Kweku Abimbola’s manuscript Saltwater Demands a Psalm is the winner of the Academy of American Poets First Book Award 2022. The announcement was made on Monday, March 28, 2022. The Academy of American Poets First Book Award is a first-book publication prize. The winning manuscript, chosen by an acclaimed poet, is published by Graywolf Press, […]
The shortlist for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2020 has been announced today, April 21, 2020. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short fiction in English in the regions of Africa, Asia, Canada, and Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Each of these winners is then eligible for […]
Covering the length and breadth of the African continent, here is a list of literary festivals you can attend in 2020. It is regularly updated as and when information becomes available. In 2019, African writing continued to produce festivals new and old to the delight of bibliophiles across the continent. There were many of the […]
A snapshot of the Mboka Festival of Arts, Culture and Sport that took place in The Gambia from January 21 – 27, 2019. The third edition of the Mboka Festival of Arts, Culture and Sport that has been happening in The Gambia since 2017 was on in the first month of this year from January […]
The Mboka Festival 2019 program has been unveiled. The program features activities with literary players from The Gambia and others from outside the West African country. Mboka means ‘One Family’ in Wolof which makes sense that the festival in The Gambia is called the Mboka Festival of Arts, Culture and Sport or Mboka Festival in […]
Covering the length and breadth of the continent, here is a list of African literary festivals you can attend in 2019. This list is regularly updated as and when information becomes available. 2018 was a very literary festival filled year for Africa. East Africa had a variety of festivals including the Hargeysa International Book Fair, […]
Ama Ata Aidoo is set to headline the Mboka Festival 2019. The festival, organised by Camp Africa, Global Hands and SABLE Publications and partners, Yaram Arts, Gambia Tourism Board and the National Council for Arts and Culture, will run in Banjul, The Gambia from January 5-28, 2019. Mboka means ‘One Family’ in Wolof which makes […]
The Yulisa Amadu Maddy Award in creative writing was launched by founder Nadia Maddy at the Mboka Festival 2018 on January 15, 2018. Yulisa Pat Amadu Maddy was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone, where he grew up until the age of 22 when he travelled to France in 1958 and then Britain. He started broadcasting […]
Festival headliner Linton Kwesi Johnson gave the keynote address of Mboka Festival 2018 at the Gambia College on January 17, 2018 with the topic, “African consciousness in Reggae music.” Linton Kwesi Johnson also known as LKJ, the UK-based Jamaican-British dub poet, was the headliner for the Mboka Festival 2018. At Gambia College, he would give […]
Here is a list of African literary festivals you can attend in 2018. 2017 promised and delivered to literary feast of festivals in all corners of the continent. Writers and readers met and interacted in many different venues in many types of environments. Some like Kaduna Book and Arts Festival and Mboka Festival were new […]
The Mboka Festival 2018 hosted an evening of celebration to honour the life and achievements of Keorapetse Kgositsile, Buchi Emecheta, Dr Raphina Philott Almeida and Musa Jallow on Sunday January 14, 2018. The African Poetry Library at the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC) in Banjul, The Gambia was the venue that hosted an […]
There was an evening of brilliance at the Ebunjan Theatre in Banjul with Linton Kwezi Johnson, Natalia Molebatsi, and Tunde Jegede with performing to an adoring crowd as part of the Mboka Festival 2018. The Ebunjan Theatre was built in 2010 and started being used by a local repertory group the year after this. The […]
The Mboka Festival of Arts, Culture and Sport more popularly known as the Mboka Festival 2018 kicked off with a ceremony at the Senegambia Hotel in Bajul on January 12, 2018. The Mboka Festival 2018 was born in 2017 to shine a light on the Gambia cultural and sporting traditions to the people of the […]
The literary program for Mboka Festival 2018 has been unveiled. We here at JamesMurua.com have been following the proceedings from Western African country Gambia with the Mboka Festival of Arts, Culture and Sport. The festival is organised by Camp Africa, Global Hands and SABLE Publications with support from partners and funders including, Gambia Tourism Board […]
Linton Kwesi Johnson will be the headliner at the Mboka Festival 2018 to be hosted in Banjul, Gambia from January 6-20. The Mboka Festival of Arts, Culture and Sport festival was founded by Kadija George, Dr. Momodou Sallah, and Adama Bah and hosted in January 2017 for the first time. George a literary activist, project […]
