‘Black Magic’ has been announced as the theme of the 2020 edition of the Ake Arts and Book Festival (AABF).
Organised by Lola Shoneyin’s Book Buzz Foundation annually since 2013, Ake Festival is an annual gathering of writers and cultural enthusiasts. It will hold from October 22 to 25, 2020 and will feature panel discussions, performances, book launches, film screenings and art exhibition.
This year’s theme was announced on the festival’s official twitter handle. The tweet read: “The theme of the 8th edition of Ake Arts and Book Festival is ‘Black Magic’. While envisioning a proud and powerful resurgent identity, we shall explore the expansion of black imagination and black consciousness.
“AkeFest2020 will be an unapologetic reclamation of cosmologies, mythologies and belief systems that have sustained Africa and her Diaspora through millennia of disruption and change. We also seek to celebrate the magic of black people as a locus for interrogating cultural memory, as well as notions of black excellence, resilience and resistance. Our literary focus will be children’s writing and political memoirs.”
Eminent African writers have headlined past editions of the festival. Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka; poet and academic, Professor Niyi Osundare; Somali novelist and playwright, Nuruddin Farah, and the matriarch of Ghanaian literature, Professor Ama Ata Aidoo have headlined previous editions.
The first Zimbabwean woman to publish a novel in English, Tsitsi Dangaremgba, headlined last year’s edition.
