Writivism reels in African writers
Never has there been a space this welcoming and uplifting of African literature in this century,” remarked Sumayya Lee, a published South African writer and activist. The space that she referred to is the Writivism Project, an initiative under the Centre for African Cultural Excellence (CACE).This was at the official launch of the 2016 Writivism Festival on Tuesday this week.
The Festival kicked off on August 22, at the Uganda National Museum with a myriad of activitied attended by writers, both published and unpublished. Monday and Tuesday morning’s activities at the National Museum mainly constituted a book sale of African titles such as Nansubuga Makumbi’s prize winning Kintu, Peter Kagayi’s poetry collection The Headline That Morning, Harriet Anena’s A Nation in Labour and other works by Oduor Jagero, Theophilus Abbah, Chuma Nwokolo, Doreen Baingana, Chimeka Garricks, Nakisanze Segawa, Juliane Okot Bitek and her sister Jane Okot p’Bitek, Donald Molosi, Yewande Omotoso, Grace Musila, Dilman Dila, Sumayya Lee and Zukiswa Wanner among others.
“We are set to have up to 40 books launched or relaunched this week,” says Kyomuhendo Ateenyi, the Event’s director and a founder member of Writivism.
As of Tuesday, four such books had been launched. There was also a film screening of the African movie Half of The Yellow Sun on Monday and a two hour Short Films Festival on Tuesday that featured works such as Ghetto Film Project’s Crafts; The Value of Life and Silent Depression and others such as Jinxed, The Dummy Team, Mirror and The Team among others.
Musical performances came through from rapper Ruyonga, who performed pieces from his spoken word collection Theopolitan, before he got on to perform songs such as Mulire, Victory and Sky High, giving a mild twist to the written work based festival. “Music is lyric and lyric is a message,” Ruyonga said, “the difference is the means of relaying it.”
Various workshops were held in light of publishing, writing and generally the arts. “The aim of this festival,” Kate Haines, an American writer and workshop moderator says, “is to give assistance to the unpublished writers and place them on a path that gets their stories, not only published, but appreciated and read continentally.”
This was at the Arts Management and Career Literary Entrepreneurs Workshop, discussing the correlation between the arts and commerce; helping art’s talents earn from their craft. The festival will be crowned with an award ceremony today in which three prizes will be accorded. “Unlike the previous years,” Kyomuhendo remarks, “this year’s awards include one new category; the Kofi Addo Prize for Non-Fiction that adds to the two existing prize categories; the Writivism Short Story Prize and the Okot P’ Bitek Prize for Poetry in Translation.”
Most intriguing is the Short Story Prize that has a Ugandan, one Acan Innocent Immaculate whose piece Sundown is in the running with four others from other countries.
“From the readers’ recommendations, a list of 100 stories was reached at, which was then sent to the judges to select the long list. A short list was thereafter decided by a panel of judges, of whom I am chair,” says Tsitsi Dangarembga, a published writer and adjudicator of the Writivism Reader’s Choice and Short Story Prize awards.
Kyomuhendo states that as has been the culture at Writivism, stories that make it to the long list get to be published in the Annual Writivism Anthol
