Every September, Nairobi hosts the Storymoja Festival. This is a five-day festival that gathers some of the greatest minds in Africa and beyond to discuss and celebrate books, art, music, culture, film, poetry and more.
I first attended the Festival in 2012. I was searching for a literary place of belonging. I had been part of book clubs, but that didn’t do it for me. At that time, I had just begun to seriously pursue my writing. I needed a safe, public space in which I could share my work. I went to the festival as a visitor: sampling conversations, buying books, attending master classes. Then, the festival was over, but I felt I had not gotten what I needed.
My approach changed in 2013 after I realised that the Storymoja Festival was a culmination of year round activities. This was not a five-day affair. There were a whole lot of other activities going on both pre and post-festival. So I got in touch with the Storymoja Festival team via Twitter. They invited me to an Ideagasm. An Ideagasm is a conversation involving people from all walks of life who hold all manner of views about different subjects. The team sent me a ‘provocation’: a broad topic or statement meant to spark thinking and critical conversation. It was during this first Ideagasm that I met Juliet Maruru from Storymoja. I was writing fiction (I had just started writing my first novel) and I needed to belong to a writing circle where my work could be critiqued.
Our conversation extended to Twitter and she invited me to become a contributor to the Storymoja Blog. I continued to attend Ideagasms and blogged until September 2013 when the festival came around.
That year, I signed up as a reporter for the Storymoja Festival Newswire. I was present in the Masterclass titled ‘The Responsibility of The African Writer’, taught by the late, great Professor Kofi Awoonor on September 20th, 2013. I sat right up front. I remember him sitting at the desk, patiently waiting for the room to fill up. And it was a full house. When he stood up to speak, I was intrigued because he seemed to fill up the room with his presence and yet he didn’t overwhelm us. He carried so much power with great poise.
When the class ended and people were milling around, he walked up to me and shook my hand. Asked me for my name and what I was working on. I was humbled and terrified. Then he looked right into my eyes and I felt like he could see into my soul. Then he said, “Young lady, write! Write and do not be afraid.” And then he turned and walked away. What he didn’t know was that I was deathly afraid of writing the characters who fiction. had presented themselves to me with stories I couldn’t contain. Professor Awoonor gave me ‘permission’, as it were, to write fiction. That evening I wrote about him for the Festival Newswire.
And then the tragic events at Westgate happened the next day, Saturday 21st September. Kofi Awoonor made his transition. And I wept for him. I had only been in his great presence for 3 hours, but he changed my life as an African and as a writer. The festival, that year, had been for me a sacred space where I received a nod from a great man who was halfway between this world and the next.
Later in 2013, six writers, including myself, who had attended the festival in various capacities came together and formed a writing circle. We were all in various stages of writing fiction and the group served as a creative space for critique, learning and inspiration.
At the 2014 festival, I sat in another masterclass ‘Healing Through Writing’, taught by Ugandan writer, Beatrice Lamwaka. It was during a writing exercise here that an eight-month long writing drought ended, and I wrote what is now the prologue of my work in progress. I also met Kenyan novelist, Kinyanjui Kombani, who was a festival artist and a friend of Storymoja. For me, he has taken over from where Professor Awoonor left off. As I continue to write my novel Kinyanjui has kept me accountable and offered valuable advice and critique.
I’m still writing my novel and for the Storymoja Festival blog, I’m currently interviewing Afetsi Awoonor, poet and son of the Professor Awoonor. Afestsi will deliver the 2nd Kofi Awoonor Memorial Address on Sunday 20th September. As I share my reflections on the 2013 festival, I feel I have come full circle. I’m writing again and I am not afraid.