Talking to a new friend in 2014, acclaimed Kenyan writer Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor complained aloud, “Why do I have to go to Europe and America to meet African writers who are writing in other languages?”
Thus, the idea for the Macondo Literary Festival was born. Ms Owuor had met journalist Anja Bengelstorff to talk about her novel “Dust” and a friendship blossomed, through books and, they both laugh about it, Ms Bengelstorff’s baking.
Macondo is a fictional town in Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s famed novel, “100 Years of Solitude”.
The duo took the name and hoped to literally recreate as Ms Bengelstorff puts it, “a place where magical things happen!”
Ms Owuor brought in her invaluable experience of running the Zanzibar International Film Festival.
She says, “We thought, this is where we could offer Kenyan and African readers, wherever they are from, show [them] that African literature is more than what is written in English.”
Under the pillars of African history, its future and the art of translating literature, with Ms Bengelstorff’s attention to detail and Ms Owuor’s networks in the literary community, the first event was held in 2019 to an audience they found hungry to partake of what they were serving.
“Bringing in Ziwa Kuu, which others call the Indian Ocean or the Swahili seas into this mix is asking, What does it mean for us to be a sea people? We don't talk enough about Africans as historically maritime human beings,” Ms Owuor speaks on this year’s theme, The Sea is History.
The Macondo-lites
One would ask how bringing Arabophone, Lusophone (Portuguese speaking), Francophone, Anglophone and Hispanophone writers to Nairobi would work with the city’s audience in terms of the language barrier. Despite their works being translated into English, they may not speak it.
Ms Bengelstorff speaks of the Macondo community that has emerged since the start of their festival, loyalists who give their time and resources.
Ms Owuor recalls they will be working with Ndegwa who’ll be on the Portuguese desk. Ndegwa, she regales, learnt the language from watching Brazilian soap operas.
Speaking of the festival’s attendees, the fourth edition, and die-hards, Ms Bengelstorff says, “By community, I mean the people who lay claim to this festival, who say, ‘this is my event, I have been looking forward [to it] all year,’ and they come not only to meet particular authors. It's so much more than just getting an autograph. It's not something we can explain!”
For Ms Bengelstorff, the way the Kenyan community has embraced the Macondo festival is a real sign of success.
A spiritual pilgrimage
Seirra Leonian writer Aminatta Forna visited last year’s Macondo festival and relayed to the organisers, “It’s one of the best festivals I’ve attended!” which blew Ms Bengelsorff’s mind given Ms Forna’s reach and body of work.
“For the writers, it ends up being an incredible kind of spiritual pilgrimage. But, also, Nairobi does what Nairobi does. Nairobi is such a hospitable, warm and loving place,” Ms Owuor says of visiting writers’ experiences of the city of Nairobi and the festival itself.
Kenyan writer Yvonne A. Owuor and journalist Anja Bengelstorff.
Photo credit: Pool
For Ms Owuor, Angolan writer Jose Eduardo Agualusa sums up what the Macondo Literary Festival is all about.
The greatest take-away is how many of our people, people of African descent and African writers, ache to be in an African city or an African place,” she says.
Of Mr Agualusa, she recalls, “He got so emotional when he found that he has readers in Kenya, in Nairobi, who had been waiting for him.”
Morrocan author Youssef Fadel, on the backdrop of the 2023 edition, said he had never before been invited to an event on African soil and was overwhelmed by the reception.
A new audience
“Part of stepping into the future is to be very conscious of the needs of that community that has claimed their stake [in this festival] and we have to open our own hearts and minds in a way that accommodates the growth of this event,” Ms Owuor speaks of the future of the event.
Wangari the storyteller, known for her prowess in the oral form of literature, will spearhead the activities at the children’s corner.
Most exciting
Ms Bengelstorff and Ms Owuor talk about what they are most excited about this year’s showcase.
“What is not very common is writing nature, and writing nature as a subject, not an object. Mostly, we write stories where nature is the background, not at the centre of it.
"We have an Indian author who writes like that. Her novel blew my mind,” Ms Bengelstorff speaks of what will have her most fixated come Saturday.
For Ms Owuor, this year’s theme, The Sea is History is close to her heart. “For me, the idea of our connectedness to those waters (the seas and oceans of Africa).
I'm most excited that the sea is a theme and a conversation. And linked to that is [that now] Swahili literature enters into the Macondo story.”
Ms Owuor would also like to see Nairobi declared a UNESCO city of literature. “It not only gives stature, but also brings resources into a city.”
