Curtains will fall on the 10th edition of the Ake Arts and Book Festival with the theme “Homecoming”, which started in Lagos on Thursday, November 24 on Saturday, November 26 with among other events, the Life and Times Series hosted by Kinna Likimani and will have this event headliner, Veronique Tadjo, speak on her novel In the Company of Men at 5:05 pm.
The three days of immersion in culture ongoing at Strong Tower Events Centre, 40 Alfred Rewane Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, have so far hosted over 1,000 writers, poets, musicians, actors, filmmakers, artists and thinkers from Africa and the world together to celebrate creativity.
The other events for the day include panel discussions, book chats, and palm wine and poetry.
The panel discussions are: “Introducing New YA Fiction from Across Africa” with titles including:
Even When Your Voice Shake – Ruby Goka, All That it Ever Meant- Blessing Musariri, and What Happened to Janet Uzor- Miracle Emeka Nkwor. The discussion, which is the first programme of the literary event, will be hosted by Elohor Egbordi. It is to begin at 9:30 am. The second one will be “Will We See Inclusive Economic Growth in Our Lifetime”
Omoseinde Olobayo, Yomi Adedeji and Abubakar Suleiman are the guest panellists. It will start at 1:50 pm and will be hosted by Aisha Babalakin.
The third and final discussion “African Feminist Identities Across Generations” will have former Ekiti State First Lady, Mrs Bisi Adeleye Fayemi, Lebogang Mashile and Jola Ayeye on the panel. Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah will be the host of the discussion. It will commence at 4pm.
On that same day there will be book chats and the first one will hold at 10:35 am. “In conversation” with Jennifer Makumbi will be hosted by Ife Agoro.
The second one “In conversation with Abdulrazak Gurnah”, which will have the physical presence of the Tanzanian Nobel laureate, will be hosted by Mr Kunle Ajibade, the Executive Editor of The News/PM News and will begin at 12:45 pm. The third and final on the list are two which are
Pleasantview- Celeste Mohammed
A Broken People’s Playlist- Chimeka Garricks
It will be hosted by Toni Kan and will start at 2:45 pm. There will also be an interview with Femi Eluwofoju on his book Far From Being a Country hosted by Ade Bantu at 11:40 am. Bantu will return as host for Palm Wine and Poetry, the last programme for the event. Panelists include; Lebogang Mashile, Maryam Bukar, Aremu Gemini, Moyosola Olowokure, Hauwa Saleh, Tade Ipadeola and Logain Ali Sirelkhatim Ali. It will start at 7:30 pm.
The three days of cultural immersion is a return to holding physical sessions after the 2021 edition of the festival founded by the award-winning author and poet, Lola Shoneyin in 2013
was done virtually due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was titled “Generational Discordance”.
The full Ake Arts and Book Festival programme is available at www.akefestival.org/programme.