Finding African authors

I know there are African authors out there. Wikipedia lists hundreds, organised by country (very useful). I've never heard of most of them, and despite spending a good hour searching my local library area catalogue, I can't find many of them. So far I've only searched authors from countries in West Africa, so perhaps looking for authors from other regions will prove more fruitful. I won't hold my breath. Or maybe it's just that people don't tend to read a lot of contemporary African authors.

Am I being unfair, assuming that African literature, be it poetry, plays, fiction, autobiography or whatever is not widely read? It strikes me that for a continent comprised of over 50 countries, Africa's literature largely fails to make an impression on the rest of the world. There are of course a few writers who have widely gained critical acclaim and entered the public consciousness; Chinua Achebe, Coetzee, Doris Lessing, Nadine Gordimer. Heinemann publishing created the African Writers Series which is dedicated to translating (where necessary) and publishing African authors, so there must be an audience somewhere for it. But where? I've been googling African writing and authors a lot recently in a bid to find out whatever I can, and I'm not finding much at all. It's very frustrating! Where are all the author interviews and book reviews and generally informative sites? Where is Africa on the literary map?

This post is a bit pointless and rant-like, for which I apologise. My brain isn't working too well tonight, and I'm all pooky because it's so hard to find books by African authors without ordering them from Amazon (not an option due to extreme lack of money). I should probably just chill out and carry on blithely reading the books I do have and concentrate on enjoying them. Sounds like a plan!