Berlin’s African book festival: shades of Blackness in Conversation
This year’s fourth edition of Berlin’s annual African book festival, which took place between the 26th and 28th of August, was curated by South African writer, filmmaker, and photographer, winner of the 2016 Caine Prize, Lidudumalingani. The festival’s theme, “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow”, looked into the intergenerational links between writers, and has also become a unifying ground around which internationally acclaimed African artists and authors could share the vastness and diversity of the African artistic, social and cultural landscape.
While this year’s focus was South Africa, authors and artists from Ghana, Uganda, Namibia, Cameroon, DR Congo, Zimbabwe, Angola, Nigeria, and Botswana, as well as the African diaspora, took part in the festival, unique for the variety and richness of its programs. English and German programs, on four panels were offered. Visitors could join discussion panels, reading, comedy and poetry performances, live music shows and a variety of stands with African food and products.
The festival, organised by the non-profit association InterKontinental e.V., founded by Karla Kutzner and Stefanie Hirsbrunner, has at the core the intent to create awareness of the vast, heterogeneous, and rich African literature and arts, going beyond stereotypes and one-sided euro-centric reductive representations of Africa. A key moment in Stefanie Hirsbrunner’s life is represented by the discovery of Walter Rodney’s “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” during her stay in Accra. Rodney’s historical book provided her with facts and the indigenous perspective of African history, as opposed to the euro-centric imperialist knowledge of Africa she had been taught in high school. As Stefanie states, “The book became the breakthrough and my source of drive in my interest in knowing more about Africa and sharing that knowledge with others. Great African figures and artists fought imperialist powers, and it is a shame that they remain unknown to the wider public. Yaa Asantewaa, for instance, who as a woman led the Ashanti war and brought to victory the army against the British.”
Like Stefanie Hirsbrunner, Lidudumalingani went beyond Western representations and constructs of Africa when thinking of the festival. Referring to the festival’s theme and its central figure, Margaret Busby, the first and youngest African publisher and editor of “New Daughters of Africa”, Lidudumalingani states, “I did not want to talk about race as white’s hierarchical form of grouping people. This festival is about Blackness, Black people affirming themselves in their different expressions and their most brilliant state. I am far more concerned with history and how works connect throughout generations. The festival has given ground for people to inspire each other. Margaret Busby, for instance, by publishing a book years ago, has allowed Black women to know that they can also publish books worth the recognition and talent.”
JJ Bola, Congolese-born writer, poet, and educator based in London, guest of the festival, sees the event “as a way to have conversations rather than merely having black stories dominate the scene”. “One can’t fail to realise the diversity of the stories being told, which teaches about the diversity within the Black community, “ he states.
In fact, all authors and artists experienced and brought blackness to the event in different forms. South-African poet, writer, researcher, and teacher Athambile Masola, author of the anthology of poems “Ilifa”, in her poetry performance, distanced herself from the more political and passionate poems performed by south-African Xabiso Vili, or Namibian poet, author and performer Keith Black. She opted instead to stand for Black resistance through “sweet poems, poems about love”, as she defines them. She also emphasises how her work can be considered a legacy to South-African singer Meriam Makeba, “the queen of cultural diplomacy, who would sing songs in different languages without translating them. Like her, I decided to perform in Xhosa. This is, to me, a way to give legitimacy to our work and fight. We are not being called here to perform ourselves. We are coming here to say: this is what I do. These are the things I think about, and they matter to me.”
Maneo Mohale, South-African editor, feminist writer and poet who performed in the festival, saw in the latter an opportunity to inspire other African queers like them to also tell their story. As they say, “I want to see more queer artists, gender non-conforming Africans, and our presence here renders that possible.”
While the festival has given ground for authors to share their works and perspectives, it also brought them to reflect on the diversity of Africa. Emmanuel Iduma, Nigerian writer, and art critic author of “A Stranger’s Pose”, referring to a conversation with JJ Bola, whom he met at the festival, said, “ I am glad to have met him and to understand what it means to be Congolese in London. I did not grow up in the West; I grew up in Nigeria. My experience growing up as an African person is very related to being in the continent, and it has no correspondence to Europe in the same way.”
One of the visitors of the festival Maaza Mengiste Ethio-American writer and winner of the 2021’s Gregor von Rezzori price with her novel “The Shadow King” also recognizes the festival’s value in showing how diverse the African landscape is. Referring, in particular, to the African diaspora she says “we have to understand that we are Ethiopian, but we are not just Ethiopian. We are diasporic, and we may have more in common with the diaspora of Nigeria and Angola… there is a way of being outside of a continent that defines us together in a way. These festivals help us realise it but also continues to be a bridge to different countries and continents.”
The African book festival has indeed been a trait d’ union between different African cultures and perspective, managing also to show their heterogeneity and complexities beyond western stereotypical and reductive representations of Africa.