The African Union (AU), in partnership with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD), organized an AU20 residency program for established writers from across Africa to produce a work that celebrates the unity and potential of the African continent.
This year, the African Union celebrates its 20th anniversary since the organization’s establishment at the Durban Summit in July 2002. Called AU20, the celebrations were held under the theme “Our Africa, Our Future” and focus on the initiatives, successes and impact of the UA. , challenges and the way forward.
The writers’ residency took the form of a hybrid programme, with two online meetings in October/November and a two-week physical residency at the Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD) in Accra, Ghana, from 14-28 January. november.
Following the theme “Our Africa, Our Future”, five writers from the continent were commissioned to interpret the theme in a broad and expansive way through a selected genre, including fiction, narrative non-fiction and poetry. The piece is between 5,000 and 7,000 words (or five poems for poets) on the theme “Our Africa, Our Future” for the e-book. The final work will be published in an eBook anthology to be released in early 2023.
The AU20 project aims to raise the profile of AU in the minds of Africans, particularly the creative community, and to better connect AU with African citizens. Powered by Africa No Filter, the writers residency is a unique contribution to bringing the African Union closer to Africans by selecting creative professionals who think outside the box, dare to challenge convention and deliver new and original work through the materials, techniques and subjects.
The Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD) together with the African Union, UNDP and Africa No Filter have announced the final winners of the AU20 writing project. Here are the five winners and a bit of their professional background.
i) Nour Kamel from the Arab Republic of Egypt. Nour writes about identity, language, sexuality, queerness, gender, oppression, femininity, trauma, family, lineage, globalization, loss, and food. She is the author of the chapter book “Noon” in New-Generation African Poets: A Chapbook Box Set (Sita).
ii) TJ Benson of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. His writing explores the body in the context of memory, migration, utopia, and the unconscious self, and his work has been exhibited, published in various magazines, and shortlisted for awards. The author of three novels, his latest, People Live Here, is out now.
iii) Musih Tedji Xaviere of the Republic of Cameroon. She is a writer, activist, and moth storyteller. Her debut novel, These Letters End in Tears, won the 2021 Pontas and JJ Bola Emerging Writer Award. It will be published in the US and UK in 2024 by Catapult and Jacaranda Books.
iv) Tony Mochama of the Republic of Kenya. He is a poet, author, and a senior journalist for The Nation Media Group. He is a three-time Burt Award Winner for African Young Adult Literature and a recipient of the Miles Morland Writing Scholarship. His futuristic novel, 2063 – Last Mile Bet, was published by Oxford University Press.
v) Sue Nyathi of the Republic of South Africa. She is the author of four novels, her latest, An Angel’s Demise, published in October by Pan Macmillan. A Zimbabwean based in South Africa, she was shortlisted for the 2020 Dublin Literary Prize and is a JIAS ’22 Fellow.
The Library Of Africa and The African Diaspora (LOATAD) reportedly received an overwhelming number of applications from across the continent, with the selected writers representing the best of African literary talent, as well as the literary future.
Starting out in a one-room office, the library attracted great national and international attention and quickly outgrew. In 2020, it changed its name to Library Of Africa and The African Diaspora and moved to a larger space that includes a special collections/archives room, a screening room, and extensive outdoor event space.
As a comprehensive African library, it also has an archive, a museum, a writing residence, and a research center. It is dedicated to collecting and displaying authors from Africa and the African Diaspora from the late 19th century to the present.
The library has more than 4,000 volumes of literary fiction and narrative nonfiction dating from the early 20th century to the present. From Algeria to Kenya and from Liberia to Zimbabwe, the collections represent the rich diversity of the African continent and its vast diaspora.
LOATAD’s focus is on books by writers of African descent, including African, African-American, Caribbean, Black European, Afro-Latino, and Indigenous writers. The Library of Africa and the African Diaspora (LOATAD) is located in Accra, Ghana.
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