Tsitsi Dangarembga was announced as the curator Berlin’s African Book Festival 2019 at a ceremony in Berlin on September 25, 2018. The festival is set for April 4-7, 2019.
On April 26-28, 2018 writers from across the African continent converged on Berlin for the African Book Festival with Chris Abani as the headliner. Organised by the InterKontinental and curated by Olumide Popoola, the festival looked at transnationalism and migration in a more literary sense of “keeping in motion”. It featured some of the biggest writing talents working today like Brian Chikwava, Jude Dibia , Bernardine Evaristo, Anita Djafari, Helon Habila, Elnathan John , Nick Makoha , Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Sarah Ladipo Manyika, Niq Mhlongo, Mukoma Wa Ngugi, Chinelo Okparanta, Musa Okwonga, Yewande Omotoso, Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, Leye Adenle, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Minna Salami, Chika Unigwe, and Zukiswa Wanner.
On September 25, the curator for the 2019 edition of the festival was announced and it is Zimbabwean author and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga. Dangarembga burst onto the scene in 1988 with her debut novel Nervous Conditions focusing on the story of a Shona family in post-colonial Rhodesia during the 1960s. The book was followed by The Book of Not in 2006.
The author presented her third book in the trilogy This Mournable Body as well as being presented at the festival’s new curator. The new theme for the festival which is an initiative for more diversity in literature and in politics is “Transitioning from migration.”
Tsitsi Dangarembga (@efie41209591) was introduced in Berlin as the curator for the African Book Festival 2019. This year’s festival was curated by Olumide Popoola (@msolumide) – so the regional focus shifts and the festival goes from the hands of one great woman to another. pic.twitter.com/lPytFpIcyD
— Charlott Schönwetter (@half_book) September 25, 2018
Our friends at InterKontinental are already at work organising their new event and if you want to contribute to it then you want to click here.
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