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African Book Festival Berlin 2023: Boost for African Literature in Germany. Interview mit/with Co-Organizer Venice Trommer
This year, the African Book Festival in Berlin will take place for the fifth time. In recent years, it has developed into one of the most important festivals for African literature in Germany and Europe. It is a public festival in the classical sense. And it has successfully survived the restrictions of the pandemic years. The appetite for African literature is greater than ever. One feature of the ABF is that the program is designed by African curators. The organizer, InterKontinental e.V., selects a literary personality each year. This curatorial principle, which has characterized the last editions, was cancelled this year with a bang. Shortly after the announcement of this year's curator, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a storm of indignation…
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African Book Festival in Berlin 2022. A Report. engl/ger
Yesterday.Today.Tomorrow. That was the leitmotif of this year’s African Book Festival in Berlin. Finally without any restrictions, finally everything live and on the spot. The joy about this could be felt everywhere when you were out and about at the festival. Cultureafrica was media partner this year, but this should not distort the view when reporting about this event. By Hans Hofele/cultureafrica.net FÜR DEUTSCHE VERSION NACH UNTEN SCROLLEN But: Where does one start to report? About a literary event that is more than the sum of its events? Even in retrospect, it was a very intense long weekend. If you count the launch of InterKontinental on Thursday evening, it was four days in which you could get involved with…
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Ugandas First Woman – Author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi at the African Book Festival – Interview ger/engl
What happens to a book when you address Africa as a readership? Africans should write the way they want to write. In Africa, we were brought up as if we were Europeans too. So when Europeans write, they don't think about Africans and whether we understand them. But when we write as Africans, we think about whether they will understand the way we write." If we Europeans think that we can read and understand Shakespeare, why was it not possible for the Germans, the English to read and understand how I write for Africans....
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African Book Festival Berlin: Interview with South African curator Lidudumalingani_engl/ger
This year’s edition of the African Book Festival Berlin has an impressive list of authors who will take part in the festival. Margaret Busby will be there, Igoni Barrett, JJ Bola, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi and many more. Lidudumalingani Mqombothi is this year’s curator of the festival, which takes place from August 26th to 28th in Berlin. The native South African sees himself as a multimedia artist. Writing, photography, filmmaking. In 2016 he won the renowned Caine Prize for African Writing with the short story “Memories We Lost”. Two months before the festival, Hans Hofele didn’t just talk to him about literature. FÜr DEUTSCHE VERSION NACH UNTEN SCROLLEN HH: You once said “photography is like poetry in a picture”. You…
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Ally Abdallah: The Book, the Festival, Zanzibar and the Nobel Prize winner – Interview engl/ger
It is a great event, a great surprise that Ally Abdalla has managed to pull off. For the first literature festival in Zanzibar, Ally was able to attract no less than the current winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Abdulraznak Gurnah. For Gurnah, who is from Zanzibar but had to leave the island in the 1960s, it is a triumphant event to be back. At the Heroe Book Fair in Mombasa, I spoke with author, filmmaker and organizer of the new cultural event in Zanzibar, Ally Abdalla.
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Not only on Woman’s Day – African Must Read Literature by Shonatiger
IWD 2022: African women writers you absolutely must read (and others on my reading list) To celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day, here’s a non-exhaustive list of some excellent African women writers, and the books that put them on my list. If you click on the name, you will be taken to the author’s Wikipedia page, where available. Where I wrote a review on my blog, I have added the link below. Petina Gappah I’m in awe of Ms Gappah’s writing, which in my opinion is always excellent, with her distinct authorial voice. My post on Out of Darkness, Shining Light. Molara Wood I loved this collection. My post on Indigo. Yvonne Vera Yvonne Vera is one…
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Africa and the Frankfurt Book Fair 2021 – Part 1 – Roundup and Interviews
After the almost complete standstill in 2020, this year there was a cautious approach to earlier times. There was hardly any crowding, many halls were very airy with stands. The usual crowds, the sheer abundance of stands were not there this time. After more than 300,00 visitors in 2019, there were now 70,000, including 35,000 mtrade visitors. It was very noticeable among the international publishers, some of whom stayed away or were there with a smaller presence or joint stands. Cultureafrica also visited and looked around at the African publishers and the publishers with African authors.
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We want to build Bridges – 1st Salon de Livre Africain in Paris – Interview in fr/engl/d
Le public était visiblement enthousiasmé par l'abondance de la littérature africaine, qui est rarement proposée sous cette forme. En conséquence, les visiteurs étaient impatients d'acheter. Beaucoup avaient des piles de livres sous le bras. L'absence de librairies appropriées, ou le fait que de nombreux livres ne sont pas exposés dans les magasins, est un défaut majeur de la littérature africaine et de ses éditeurs. Il existe également de grandes différences en Afrique.
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Heroe Book Fair 2021 in Mombasa – Ein Bericht – A Report
Vom 22.3. bis 26.3. 2021 fand in Mombasa, Kenia die zum ersten Mal die Heroe Book Fair 2021 statt. Cultureafrica.net war nicht nur Partner der Buchmesse, sondern auch vor Ort. Eine Bilanz. From 22.3. to26.3.2021 the heroe book fair took place for the first time in Mombasa, Kenya. Cultureafrica.net was not only partner of the book fair, but also on site. A balance. For english version please scroll down. Die Idee Es war eine Idee. Eine Buchmesse für Ostafrika. Entstanden im Norden Kenias, in Nakuru. Gründerin Lorna Likiza hatte die Flamingos vom Lake Nakuru im Sinn, als sie der Messe ihren Namen gab: Heroe Book Fair. Heroe ist das Swahili Wort für Flamingo. Und davon gibt es am lake…
