Literary Hub in Nairobi is now Goethe Institute

LITERARY TALKS DRAWING CROWDS AT GOETHE INSTITUTE

By margaretta wa Gacheru Saturday, April 16, 2016

Goethe Institute's Literary Conversations on Refugees and Displacement was moderated by Southern African novelist and columnist Zukiswa Wanner

Last Thursday night’s lively discussion on the ‘Refugee Crisis’ focusing on the theme of ‘Displacement and Refuge’ confirmed for all who came to Goethe Institute that night that the Crisis isn’t confined to Europe and the Middle East alone. Rather, it is a challenge affecting the global population, including Africa and Africans.

Moderated by Southern African novelist Zukiwsa Wanner, the discussion opened with readings by two writers whose selections focused on refugee crises in different parts of the world.

The German writer Tanya Duckers read from her historical novel ‘Celestial Bodies’ which looked back on World War 2 and the displacement of the grandparents’ of a young female scientist whose elders had to flee Nazi Germany. The young woman sought to understand what being a refugee had meant to her grandmother, but it wasn’t an easy subject for the old woman to speak about.

Popular German novelist Tanya Duckers discussed the central topic of the talks as well as the subject of her novel 'Celestial Bodies' which she read from at the panel. all photos by Margaretta

The other writer was the Kenyan poet, actress and playwright Sitawa Namwalie who had worked for a time in Rwanda and had just completed a short story about the 1994 Genocide and its impact on those who’d survived that historic horror.

Sitawa Namwalie, the Kenyan poet, playwright, novelist and actor at Goethe Intitute read from her brand new short story on survivors of the Rwandan geneocide

Goethe Institute has become a leading venue in Nairobi for lively literary discussions, such as the one called ‘Literary Crossroads’ which was launched last week and which, like the ‘Displacement and Refuge’ series, was the first in a series of conversations that will take place over the next few months.

Both sessions follow a similar format in that there’s a panel made up of a Kenyan and non-Kenyan writer who are prepared to read and talk about their work, moderated by a leading local literary figure.

In the Crossroads session the PEN Kenya Chairman Khainga O’Okwemba chaired the conversation between the Nigerian novelist and Ambassador to Ivory Coast Ifeoma Akabogu-Chinwuba and the Kenyan poet, playwright, painter and novelist Dr Elizabeth Orchardson-Mazrui

Nigerian novelist and ambassador to Ivory Coast spoke at Goethe Institute twice, once during Literary Conversations, once at AMKA, the Kenya women's literary forum

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Ambassador Ifeoma’s readings and discourse about her work as a writer elicited so much interest that she was invited to yet another literary forum, AMKA, which Goethe conducts on the last Saturday of every month. It was the Saturday before Easter and the organizers had initially planned to cancel that Saturday session, but the crowd who came to the Literary Crossroads session clearly wanted to hear more from the Nigerian novelist-ambassador. In fact, the upstairs conference room at Goethe was packed (standing room only) during that AMKA forum, which in itself confirms that the Kenyan literary community has grown exponentially in recent times.

AMKA started an emerging women writers’ forum where aspiring poets and short story writers came to share and critique one another’s writings. But the venue has gotten so popular, and local writers are so keen for honest criticism from fellow writers that the population of men attending the forum is now nearly as large as that of women.

Tony Mochama, poet and novelist, is one of the many men who have become regular attendants at the Kenya Women's Literary Forum, AMKA

What’s inspiring about all of these literary scenes is that the forums Goethe Institute has been organizing of late, including ‘Spoken Word’ sessions, public readings in ‘Unusual Spaces’, Conversations between Kenyan and non-Kenyan writers and even talks on timely topics like the Refugee Crisis, Displacement and Refuge have attracted growing attention among a younger generation of Kenyans.

In a sense, these conversations serve not only to illustrate that Nairobi has become a fertile ground for creative writers. They also begin to fulfill something that Muthoni Garland and Storymoja have been calling for, for a very long time, and that is for Kenyans to experience a Reading – and also a Writing – Revolution, something that’s being manifest right before our eyes.