Rolex
I don’t remember how the NBO LitFest, started in 2021 and organised by The Book Bunk, got on my radar. Probably twitter. Good luck Elon on getting some of us to call it X. The important thing is it did and I reached out to the organisers to see what opportunities were there for pushing the Muwado agenda. Unfortunately, it was a month before the event and the programme was concluded. Even the exhibition slots were fully booked out. I was impressed. Then I learnt the festival curator was Wanjeri Gakuru who I knew previously from the Jalada Collective and it made sense. Her work ethic is inspiring and it was good to see her still doing the work and at a bigger scale. I would still definitely attend.
The last time I went to a literary festival was the last one by Writivism in 2019 before they went on hiatus and COVID came into play. I don’t know if there’s been one organised in Uganda since then but I guess I’ve also been AWOL on the local literature scene since 2019, apart from my work with Muwado. Life took me in different directions and I dabbled in journalism/media development, acting and professionalised my IT entrepreneurship. A severe writer’s block didn’t help. The discovery of this festival was therefore timely because I was looking for avenues to spread the new story monetisation mission of Muwado, something we spent last year upgrading the platform to do and is now live. It also presented an opportunity to reunite with some African writers that I’d gotten to know during my time with Writivism.
As the festival dates approached though, the #RejectTheFinanceBill protests against Ruto and his government intensified. On Tuesday 25th June, they escalated even further when the Kenyan parliament passed the controversial financial Bill which resulted in the protesters occupying parliament. The festival was supposed to start on Thursday 27th June! We got an email from the organisers saying they were monitoring the situation and safety was the priority. I felt for them as someone who has been on the organising side. At this point, you’ve booked tickets for all your international guests and deposited with most service providers so cancelling is a massive blow. But safety is paramount. Hay Festival Global – a main festival partner that came on board this year thanks to support from the British Council, used to partner with the Storymoja Festival in the past and they sadly lost some festival guests to the infamous Westgate Mall terrorist attacks. No one wanted to relive that. I crossed my fingers.
By Thursday when the next scheduled protests were supposed to happen, President Ruto had announced he’d not sign the bill, which was a significant victory for the protestors. Uganda could never. The atmosphere seemed to have cooled down and my sources in Nairobi told me it should be safe to go. I didn’t see any cancellation updates from the festival’s social media accounts so I committed and got the bus ticket. The official email update from the festival saying it would proceed found me almost at the border. It was on.
I arrived in a chilly Nairobi, took a power nap and made my way to the festival venue at the Eastlands Library, Makadara. Eastlands is an area of Nairobi I haven’t frequented. I have only stayed there one time when I was being hosted by a couch surfer. The texture and look of the place is different from Westlands, where most of the events I have attended in Nairobi tend to be hosted. Less green, more grit. Less corporate, more industrial. You can feel the class and atmosphere divide distinctly as soon as you leave CBD. A Kenyan friend I told about the festival told me there’d never been to that side of town, and not by intention. This was a pleasant development for me though. An opportunity to discover another side of this city I’ve frequented the most outside Uganda.
The library itself was very pleasant to behold. I’ve been to public libraries in Uganda and heartbreaks are guaranteed. This library had been renovated by Book Bunk thanks to a milestone partnership with the Nairobi City County government in March 2018 to lead the restoration of three libraries; McMillan Memorial Library, Eastlands Library and Kaloleni Library. The end result we were enjoying was a warm, colourful, well-thought-out multipurpose space conducive to losing oneself in books and growing the culture around them. Witnessing how well the festival worked in the space showed just how much thought had gone into this. The future of reading is bright over here.
The festival program was action packed with panels, book signings, readings, masterclasses, film screenings, concerts, and more for both children and adults. On the stages were writers, influencers, content creators, journalists, and other stprytellers and creatives from the continent and the diaspora. I came in late when the first round of panels was done and the second was underway. The one I joined was about translation, a recurring topic in media conversations in Africa. Are we going to be the generation that fully loses our languages to those of the colonisers? Anglophone, Francophone, Otherphones…how do we overcome this colonial legacy and get to just Africaphone? The festival had someone doing sign language, a nice touch. I wonder if you can sign in local languages? The panel ended with optimism, I wasn’t as hopeful.
I floated around the venue, admiring the spaces, sitting in the different panels and catching up with old colleagues. Edwige-Renee Dro is still bombastic as ever, if not more considering the gains she’s made in her career since I’d last seen her. I think of her like Miria Matembe without the politics (yet?), for my fellow Ugandans. Another familiar name was Richard Ali A Mutu, a prominent and versatile writer from DRC that I’d corresponded with via email and hadn’t actually met before. Faith Linyonyi who I volunteered with at Storymoja 2015 and now runs two start-ups. Magunga the blogger who had an online bookshop is now a massive influencer. James Murua, the encyclopedia of African literature who has since rebranded his African literary news platform to Writing Africa. Peter Ngila who has a book, The Legend of Beach House, out now. And many others, all still out here putting in the work, still driven by the love of stories.
The protests were on everyone’s mind and they gave the festival an extra edge. The festival venue also had occasional military presence which I wasn’t sure if it was for our protection or investigation. Writing and activism make regular bedfellows. I started up a conversation with a Kenyan lady who stood out because of her goth dress code and she passionately brought me up to speed with the nuances of the current Kenyan Genz revolution. Uganda really could never. On the next Tuesday, I found her picture circulating on Twitter as one of the people who had been arrested by security forces during that day’s protests. It wasn’t all kumbaya.
The day ended with a performance from Sana whose game I was not familiar with. I knew just the one Jua Kali song ‘Kwaheri’ that she featured on over a decade ago when Utake was the thing thanks to EATV. She obviously has staying power if she’s still kicking it up to now. I’d considered skipping the performance to get to my accommodation early since I was in an unfamiliar side of town and the air was still tense with revolution, but I’m glad I stayed. The band put up a spirited performance and Sana knows how to command the stage and seduce her audience. Atleast that’s how I felt. It might have been the cold. I left immediately after to get some proper rest from the long journey of the night before and the day of activities.
Day 2 was more of the same. I dropped into the panel on digital storytelling where it feels like writing is taking a backseat to the other media forms of content. I blame Tiktok and the effect it has had on other social media platforms. We shall do our part as Muwado to make writing great again…ahem. I might not be the biggest fan of the man but that slogan is catchy.
The struggles of self-publishing came up again. It was noted though that more people are self-publishing now and this is an overall positive for the space. Work on the quality and sales issues continues and more brains are better. And of course, the money-making aspect of the industry remains top of mind with everyone because the struggle is still real, even with all the new authors coming into the space. Throw AI into the mix and its expected impact on content volumes that will be released, and now you have even more sustainability questions and fewer answers. This is something we are trying to crack in the digital space with Muwado. And enough brilliant people are trying different approaches so may good fortune be with us all on this mission.
Those are the conversations that stayed with me but there were so many fantastic panels and clever thoughts shared, with everything recorded and uploaded for those that couldn’t make it. The festival ended in good spirits with minimal interruptions and the team behind it all got a well-deserved standing ovation. I can only imagine the pressure they were under to ensure everything went smoothly and both local and international attendees were safe throughout. Hectic handclaps!
I left feeling rejuvenated to continue doing the work for the culture and with a revived network of storytellers from across the continent. Totally worth it and then some.
Together tunawakilisha!
Images courtesy of the official NBO LitFest Photographers
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