I haven’t been to many literary festivals; not as many as some of the people I got to talk to for this article. I do know, though, that for a lover of books, festivals are a great place to be because you are with people who are as excited as you are about books and reading and authors. You walk into rooms where you do not have to explain this “writing thing” to anybody. People do not think it’s weird when they catch you sniffing a new book or when you pull out your new book from the bundle in your bag and unashamedly launch into a self-promoting speech. Your friends understand you when you get all giddy after a friend points out that the tall, tall man in a chambray shirt ahead is indeed your blogger boo, Bikozulu (I tried to stay very cool and blasé, dear reader. I am not sure I succeeded).
It is quite easy to leave a festival with just the adrenaline and excitement from meeting literary greats or just being in the same room as them, but more often than not (especially when you are deliberate about it). It is more than that.
Ugandan Harriet Anena attended Storymoja Festival for the first time in 2013. In 2014, after her second time at the festival, she promised herself and her Ugandan friends that she had travelled with the intent of returning to Storymoja, not just as ‘literary tourists’ but also as panellists.
“In 2015, I will sit on a poetry panel at Storymoja and launch my poetry collection, A Nation In Labour, which was also launched at The Writivism Festival in June, this year,” Anena says. “I have also met and created the most crucial friendships from literary festivals. I met Kenyan authors Ciku Kimeria, and Oduor Jagero, among other writers, at Storymoja. Today, we are friends and help each other in various ways to grow our art.”Anena met Oduor Jagero last year in Nairobi and he was the moderator at the launch of her poetry collection at Writivism this year.
“The Writivism festival also came with its own blessings of book sales, meeting writers and finally meeting my literary mentor, Rachel Zadok of Short Story Day Africa,” she adds.
From the Hay Festival in Cartagena, Colombia, to the Ake Arts and Books Festival, the Port Harcourt Book Festival and Africa Writes in London, and the Writivism Festival in Kampala, Nigerian author, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim has been to them all. To some, he has been several times.
Ibrahim says he has made several interesting contacts, some of whom he has collaborated with. “I am constantly meeting interesting writers and having more exposure to what is happening in the writing scenes in different countries. The very interesting and stimulating discussions provide greater intellectual framework for the work we do as writers.”
For him, the festivals have also provided an opportunity to market his books. “Book sales are usually good and it gives you the opportunity to talk to your readers and give them some insight into your work, which is always good,” he says.
Jalada Managing Editor Moses Kilolo, like me, has not been to many festivals, but the few he has been to have been very useful in terms of networking. “There is a kind of familiarity you have with a person you meet at a festival for a day or two, which would never happen when you are communicating via email, or chatting on Facebook, for instance. It also makes subsequent communication easier, which can drive forward conversations on collaboration and all.”
Kilolo met Writivism’s Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire at the Storymoja Festival and they started conversations regarding possible ways that Jalada could be involved with Writivism. They talked about the Writivism workshops, the mentorship programs and the festival. They also talked about a Jalada-Writivism anthology. Jalada was subsequently able to help Writivism with each of them including the anthology that was published in June this year.
“Networks also grow very fast during festivals. In the 2015 Writivism Festival for instance, we were able to further conversations regarding bridging the gap between Anglo and Francophone literature scenes in Africa. From that we have been able to reach out to writers, translators and other interested parties who are participating in the Jalada Language anthology. Next year we hope to have a Francophone anthology as well. We had been having such dialogues, but not until we met with Edwidge Dro at Writivism did it become so powerfully possible.”
For the Founder of the Babishai Niwe Poetry Award, Beverley — Nambozo Nsengiyunva, literary festivals that are highly organised, respectful towards every guest, and whose organisers publicise every session like they own it, are the ones she has benefitted from most. “This is because their utmost care towards their guests reflects respect of and care towards the arts. Organised festivals exude a spirit of warmth and camaraderie amongst guests and with that, it is easy to facilitate networking and follow-up events.”
In 2011, when she attended the African Women Writers Symposium in Johannesburg, she met celebrated writers and arts organisers like Nadine Gordimer, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nawal el Saadawi, Lola Shoneyin, Lizzy Attree and so many others. With a few, she has been able to form a strong literary partnership.
“In 2012, I attended Storymoja Hay Festival in Nairobi for the first time, with the 2012 BN Poetry Award winners, Susan Piwang and Paula Biraaro. Those were the very first Ugandan poets at Storymoja and since then, so many have participated. The Founder, Muthoni Garland, was so excited at the BN Poetry and Storymoja Partnership and kept introducing us at her dinners. Since then, Storymoja has been a firm partner with the Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation. In subsequent years, we have partnered with the African Poetry Book Fund to start the first poetry library in Africa and to coordinate a Prairie Schooner Fusion with Ugandan poets. Several BN Poets continue to be published in the African Poetry Book Fund chapbook series as well. It is because of Storymoja that such partnerships were possible. This year, we will be holding another launch of Boda Boda Anthem and Other Poems: A Kampala Poetry Anthology at Storymoja.”
The Aké Arts and Book Festival in Abeokuta, Nigeria hosted Beverley and a few BN Poets in 2014. During that time, BNPA held another launch of A Thousand Voices Rising and she was able to meet potential partners and investors for the BN Poetry Foundation.
In April this year, at the Writing for Liberty Conference at Lancaster University, a two-day event that Beverley attended, each session was carefully structured around important politics and humanities and focused on influential artistic areas of the past and present. The varieties of discussions widened up an entire new concept of what art means to her. “For the first time, I enjoyed being with academics, who also know how to have a good laugh when it counts. Through this conference, one of the hosts of the next Writing for Liberty Conference, has requested that I organise the poetry section for that one. I can’t wait!”
For Bwesigye Bwa Mwesigire, he has been able to sell Writivism anthologies. “Writivism launched Fire in the Night at Storymoja in 2014 and almost everyone who turned up for the launch and reading bought a copy of the book.” While at Ake, he held conversations with Mukoma wa Ngugi, Lizzy Attree, Zukiswa Wanner, Dami Ajayi, Ukamaka Olisakwe, Richard Ali, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim and other people that heavily shaped the 2015 Writivism Festival.
Many writers will agree that festivals are a great break away from the solitary lives they live; chasing muses, being chased by deadlines, and making sense of the life they have chosen to live. But more than that, festivals allow writers to place their work in a wider context of fellow writers, their readers and people they can partner with on future projects.