novel The Fist of Memory, and attending book conventions/festivals but I still managed to find time to read because it’s my way of filling up the well, of recharging my own mind. And honestly, I love stories. Especially short fiction—these little literary tapas of concept, character and style that nourish me when I’m not quite up for the full meal of a novel. And naturally, a significant chunk of my reading is by my fellow African authors. Which is why every year since 2015, I have published a list of the African speculative short fiction1 that I read and enjoyed most. I do this to spotlight the stories I found propulsive, fascinating, compelling, interesting and wanted to let others know about too since African speculative fiction gems can sometimes fly under the radar or appear in unexpected venues. Plus, it’s always fun making these lists (you can find all the lists for previous years here.)  So, without further ado, here are ten or so of the best2 African speculative short fiction stories from 2025, in no particular order. 1. “The Inheritance” by C.T. Muchemwa (Zimbabwe) — FIYAH Magazine Muchemwa had an interesting year with two stories in major venues that I found and enjoyed. “The Wanderer” about a man whose spirit goes seeking his son, and this one, “The Inheritance”—about a son named Taona, who inherits a money-making spiritual entity (a chikwambo) from his estranged father—which is my pick for this list. Stories about sinister magic-for-wealth schemes are common in many African (and global) cultures but what makes Muchemwa’s tale stand out are a) the vivid writing and b) precise control of tone. It manages to be a comedy, dark fantasy and as more is revealed, outright horror. The ending is also pitch perfect. An excellent story. [While you’re reading this issue of FIYAH check out “Slipcraft” by Jarune Ujuwaren (Nigeria/USA), which is also a great story in its own right and could have easily made this list.]  2. “Liberation” by Tade Thompson (Nigeria/UK) — Reactor Tade Thompson’s sharp, propulsive, compelling style works brilliantly in this science fictional novelette about the first African team and spacecraft sent to orbit the planet and the very Nigerian way (another military coup anyone?) the mission goes wrong. Through shifting PoVs and flashbacks we follow Udo Johnson, selected to be part crew, and Romeo “Bash” Bashorun who heads the mission, filling us in on how and why it was built, what exactly goes wrong and the mad scramble to survive when it does. It’s a brilliant story and I struggled between picking this and Tade’s other wonderful 2025 story in Uncanny magazine, “The Flaming Embusen” (check it out too, it’s great) but in the end, this is the one I personally enjoyed more (perhaps because some of its plot elements echo my novel The Fist of Memory). Highly recommended.  3. “If Memory Serves” by Kevin Rigathi (Kenya) — Will This Be A Problem? The Anthology: Issue V Having read and reviewed previous issues of Will This Be A Problem? The Anthology, it’s amazing to see just how much the anthology series continues to improve in quality and scope. There are many excellent stories in Issue V (there is another one on this list), but one of my favorites was Kevin Rigathi’s “If Memory Serves”. It’s set in a future where a corporation has perfected a mass-produced memory-wiping process, profiting by extracting memories from the poor and selling them to the rich and the privileged who want to experience the joys and hardships of others. Those who wipe are avoiding difficult memories but the more they wipe their memories, the more damage they do to themselves and the less human they become. We follow the man who invented the procedure as he slowly comes to realize that he too has become a victim of the system he helped create. It’s a chilling, twisty story with effective prose that challenges readers’ assumptions, something that fans of movies like Memento and Shutter Island will probably appreciate.  4. “We Begin Where Infinity Ends” by Somto Ihezue (Nigeria) — Clarkesworld Magazine In this slow-building novelette, Naeto, a young inventor and Gozi, his friend, are secretly changing their town’s streetlights, making them softer in an effort to bring back the fireflies that have migrated away because of the light pollution. They are found out by a girl named River who is also quite capable, and she joins their friend group, triggering a series of emotional and environmental reckonings which are both tragic and heartwarming. I loved a lot of the Clarkesworld stories I read this year (I also published a novella “Descent” with them!) and this story was one of my highlights. This novelette shines not so much for its speculative element but for its complicated, sweet, and engaging characters, the nuanced focus on their relationships and Somto’s characteristically exquisite prose.  5. “Sarah Ogoke And The Urban Legends” by Amanda Ilozumba (Nigeria) — Omenana And “When Two Sorcerers Collide” by T.L. Huchu (Zimbabwe) — Zamashort I usually enjoy urban/contemporary fantasy stories with an African twist (I mean, I even wrote a novel about one!), and 2025 gave us many excellent ones in all lengths from novels like Nkereuwem Albert’s The Bone River and TL Huchus’s Secrets Of The First School to short fiction like these the two I have decided to include as a tie in one entry here, because it was hard to choose just one out of all the options. Also, I always have at least one tie in every year’s list and consistency is important. “Sarah Ogoke And The Urban Legends” is a wild, fun ride with heart. Our protagonist is an “expurgist” who tries to steal a mythical artifact and ends up roped into a scheme to save a host of supernatural entities and characters from local urban legends from a greater evil. It’s witty, quippy, and briskly moves and features unexpected and cool mythical characters like Madam Koi Koi and a talking bush baby. It was the most memorable of all the Omenana magazine stories I read in 2025. “When Two Sorcerers Collide” is part of the Zamashort series brought to us by AfroSF legend Ivor Hartmann and it serves as a prequel to Huchu’s just concluded Edinburgh Nights series. It takes place on Halloween night in Harare and narrates the first meeting of two characters from the series. Safe to say if you enjoyed Edinburgh Nights, you’ll love this story of two very different sorcerers from different parts of the world and unique backgrounds facing down an ancient evil in a place with roots deep as magic itself.  