Reading Time: 6 minutesIn 2025, as I read widely across books by African women, I found myself drawn to recurring themes. One of these was romantic love. Romance is not a category I would ordinarily gravitate towards, but as I began reading more books by African women, I quickly realised that these are not romance novels – not in the westernised sense at least. They are, however, stories about love. Just not the fairy-tale, fluffy kind. This is love as lived, negotiated, endured, questioned, and often undone. Love that stretches across time, circumstance, and consequence. Love that transcends. These are the kinds of stories that make you pause and ask:…