Friday 29th September – Sunday 1st October 2023
The British Library (& online via streaming tickets)

From Friday 29th September to Sunday 1st October, we’ll be bringing together over 100 of the most influential voices in contemporary writing from Africa and its diaspora.

Join us for the TENTH British Library edition of Africa Writes.

DOWNLOAD FULL PROGRAMME HERE

Evening & Headline Events

This year, we open the festival with Ghanaian polymath Blitz Bazawule in conversation with Irenosen Okojie.

On Friday 29th September Africa Writes has the honour to host him as for this illuminating exchange as he talks with writer Irenosen Okojie about his debut novel, The Scent of Burnt Flowers.  The book takes us on a journey from Alabama to Accra in the 1960s, via harrowing escapes and dangerous journeys into a coup d’état, woven together with music and magic.

Steeped in the history and mythology of postcolonial West Africa at the intersection of the civil rights movement in America, it is a gripping debut merging political intrigue, magical encounters, and forbidden romance in an epic collision of morality and power.

Bring all your openness and imagination as he shares his creative experience and how he channelled it into his debut novel.

This event is supported by Royal Society of Literature.

On Saturday 30th September we are hosting a theatrical, rehearsed reading by Kelechi Okarfor from her her incredible anthology Edge Of Here. Expect light, music, conversation and to be transported away into a new world.

On Sunday 1st October, the two powerhouses that are poets Kwame Dawes and Claudia Rankine close this year’s festival with an exploration of its theme ‘Intangible Heritage’.

This meditation on the things that make us who we are, explores the depths of custom and tradition, and the unspoken and felt elements that shape our narratives and identities.

Don’t miss out on their enlightening perspectives, experiences and reflections.

Ticket for all events in person are available to purchase HERE