If you’ve been following us on our socials, you would know that we kicked off our festival countdown with a weekly #WednesdayWisdom campaign which focused on Chigozie Obioma’s headline event. We explored the beauty of Igbo proverbs in his latest…
Win Saturday Day passes to Africa Writes 2019! Join us for a day of exploring, creating and interrogating what it means to be a young Black person in Britain today! On Saturday 6 July, Africa Writes 2019 present a carefully…
Finding My Way Back Home – The Power of Folktales Maïmouna Jallow Mze Jomo Kenyatta was facing Mount Kenya when he had his epiphany. Some 500 kilometers southeastwards, I was facing the Indian Ocean when I had mine, and it…
The shortlist for the 2019 Caine Prize for African Writing has been announced, featuring stories that tackle “the ordinary in an extraordinary manner” and celebrate the diversity of the African short-story writing tradition for the twentieth edition of the Prize….
Our Bodies Speak Poetry, our first headline event, is set to be an exciting evening filled with awe-inspiring storytelling, and a poetical exploration into our relationship with the (physical, political, and fantastical) body. The evening will open with a dance…
In March 2019 Africa Writes festival co-producers, Caitlin Pearson and Marcelle Akita, travelled to Rwanda and Kenya on a scoping trip funded by British Council to connect with literature professionals. This trip was especially important for this year’s festival programme,…
A Snapshot of Margaret Busby’s Illustrious Career Born in Accra to parents of Bajan, Trinidadian and Dominican origin, and educated in London University, Margaret Busby’s legacy certainly transcends borders. In the 1960s, became Britain’s youngest and first black female book…
The AFREADA x Africa Writes Competition is back! As we prepare for #AfricaWrites2019 we are excited to announce that the Africa Writes x AFREADA competition has returned for the third year running! As part of this year’s programme, we will…
In the run up to #AfricaWrites2019 we will be discussing the art of proverbs, Igbo proverbs in particular. In Igbo society, as in many African societies, proverbs play a key role in cultural expression and figurative communication. Chigozie Obioma’s…
The Africa Writes: Young Voices programme seeks to open up the world of African and diaspora literature to young people in schools and inspire them to write and perform their own poetry. Guided by poets and facilitators from the Africa…