Jalada brings African writers together to inspire and tell stories
Jalada; sketch of A Bald Woman In the Semi-Nude and other stories. Photo/courtesy
What you need to know:
Being a member of this collective puts an aspiring writer in close proximity with seasoned writers like Clifton Gachagua, Mehul Gohil, Ndinda Kioko, Okwiri Oduor and NoVuyo Tshuma.
Jalada (jalada.org) is more than an online literary journal with short stories and poems by young African writers. It is a place that writers from Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Nigeria get to assist each other build their craft.
“The goal is for the Jalada collective to be a self-sustaining, self-nurturing, cooperative community of writers. Writers are encouraged to build and deepen relationships amongst themselves so as to further their craft and career,” says Nicholas Ochiel, a member of the Jalada editorial team.
He joined the journal in July 2013 on invitation from Okwiri Oduor – winner of the 2014 Caine Prize for African Writing with her short story, My Father’s Head. The only criteria for membership is that one be interested in writing and publishing regularly, and working with Jalada members and its projects.
Being a member of this collective puts an aspiring writer in close proximity with seasoned writers like Clifton Gachagua, Mehul Gohil, Ndinda Kioko, Okwiri Oduor and NoVuyo Tshuma who were selected for the Hay Festival Africa39, a selection and celebration of the most promising 39 authors under the age of 40 from sub-Saharan Africa and the diaspora.
“Jalada editors Anne Moraa and Gachagua have taught me how to read and analyse literature and poetry. The excellent work and critique by writers such as Ndinda, Alexander Ikawah, Linda Musita has challenged me to find new ways to use language, and taught me creative ways of thinking about the world,” says Mr Ochiel.
He has written and published three short stories with Jalada and two essays on the work of Chimamanda Ngozi and Yvonne Owuor with helpful critique from Jalada members. Since its inception last year, Jalada has published two anthologies: Sketch of a Bald Woman in Semi-nude and Other Stories and Sext Me Poems and Stories.
Author Binyavanga Wainaina tweeted praising the anthologies: “African creative generation producing genuinely original most wonderful work. This is some of the best I have seen,” and “Did I mention I love what Jalada is doing. Exciting fresh writing. My favourite right now.”
The collective also has a creative director, Marziya Mohammedali, who is responsible for all the eye-catching photography that appears in the anthologies. She has done a lot of word-text creative work at koroga.tumblr.com.
Going forward, Mohammedali will guide the visual direction and identity of Jalada publications and websites.
Anne Moraa, a talented Kenyan writer and spoken word artist, has taken leadership of a project to schedule writing workshops and reading groups in 2015 and onward. The aim of this and future works is to spread African literature and writing to diverse audiences, starting in East Africa then across Africa, and to build more cooperative writing communities.
To achieve this, the stories are free to read online and the forum has begun to organise for the print editions.
“Jalada’s main goal is to enable African writers to write and to help build platforms through which they can be read. Obscurity is the worst thing for a published writer. Making our anthologies free to read online ensures that there are very few barriers preventing interested readers from accessing our work. It also makes it extremely easy for our stories to circulate through various online networks,” says Mr Ochiel.
Towards the end of the year, they hope to publish an “Afrofuture(s)” anthology containing science/speculative fiction writing from African authors across the world, all focused on imagining new African futures.
