Hello and welcome to a special edition of Focus on Africa recorded at the British

Library in London as part of the Royal African Society's Africa Rights Literary

Festival. Now this festival is a celebration of African literature and so is this program.

We explore what makes great writing and our panel all writers themselves will reveal the authors and books which have inspired them.

And I'm hoping that you'll share your own ideas.

Tweet us at BBC Africa using the hashtag Love to Read and we'll compile a list of your recommendations. So tell us which

African books deserve to be read by a wider audience or taught in schools and which

contemporary African books might pass the test of time and stay on

the reading lists of generations to come.

Here's what happened when I put that question to readers and writers here in London. In the room with me, our four writers acclaimed and celebrated for the stories that they've written, the worlds they have imagined,

and the ways in which they've enriched our reading lives.

Yewande Umotosho was born of a Nigerian father and a mother from Barbados.

She grew up in South Africa and trained as an architect.

Her first novel is called Bombay.

She says of it, I thought it would be interesting

to write about someone on the margins of society.

So why was that interesting, Yevanday?

I think possibly because it was a familiar experience for me.

I went to South Africa with my family as a 12 year old and even living in Nigeria my mom was

Barbadian so always this idea of not quite belonging so to write about somebody who's

doesn't quite belong and has to figure that out.

Sarah Ladepo Manneka was raised in Nigeria and has lived in France, England, the US,

...