Programme

AFRICAN LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2024

– Dialogue with Africa

Dialogue with Africa is an African literature festival taking place in Aarhus the 11^th – 14^th of October and in Copenhagen the 14^th of October 2024. At the festival, you get to hear many intriguing lectures, debates, and readings with Ghanaian, Ugandan, Kenyan, and Danish authors and researchers. The festival explores parts of the contemporary African literary scene through three themes: ‘Debates in African Literature Right Now’, ‘Africa’s Diverse Languages’, and ‘Writers in Exile’. See the full festival programme for Aarhus below.

Time: the 11th – 14th of October 2024.

Location: Vogn 1, Godsbanen, Skovgaardsgade 3, 8000 Aarhus, Denmark

Price: Free, register to: wind.kommunikation@webspeed.dk

Language: English

PROGRAMME 12.10.2024

DIALOQUE WITH AFRICA

Creating dialogues through literature is the way forward for new collaborations and better conditions for writers, including the freedom to express oneself feely. Therefore, Danish Pen, Aarhus University, and Aarhus Litteraturcenter invite you to an African literature festival where African authors can provide the Danish public with new insights through literature.

10:00

Opening and welcome by Danish PEN.

Theme 1: Debates in African Literature Right Now

10:10 Must African authors always write about the colonial period? Kenyan Billy Kahora, author, editor, and co-founder of the organization/publisher Kwani? discusses trends in recent (primarily East) African literature: What is being written, and what are the conditions for African authors? Trine Andersen, Danish PEN’s board, introduces Billy Kahora.

Theme 2: Africa’s Diverse Languages

10:40 Ugandan Kakwenza Rukirabashaija discusses the ability to write in one’s own language vs the languages of former colonial powers. Jørgen Christian Wind Nielsen, Danish PEN’s board, introduces Kakwenza Rukirabashaija.

11:10 Dialogue through literature: Panel discussion with Billy Kahora, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, Kofi Anyidoho, Gabriel Awuah Mainoo, and Helen Yitah.

11:45 Break.

12:00 Readings of selected works by Billy Kahora, Thomas Boberg, Helen Yitah, and Kakwenza Rukirabashaija.

12:30 Lunch break and book exhibitions (food can be bought at Godsbanen).

Theme 3: Writers in Exile

13:30 Danish-Somali Qaali Schmidt-Sørensen discusses how fleeing from Somalia to Denmark has impacted her writing career. Cathrine Hasse, Danish PEN’s board, introduces Qaali Schmidt-Sørensen.

14:00 Conditions for authors at home and abroad: Panel discussion with Qaali Schmidt-Sørensen, Billy Kahora, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, Kofi Anyidoho, Gabriel Awuah Mainoo, and Anne Green Munk.

14:45 Readings by Qaali Schmidt-Sørensen, Billy Kahora, Thomas Boberg, Kakwenza Rukirabashaija, Gabriel Awuah Mainoo/Anne Green Munk, and Kofi Anyidoho.

15:30 Thank you for today.

PROGRAMME 13.10.2024

REPRESENTING SLAVERY IN GHANA

The seminar deals with strategies and problems related to the contemporary representation of the Transatlantic slave trade in what is today Ghana. Our three speakers highlight the complexities inherent in narrating this story and presenting it both in a European and West African context.

10:00 Opening and welcome by Mads Anders Baggesgaard.

10:15 Emmanuel Saboro, Cape Coast University, Ghana: Historical and Cultural Memories of the Slave Trade in Ghana: The Hidden and Lost Stories that Spaces and Places Tell.

10:45 William Nsuiban, Ghana Monu: “’Blind Spots: Unveiling the Shadows’, exhibiting slavery in contemporary Ghana”.

11:15 Break.

12:00 Jeppe Brixvold: Presentation of his novel ”I de levendes verden” (In The World of the Living, 2023).

12:45 Representing slavery in Ghana: Panel discussion.

13:30 Thank you for today.