This is the year for literary breakthroughs in Africa. The year for Praxisness. Yesterday, Jalada Africa, a Pan-African collective sent thrilling ripples into the African literary space by announcing their inaugural Mobile Literary Festival – first of its kind in Africa.
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In a press release, the Jalada team headed by Moses Kilolo described the mobile festival as a hybrid between a traditional place-based festival and a bus tour, and will cover 5 countries and 12 towns: Kenya (Nairobi, Nakuru, Kisumu, Mombasa), Uganda (Kampala, Kabale), DRC (Goma), Rwanda (Kigali) and Tanzania (Mwanza, Arusha, Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar). The mobile festival will travel over 4500 kms and engage directly with over 10,000 enthusiasts, and will celebrate diversity and create living connections between writers, artists, and diverse audiences in the big cities and small towns across East Africa.
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The events will feature writers and artists drawn from the Collective, and tens of exciting authors, performers, and thinkers drawn from East Africa and beyond, as well as international voices. Presented as a series of full-day events, the festival will feature an expanded retinue of panel discussions, literary readings and debates, spoken word and theatrical performances, creative writing and translations master classes, poetry workshops, exhibitions, art installations, and film screenings.
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This is a very heart warming news and Kudos to the robust creativity of the Jalada writers collective which, since its founding in 2013, has continued to break boundaries by publishing works that stretch the reach of creative writing, expand the range of reading experiences, and diversify audiences for literature.
You can learn more about the festival by emailing [email protected]