AFRICANS FOR AFRICANS: A SHORT STORY

A writer’s biggest fear stems from the belief that he is not enough. That his words, his ideas, his thoughts, his tribal influences are not what should be read and studied and understood by a global audience. That his stories are outdated and no longer ‘what people want to read.’

It is even worse for the African writer. One who realizes that the telling of a single story is never without bias and preconceived notions, one who sees that a people’s story should be told in the appropriate manner by the people themselves. One who has seen war and death and economic hardships and desperately seeks an outlet to vent, to rage and to just be. Being a writer is hard, being an African writer is harder. One might argue and say that we are over dramatizing our plight and that we should ‘chill’ but the truth is we do not even complain enough. We are unable to tell our stories the way we want to, for fear of censure and because we want to appeal to a more modern, more global audience. And so, we bury our hurt, our grievances, our joy and our pain under layers of cliches and repetitive repetition. 

It is these issues and a myriad of other unfortunate events that resulted in the formation of Writers Space Africa, a haven for Africa’s literary genuises, known and unknown (yet), and the establishment of the African Writers Conference. This conference holds yearly and has been established as a leading voice in Africa’s literary space.

It doesn’t mean that our troubles as African Writers are over. It does mean, however, that we need you to help us. We need Africans to acknowledge the good that is African literature and to aid the spread of many African stories told in the way and manner that they ought to.

How?

There are many ways to do this, but there are five ways that would be of the most help:

1. Read our works: actively engage with us, read our stories written from our perspective, stories that are relatable and tell of us in all our passions and pride and glory.

2. Establish communities that celebrate our art: like Africans for Africans by Africans kind of prizes, societies and publishing firms. It makes it easier to find a place to call home in the vast worlds of literature and publishing.

3. Tell us your stories: share your customs, traditions, history and present with us. Help us to shape the future whilst remembering the past, help us to tell the truth, and flush out the lies.

4. Sponsor our celebrations: literary festivals, events and workshops are our celebrations. They are the places that we gather to reflect, to share, to encourage and to simply be. And they cost money to be efficiently run.

5. Share our works with your people: especially the works of lesser known or unknown writers. We believe that word of mouth is still the best form of advertising, or as social media puts it, “like, comment and share.”

Help us to help our continent and our people.

P.S. You can register for this year’s African Writers Conference here.

I liked writing this feature for AWC. I was super stoked when I saw the invite to do so, and I jumped on it! It was a privilege to write this feature and I can't wait for the conference in November!

See you!