Marie Louise Bibish Mumbu wrapped up the sixth day of Season 2 of Afrolit Sans Frontières from Montreal, Canada on Saturday, April 25, 2020.
Afrolit Sans Frontières, a new initiative by and for writers of African origin, was started in March as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic international lockdown. Season 2, like the first edition, features some of the leading names in African letters today with curation by Maaza Mengiste and festival founder Zukiswa Wanner. This season sees 16 writers from 14 countries streaming either on Instagram or Facebook from 13 cities in English, French, and Portuguese over eight days under the festival theme “What I Wish You’d Ask Me.”
Since the festival started on April 20, bibliophiles have interacted with Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor from Nairobi, Kenya, Lola Shoneyin from Lagos, Nigeria, Elma Shaw from Kigali, Rwanda, Edwige Renee Dro from Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire, Sulaiman Addonia from Brussels, Belgium, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi from Manchester, UK, Napo Masheane from Johannesburg, South Africa, and Mona Eltahawy in Montreal, Canada. There have also been sessions with festival curators Maaza Mengiste alongside Natasha Omokhodion-Kalulu Banda, Remy Ngamije, Bisi Adjapon, and Chike Frankie Edozien and Zukiswa Wanner alongside Chike Frankie Edozien, Kalaf Epalanga, and Leye Adenle.
The first session of the day had Nii Ayikwei Parkes streaming from London, UK before Marie Louise Bibish Mumbu who was streamed from Facebook. Marie is the writer of the memoir Samantha à Kinshasa: Autobiographie, Carnet De La Création on the Congolese visual artist Francis Mapuya, and Mes Obsessions: j’y pense et puis je crie! She is also the author of the show Bibish in Kinshasa, an adaptation of Samantha à Kinshasa: Autobiographie, reissued in Montreal in February 2015 by Recto Verso, created at Espace Libre in a staging by Philippe Ducros, and trainer in March 2016 of the workshop Write elsewhere organized by CEAD.
Marie Louise Bibish Mumbu read from her book and a text published in an anthology and spoke about it and several other topics to the dozens who were logged on. She also spoke about how being part of the Afrolit Sans Frontieres Literary Festival brought her closer home as she was reconnecting with many of her friends online.
If you speak French, you can check out her broadcast below.
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