6. “Shadow Jack” by CL Hellisen (South Africa) — Giganotosaurus How do I describe this story? Weird, dark, intense, beautiful, strange, surreal, unsettling, and vivid all come to mind. It’s a story about a group of boys called “Jacks” who serve in a strange religious order that may or may not be drifting in space. Their role is to clean up after priests who make regular animal and human sacrifices to their strange dark gods in an attempt to ascend (merge with the gods and become divine entities). Eventually the boys are sacrificed too. Our protagonist Shadow Jack is one of the oldest living boys and has resigned himself to this bleak life until: (a) a hole appeared in the wall through which one of gods beyond his (and our) understanding seems to communicate with him, and (b) he finds an unexpected love in that hopeless place. Where the story goes from there is bonkers and brilliant and you have to read it to get the full experience. It’s funny, gory, and beautiful. I loved Hellisen’s “Godskin” last year, and this story has quickly become another favorite. Highly recommended.  7. “Full, Empty Houses” by Plangdi Neple (Nigeria) — Kaleidotrope.  “Full, Empty Houses” opens with our protagonist Joseph visiting an old, dangerous and hungry entity to acquire power for revenge. Because Joseph, a gay man, has been targeted by violence since he was young and that trauma lingers. When he finally finds a lover, Nonso, who he thinks he can be with even though Nonso is married to a woman, Joseph’s happiness is cut short by politics, heartbreak and violence again. Which is what sends him on this mission of vengeance. Like all great revenge stories, it’s tragic, bloody and heartbreaking. An excellent story of queer vengeance that doesn’t shy away from examining anti-gay violence and attitudes in Nigeria and the patriarchal structures that uphold them.  8. “Black Friday” by Cheryl Ntumy (Ghana) — Black Friday: Speculative Stories From AfricaAnd “Kolumbo 1619: Choose Your Own Adventure” by KÁNYIN Olorunnisola (Nigeria/USA) — Khōréō Okay. Yes. Another tie. This time for two stories that take inspiration from specific US phenomena that have taken on global awareness thanks to the media. “Kolumbo 1619: Choose Your Own Adventure” is presented as a choose-your-own-adventure type virtual reality experience, where the reader is put in the shoes of Malik, a person playing a “techno-empathy simulation” designed to “eliminate racism, inequality, and injustice through highly immersive, story-driven roleplay experiences” where he is thrust into various Being-black-in-America scenarios and must try to navigate an encounter with the police where every choice leads to unfavorable outcomes. He takes on different personas—immigrant, jobseeker, clubber—and we follow as each scenario’s choices play out and the story resets. Structurally, it’s clever. Emotionally, it’s harrowing and painful, its humor dark in the shadow of reality. The second author to return to my list from last year, Cheryl Ntumy’s “Black Friday” takes inspiration from the shopping phenomenon and finds us with a group of rioters who reside in a dystopian Protectorate “fighting for Justice and Equitable Distribution and the Rights of the People and the Sanctity of the Land” on a day where, “the Wretched Righteous celebrate the rape of the land”.  It’s a sharp critique of hypercapitalism, religious mania and performative revolutionary politics that isn’t afraid to go to dark places. It ends with a banger of a revelation, setting the tone for the rest of the collection and is absolutely worth your time. As is Cheryl’s entire collection.  9. “Dust and Echoes” by Amani Mosi (Zambia) — Omenana  This story, like many other African speculative fiction pieces I read this year, plays with the deep anxiety of what it means when your stories themselves are stolen as well as your resources, when the mind itself is colonized. Journalist Simweko travels to a village where he encounters an ancient griot, an encounter that sets him on a mission to restore stolen African dreams and songs. It reads in part like a poem and in others like a declaration. Strange and dreamy and hard to grasp—it’s best to let it flow and to flow with it, to get swept up in the theme and beauty of the prose as the story asymptotically tends towards its central theme. 10. “The Language We Have Learned to Carry in Our Skin” by Shingai Njeri Kagunda (Kenya) — Will This Be A Problem? The Anthology: Issue V Shingai Njeri Kagunda is the third and final author that appeared on last year’s list to make a return appearance this year. “The Language We Have Learned To Carry In Our Skin” has a similar theme and approach to “Dust And Echoes”, literalizing its political critique into an afrosurreal horror tale, an African answer to They Live but perhaps more intellectually grounded. It’s a story about colonization and its aftereffects in Africa as African leaders are lured into backroom deals by corrupt foreign leaders and co-corrupted with vita—a parasite craving war and oppression and violence—that bends them to its will and that lives under their skin, driving them to revisit the colonizer’s violence upon their own people in a cycle of exploitation. It’s a hefty story that doesn’t let its parasite metaphor slip into didacticism or satire and is delivered in Kagunda’s evocative trademark style. I highly recommend it.  So… that’s the list. The wonderful stories that moved me, touched me, made me think. But there were many other stories I enjoyed which I just couldn’t add to the list because it would break the format (the internet just loves a good “top ten” eh?) and I’m committed to it now.  What were yours? Any other great African speculative fiction stories from 2025 you’d recommend?  As always, enjoy the stories! Till next year.[end-mark]  For the purpose of this list, defined as novelettes or shorter, i.e. works under 17500 words ︎This list, as always, represents my personal favorites, bias and all. Also, for those interested in sample size, I looked at 121 African speculative fiction stories in magazines, anthologies and collections from which I selected this list. ︎The post Ten(ish) of the Best African Speculative Short Fiction Stories of 2025 appeared first on Reactor.