2017 Ake Festival kicks off in grand style

 

 

Last week Thursday was a special day for Africa literature as Chinua Achebe was featured as a Google dongle, signifying the ultimate nod from Western civilisation as ‘father of modern African literature.”
The Google dongle, for those who don’t use the ubiquitous US search engine, is this image thing that you will encounter when you log on.

It wasn’t just about Chinua Achebe’s mugshot on a US search engine, the day marked the official opening ceremony of the 5th edition of the Ake Arts & Books Festival 2017.

The festival started on the November 14, with guests visiting schools in the host city of Abeokuta to inspire the next generation of both artists and consumers of their art.
There was also a workshop by Nnedi Okorafor, on speculative fiction, graphic novels and comics.

The opening ceremony was hosted at the June 12 Cultural Centre named in commemoration of the annulled June 12, 1993, presidential election that saw a prominent son of Abeokuta, Chief M.K.O. Abiola, emerge as the acclaimed winner of the poll.

With a huge build-up on the highway from Lagos, festival organisers had to wait hours before guests showed up and proceedings commenced. By early afternoon, there was barely enough guests for events to kick-off officially.

As is traditional, the Ogun state anthem was belted to the rafters with Adunni and Nefertiti, the folk/traditional music group leading guests while the federation anthem led by musician Celeste was taken by the audience.

The events then kicked off like they have done for the last five years; with a welcome speech from Festival Director, Lola Shoneyin. Her speech was followed by goodwill messages from the supporters of this year’s edition of the festival like Coca Cola Communications Manager, Linda Okondo; Taye Adelajon on behalf of Kufre Ekanem from Nigerian Breweries and Sterling Bank’s Chief Operating Officer, Henry Bassey.

These organisations reminded theaudience that they have done a lot for women, who were the focus of the festival, as well as that they have supported the festival in the past.
Similarly, Managing Director of Vlisco, Hollandis Dutch wax, Yvonne Chioke, gave a goodwill message while also presenting some awards. The recipients of the award include: Adebola Rayo for her work in mental health awareness; Kikelomo Woleoso for her work in sexual health awareness and for using her experience to empower and help rape victims; and the Kaduna state First Lady, Hadiza Isma El-Rufai, for encouraging women in creativity and Literature.

The list of six was rounded off with Mona Eltahawy for her work in women’s rights and Lesban, Gays, By-sexual and Trans-sexual (LGBT) rights; Kadaria Ahmed for her journalistic work, and Festival Headliner, Ama Ata Aidoo, for paving way for female writers and inspiring another generation of writers.

Also, handing out goodies on the day was Goethe, Head of Information and Library, Safurat Balogun, who introduced Lagos to Limbe (hey that’s the hometown of Behold The Dreamer’s protagonists, Jende and Neni Jonga) project, that they had run alongside Bakwa Magazine and Saraba.

Balogun announced that Nkiacha Atemnkeng (Cameroon) and Sada Malumfashi (Nigeria) would be the writers going on a three months residency at Sylt in Germany next year.

Announcement of the Nommo Awards 2017 was also made at this event.
Also, Molara Wood, who gave the review of Ake, which she edited for the second time, handed out a review filled with wonderful short stories, poetry, essays and photography, celebrating the theme of That F-Word.

The review, which is lovely incidentally, was presented with funfair and given to the Festival Headliner, Ama Ata Aidoo.
As all this awesomeness was happening, the audience was also treated to this year’s spoken word, which was presented in an Opening Poem by Poetra Asantewa, which extoled the women. Find me a creature more profound than woman…such a powerful piece that was by Poetra.

The Ogun state Deputy Governor, Yetunde Onanuga, who gave a welcome speech to formally welcome Ake Festival organisers and participants to the state, also declared the festival officially open.

 

Leave a Reply