The Pfumo Collective announced the writers to participate in the Citizen Anthology project, the first from the UK-based organisation, on Monday, April 21, 2025.
The Pfumo Collective was unveiled in January to spearhead access to the mentorship and editorial support that more established literary economies afford nonfiction space in Africa. Legendary publisher Ellah Wakatama leads it alongside Billy Kahora, Niki Igbaroola, and Bukola Akinyemi.
The collective made a call out for work for the Citizen Anthology, their first nonfiction project, which includes a workshop, mentoring, and an anthology. They received over 130 submissions from citizens of 37 African countries and selected a shortlist of writers from 8 countries across Africa.
Ellah P Wakatama, the project Founder and Project Lead, said the selected writers ‘fulfilled my hopes for imaginative ways of interrogating African experiences of citizenship: what makes us a people united; what happens if we focus on the voices of women; how does urban planning impact social cohesion? I can’t wait to work with these brilliant writers in developing their work and bringing their ideas, observations and solutions to a wide, international reading public.”
The writers in this first cohort are;
- Adeowu Azeeza, Nigeria
- Iweka Kingsley, Nigeria
- Kareem Widad, Ghana
- Kona Bongani, Zimbabwe
- Mahamoud Ali Faduma, Somalia
- Mudzonga Tawanda, Zimbabwe
- Mugaa Dennis, Kenya
- Pius Ekemini, Nigeria
- Sinivasan Santhea, South Africa
- Wolde Yordanos Tekleab, Ethiopia
- Zabu Yvonne, Uganda
Over the course of a 10-day intensive, these writers will receive a fully-funded residential workshop in Accra, Ghana. They will benefit from the expertise of tutors and mentors who will support each writer in developing their proposal into full-length non-fiction pieces to be published in the Citizen anthology.
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