Flore Hazoumé’s Rencontres (1984) and Cauchemars (1994), and Adélaïde Fassinou’s Toute une vie ne suffirait pas pour en parler (2002) are collections of short stories revolving around the popular themes of companionship and loneliness, love and hatred, quest for happiness, self-discovery, marriage, and life and death as part of human existence. In Toute une vie ne suffirait pas pour en parler, the author condemns Maguy’s decision to commit suicide on the ground that J.J. no longer wants her because she has become too fat. Cauchemars introduces the reader to a troubled universe, where living and non-living characters endowed with occult powers, experience comical and/or tragic misfortunes. These existential issues are further explored in Ken Bugul’s Cendres et braises (1994) and De l'autre côté du regard (2003), which center on the quest for love, identity, and self-reconciliation within the context of eternal harmonies through an extremely subtle writing. 
While Moudjib Djinadou’s Mais que font donc les dieux de la neige? (1993) is about the sexual escapades of postcolonial leaders who use their position and wealth to abuse vulnerable women, and while Afize D. Adamon’sLe Million (1995) deals with urban women, who engage in promiscuity and crimes, Moudjib Djinadou’s Mo Gbé, le cri de mauvaise augure (1991) focuses on the consequences of such life styles (disease, loss, and death) through the experiences of its main character.
On a different note, Flore Hazoumé’s Et si nous écoutions nos enfants? (2002) is the story of good friendship between Sabine and Awa, who symbolize solidarity among Christians, Muslims, and traditionalists resulting in a peaceful community. However, it all changes when expressions of hate, violence, unrest, clash, and war surface in the parents’ conversations. Florent Couao-Zotti’s L’homme dit fou et la mauvaise foi des hommes (2000) evokes the lack of solidarity among Africans, a situation that causes an affliction for each of the characters (disease, death, etc.), who are overcome by the prevailing culture of "modernité". José Pliya’s Négrerrances (1997) takes a different approach to social discourse, focusing on cultural relativism and universal justice: in spite of physical, racial, cultural, and material differences, all people are human and deserve justice and fairness.
Barbara Akplogan’s poetry (Les Mots d'amour - 2003) rekindles the popular theme of love, which every individual has either experienced or longs for. Such human emotion is exhibited in Adélaïde Fassinou’s Jeté en pâture (2005), in which Alain travels from Paris to Cotonou to try to save his fiancée Fanta from the tribulations that African youths experience: illiteracy, unemployment, poverty, and social unrest, amongst others. In the process, he is accused of kidnapping and thrown into jail where a fellow inmate enlightens him on the political and social cultures in Benin. The narration turns into an appraisal of the era of democratic renewal, its successes and failures: democratic liberalism and freedom of expression but also violence, corruption, falling educational standards, unemployment, devastating cuts in social services, and economic recession.
In Le Million (1995), Afize D. Adamon uses satire to portray tribulations in the neocolonial state such as abuse of power, social injustice, oppression, political repression and violence, imperial hegemony, institutionalized corruption, materialism, nepotism, socio-economic hardship, and ethnic dissension. The ability of this text to acutely criticize social, economic, and political situations demonstrates the power of literature to subvert authority by mocking its claims to superiority.
Florent Couao-Zotti’s Notre pain de chaque nuit (1998) critiques political repression, electoral malpractices, and skepticism regarding democracy in Africa. Selfish political figures who benefit most from the status quo are very skeptical about democratic renewal in Benin; they prefer to buy people’s votes in order to stay in power and continue to oppress the masses. But in this sensational novel, Couao-Zotti, who has become one of the best writers on the continent, gives a voice to the disenfranchised. He also advocates positive change through increased participation of citizens in government.
Ken Bugul’s La Folie et la mort (2000) uses allegory to analyze the same issue of tribulations in postcolonial Africa. It portrays the agony and the destiny of a continent with its trail of misfortunes and abominations in forms of dictatorship, repression, excommunication, violence, poverty, misery, civil wars, wandering, exile, and the crisis of existence. La pièce d'or (2006) by the same author follows up on the socio-economic and political themes in the previous work. In this sensitive novel, Ken Bugul critically examines contemporary Africa, where everyone seeks their own ways and interests. She criticizes the flouting of human rights, and its attendant socio-economic hardship, which force Africans to emigrate in search of greener pastures. The text is written in a perpetually evolving aesthetics telling stories in a way that would stimulate critical thinking.