Kwani? @ The Storymoja Hay Festival, July 31st- August 2nd

From Friday 31st July – Sunday 2nd August, Kwani? will be holding a series of book readings and discussions at the Storymoja Hay Festival including; A Kenya Sketchbook – A New Generation’s Imagination, inspired by the short story competition, a Whistleblower’s Narrative discussion moderated by Parselelo Kantai and featuring Billy Kahora’s newly-released book on David Munyakei, the Goldenberg Whistleblower, City Images and Texts– A 24 Hour Cycle , an exhibition of Nairobi photographs to be published as a coffee-table book by Kwani Trust in September 2009, and many others.

For further details on the over 120 events taking place at the Storymoja Hay Festival this weekend, please visit the festival website or refer to the Festival programme attached.

* Festival Venue : Impala Grounds
* Season Tickets (3 days) Ksh 1000. One-day tickets : Ksh 500 ( Available from bookshops and Silverbird Cinemas, or call 020 208 9595)

We hope to see you at the Festival.

KWANI? SHORT STORY COMPETITION CALL-OUT

(If you are not a citizen of Kenya see ‘The Africa I Live In’ call-out)

Kwani Trust is pleased to announce the launch of a national short story competition titled, ‘The Kenya I Live In’, inspired by the recent push for ‘The Kenya We Want’, and ubiquitous conversations about a 2030 vision that places our heads in the clouds and obscures who we are and what we really are. At Kwani Trust, we feel that these visions cannot be achieved until we come to terms with who we are and what we have been. The first step in this is in telling and recognising our own stories and especially that of a new generation. Read more

Storymoja Hay Festival 2009

Join us for a weekend of book readings, discussion forums and exhibitions at the Storymoja Hay Festival (Friday 31st July to Sunday 2nd August). For more details on the festival please click here or call 020 2089595 to purchase tickets.Tickets are also available from all leading bookshops and Silverbird cinemas.

Kwani? @ The Storymoja Hay Festival: Welcome!!

Theme As King – The Misreading of African Literature

(The essay below is the first post on Kwani? Online – Republic Of Letters)

It is essential to suspend for a while, the time-worn reading of African literature and concentrate on the manner in which these books were written – suspend as if colonialism never happened, as if we are not our colour, nor that Church and Shakespeare ever invaded our sacred spaces. David Kaiza revisits Wole Soyinka’s ‘The Interpreters’ and its place in the canon of African letters, arguing that it challenges the tyranny of theme and post-colonial history as the dual lens through which evaluations of literature in the continent are made. Theme as King – the Misreading of African Literature is the first of a series of essays discussing different aspects of literature and letters in the continent.Read it here.

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