The Macondo Literary Festival has become a celebrated cornerstone of East Africa’s literary community, renowned for its captivating panels, engaging workshops, and the opportunity to connect with acclaimed authors.
By Frank Njugi
One of the 20th century’s most influential voices in literature and environmentalism is the American marine biologist and writer, Rachel Carson. She is known for her exploration of the profound connection that exists between the natural world–especially the sea–and the history of our planet. She is also quite popular for her quote on the sea as both a physical entity and a profound symbol in human experience. “In every outthrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand, there is the story of the earth”.
In literature, the sea is full of literal and symbolic paradoxes. The sea is used to explore entities that inspire both hope and vitality, yet also instil fear and cause devastation. It represents a world of possibilities and potential, while simultaneously serving as a domain of constraints and disruptions.
The most well-known work of literature that uses the sea is perhaps the poem “The Sea Is History” by Nobel-laureate poet, Derek Walcott. The poem explores the relationship between the sea and the collective memory of a people, particularly in the context of colonialism and cultural identity. Walcott uses the sea as a metaphor for history, emphasising how it carries the stories of past struggles, triumphs, and losses.
This particular poem served as the inspiration for the theme of the 2024 edition of East Africa’s biggest literary soiree, the Macondo Literary Festival. The festival ran for three days between 20th and 22nd September 2024, at the Kenya National Theater in Nairobi.
It brought together authors from Africa’s Arab, English, French, and Portuguese writing language zones and Brazil, for conversations with writers from the Indian Ocean worlds or ‘Ziwa Kuu’ as the region is known within Swahili culture.
According to the organisers, this geographical extension of Macondo Literary Festival 2024 under the theme The Sea Is History, was meant to pay tribute to Africa’s historical ties with said Indian Ocean countries, in an attempt to imagine worlds beyond perceived ideological, imagined and geographical boundaries.
Among the notable writers present in the festival’s lineup were Chigozie Obioma from Nigeria, Janika Oza and MG Vassanji from Canada, Hamza Koudri from Algeria, Shubhangi Swarup from India, João Melo from Angola, Johary Ravaloson from Madagascar/France, Shubnum Khan from South Africa, and Jeferson Ténorio from Brazil. This was alongside their Kenyan counterparts such as Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Khadija Abdalla Bajaber, Buke Abduba, Kiprop Kimutai, and Alexis Teyie among others.
The three-day literary soiree kicked off with a series of workshops on the first day, facilitated by two of the guests, Shubhangi Swarup and Khadija Abdalla Bajaber, and also the e-learning Kenyan platform, eKitabu, who were among the festival’s sponsors.
The Indian author and journalist, Shubhangi Swarup, facilitated a session that posed the question if the ‘ocean’ can be a character in literature, exploring how the ocean could act as a backdrop for historical events, shaping the experiences of characters, and also how the ocean is deeply intertwined with identity and heritage.
Award-winning Kenyan writer, Khadija Abdalla Bajaber, facilitated a session that explored the concept of using the familiar to write the strange — the concept of grounding unusual or fantastical elements in relatable experiences or settings.
eKitabu, on the other hand, provided a workshop that explored the combination of marketing, distribution, and community engagement involved in getting an author’s book to a reader.
These sessions were the preludes to an opening ceremony whose main happening was the founders of the Macondo Literary Festival; 2003 Caine Prize winner, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, and German journalist, Anja Bengelstorff, explaining to the attendees how the festival came about and also the conceptualisation of the 2024 theme inspired by Derek Walcott’s poem.
Macondo Literary Festival was created to be the first festival on the African continent to bring together Anglophone and Lusophone African writers of historical fiction and non-fiction. These writers are gathered to share and discuss their stories about African histories that offer alternative interpretations of historical events on the continent, and to share with the audience the worlds they create and the words they chose to bring them to life.
The second day saw a series of panel sessions in different venues around the Kenya National Theater. The guest authors dived deep into how the ocean serves as a repository of collective memory, and the relationship between history and the sea.
The most notable and memorable sessions included a discussion between Brazilian writer Jeferson Ténorio and Canadian novelist Janika Oza, who talked about writers consciously shaping how they present themselves and their work to the world.
Another noteworthy panel discussion was a talk between Shubhangi Swarup, Canadian novelist and editor, MG Vassanji, and Normandy–based Malagasy writer, Johary Ravaloson, on how different cultures intersect, shape, and influence literary traditions with a keen focus on Indian Ocean countries.
There was also a discussion between Booker Prize-nominated Nigerian writer, Chigozie Obioma, Algerian writer, Hamza Koudri, and Janika Oza on how much like the sea’s tides, siblings navigate through conflicts that shape and transform their relationship and are etched into the narrative of their collective experience.
The second day concluded with a film screening of the film, Vuta N’Kuvute (Tug of War). Directed by Amil Shivji, the film is based on Adam Shafi’s award-winning Swahili novel of the same name, and it is a coming-of-age political drama about love and resistance set in the final years of British colonial Zanzibar.
Vuta N’Kuvute served as a reflection of the festival’s theme, how the Indian Ocean carries the history of countless civilisations, and whispers tales of struggle, and resilience within its ever-changing tides.
On the final day, more panel discussions were held within the various halls of the National Theatre. Winner of the 2023 Graywolf African Fiction Prize, Kiprop Kimutai, Kenyan poet, Alexis Teyie, and 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize shortlisted writer, Buke Abduba, among other East African writers explored their creative journeys and what they aspired for the future of East African writing.
Shubhangi Swarup was joined by the entomologist and evolutionary biologist, Dino Martins, in a discussion exploring the question of how we could bring the voices of oceans and the creatures that inhabit the sea to life using literature.
Khadija Abdalla Bajaber, Shubnum Khan, and Johary Ravaloson explored how the stories they write were inspired by the complex, feral, raw, and mysterious biology of the sea, and Obioma, in a solo session, spoke on context versus tradition, writing historical fiction and the imaginative worlds of his stories.
The festival concluded with a dance session dubbed Ocean Speaks, which was a contemporary dance-based performance incorporating poetry, text, soundscapes, and visual impressions. Ocean Speaks was meant to reflect upon the precolonial, colonial, and current significance of the Ocean in the formation of African nations, their current state and future, focusing on Kenya.
According to Condé Nast Traveler magazine, the Macondo Literary Festival is among the 9 best literary festivals in the world. Since its inception in 2019, the festival has become a celebrated cornerstone of East Africa’s literary community, renowned for its captivating panels, engaging workshops, and the opportunity to connect with acclaimed authors.
This year’s edition, like the previous ones, did not disappoint. Book and literature lovers colourfully adorned the pavements of Kenya’s largest proscenium theatre space. With a theme uniquely embodied in the stories of the East African people, the vision with which the Macondo Literary Festival was conceptualised —an African and Kenyan quest to rediscover their histories through literature— continues to be realised.
East Africa’s biggest literary festival continues to ensure that our stories are read and told beyond our own linguistic and geographical realms.
Frank Njugi is a Kenyan Writer, Culture journalist and Critic who has written on the East African and African culture scene for platforms such as Debunk Media, Republic Journal, Sinema Focus, Culture Africa, The Elephant, Wakilisha Africa, The Moveee, Africa in Dialogue, Afrocritik and others. He tweets as @franknjugi.