Notes from an opening: The Garden City Literary Festival

It is good to know that literary festivals, fests, meetings and what have you, are burgeoning in different corners in Africa or in the Diaspora by Africans. Zimbabweans in the Diaspora appear to make the most noise - weighty noise that is. Their blogs are everywhere - of course I have to mention Emmanuel Sigauke, Ivor Hartmann, Petina Gappah. Then you have this beautiful online journal, Sea Breeze, organized by Liberian writers and lovers of literature. Of course Kenyans are there, too. Talk of Kwani and its beautiful activities.

Molara Wood reports from Port Harcourt, one of the literary capitals in Nigeria. Good things are happening there, friends. And in Nigeria, my dear country. I smile for my beloved country. You get?

One character in J.M Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello suggested to Africans that if they want the world to take their literature seriously, they themselves should take it seriously, read, read and read their works. Some might see this as somehow too biting an observation, but I think it is true. This is exactly what these literary fests, blogs, facebooks, conferences will achieve. Literature is coming back to Africa - after several years of hiatus due to misrule and other things beyond the writers' control.
Literature is coming back home! Are you ready to welcome her!

By the way (before I'm carried away by the joy of the coming of the bride), here is Molara Wood's report. ENJOY!