The guests who will feature at the Macondo Literary Festival 2024 at the Kenya National Theatre, Nairobi from September 20 – 22, 2024 have been announced.
The Macondo Literary Festival, organised by the Macondo Book Society, hosts panels, readings, performances of poetry and other art forms, and an epic closing party in Nairobi since its first edition in 2019. Macondo Book Society is an organisation initiated by Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor and Anja Bengelstorff. The word “Macondo,” comes from the fictional place where magical things happen in the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Colombian Nobel Laureate Gabriel Garcia Márquez. Check out our reporting of the festival here.
The theme for this year’s festival, “The Sea is History,” is inspired by a poem of the same name by Caribbean Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. While the 2023 festival celebrated literature of all of the African continent’s linguistic currents—hosting authors who write in English, Portuguese, French, and Arabic—the 2024 edition will extend the festival’s geographic reach to the spheres of the Swahili Seas/ the Indian Ocean. “The Sea is History” pays tribute to this oceanic region’s historical connections with Africa that exist in story, art, technology, cultural memories, and society. From inception, Macondo Literary Festival’s anchor was and is African histories and futures from African perspectives in literature.
The guests for this year will include Johary Ravaloson (Madagascar/ France), Shubnum Khan (South Africa), Chigozie Obioma (Nigeria/ USA), Janika Oza, MG Vassanji (both Canada), Hamza Koudri (Algeria), Shubhangi Swarup (India), João Melo (Angola), and Jeferson Ténorio (Brazil).
The festival this year is working in partnership with eKitabu to continue its tradition of low entry fees to help make Macondo as accessible as possible to all literature lovers—including book enthusiasts, aspiring writers, and all who are passionate about African histories in literature, storytelling, and charting possible futures.
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