Tag: writing
African Women Writers: Introducing the class of #AWW14
African Women Writers: Introducing the class of #AWW14
In July of this year, AWDF in partnership with the Ugandan Women Writers Association held a 10 day residential writers workshop led by Yewande Omotoso and Mamle Kabu. The workshop brought together 26 African women writers from 10 African countries. During the period, the writers honed skills, learnt new tips and techniques, and perhaps most important of all, committed to amplifying their work and those of other African women writers.
African Women Write (AWW14) is a document which details the writers (including facilitators and the coordinating team) who constitute #AWW14. In case you are wondering what that hashtag means, its the acronym that was coined for ‘African Women Writers’ with 14 representing the year this workshop took place. Find some of our tweets via that hashtag on twitter and check out the storify that HOLAAfrica pulled together from our 10 day frenzy of live tweeting.
By: Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah,
Communications Specialist, AWDF
Podcast: Yewande Omotoso with Ama Ata Aidoo
Podcast: Yewande Omotoso with Ama Ata Aidoo
[tp lang=”en” not_in=”fr”]On International Women’s Day this year, the writer Yewande Omotoso led a writer’s masterclass at AWDF House with internationally acclaimed writer Ama Ata Aidoo as our special guest. Using excerpts from Ama’s talk with the participants, Yewande has created this podcast which we love and is a useful resource for writers and creative people everywhere.[/tp]
[tp lang=”fr” not_in=”en”]Lors de la Journée internationale de la femme cette année, l’écrivain Yewande Omotoso a dirigé la masterclass d’écriture à la Maison AWDF avec l’écrivain de renommée internationale Ama Ata Aidoo qui était notre invitée spéciale. En utilisant des extraits de discours de Ama avec les participants, Yewande a créé ce podcast que nous aimons et qui est une ressource utile pour les écrivains et les gens créatifs partout dans le monde.[/tp]
You have to be a selfish woman
You have to be a selfish woman
Ma’ami,
you would love these women.
Maybe not at first,
maybe not all at once,
but oh, you would love them.
They would speak to your heart
and
the things you wouldn’t say
couldn’t say?
Like “maybe I should have left my husband.”
Maybe I should have loved myself enough
To say, out loud, because it is important:
“I married a wonderful man,
but the wonder didn’t last.”
They would celebrate you
and hug you out of the dark places
where you hid your doubts about a faithful God
Your questions about a faithless man
Your prayers for your straying children
Your tears at four a.m
and five a.m
and eleven p.m
and midnight.
They would tell you
“ah, mama, you look amazing today!”
Or, “take that trip, mama,
it will teach you what deserving is.”
You deserve – peace in the home you built
with your own two hands
The joy of your grandchildrens’ laughter
A good husband
Or at least, a better one than
the wonderful man you married
loved, fed, clothed – stayed with.
I have questions, ma’ami.
Why did you stay?
Did you not have sisters
to hold you as you shocked yourself with your own tears?
Did no one tell you;
this is where you can go
When none of the children pouring off the playground
at pick-up
are yours
because your husband has stolen them?
Where were your sisters
to teach you how
you sweep up the dust,
throw out the trash
that a kicked-out man will leave?
I have so many questions, ma’ami.
There is so much I don’t know.
Why did they leave you alone?
These big-talking, prayer-hawking
women who claimed your strength
was enough excuse.
Where were they?
At this point:
wry laughter over longer hair
from cracked skull and month-long hospital stay.
Or this:
office-opening in Central Business District
and ‘Head-of-Firm’ on the door.
Did they love you at all?
Who did they think was holding your hand?
I have things I want to tell you, ma’ami.
Do you recognise the woman I’m becoming?
I would hold your hand now.
Do you see how your granddaughter laughs?
She will ask me about you
And I will hug her and tell her
at first, easy things, like
how I saw your face
In these women, in this place.
How it made me wish you were still here,
so I could be the one who finally told you:
You have to be more than a good woman, ma’ami
You have to be a selfish woman
and this is how…
This work was developed during the African Women’s Development Fund and Femrite African Women Creative Non-Fiction Writing Workshop in Uganda, July 2014.
Uganda: 30th July 2014, Public Dialogue and Literary Event
Uganda: 30th July 2014, Public Dialogue and Literary Event
On the 30th of July, the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) in partnership with the Ugandan Women’s Association (FEMRITE) will hold a public dialogue and literary event at Hotel Africana in Kampala, Uganda. The theme for the event is ‘African women speaking for ourselves: What difference does it make?’ This event is open to the general public and starts at 3.30pm.
Speakers at the event will include Dr Hilda Tadria, Executive Director of MEMPROW and Board member of AWDF; Theo Sowa, CEO of AWDF; Yewande Omotoso, author of Bom Boy; Mamle Kabu, author of The Kaya Girl; Hilda Twongyeirwe, Executive Director of FEMRITE; Hon. Mary Karoro Okurut, Founder of FEMRITE; Lina Zedriga, Director of Women, Peace and Security at Regional Associates for Community Initiatives and Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, Communications Specialist at AWDF.
Also speaking and performing at the event are the participants of the 1st regional creative non fiction workshop organised by AWDF and FEMRITE. These are:
Abena Kyere – Ghana
Adegbeye Olutimehin – Nigeria
Alexis Teyie – Kenya
Amina Doherty – Nigeria
Beatrice Lamwaka – Uganda
Comfort Mussa – Cameroon
Deborah Frempong – Ghana
Eunice Kilonzo – Kenya
Fafa Yvonne Quashigah – Ghana
Florence Khaxas – Namibia
Hannah Wanja Maina – Kenya
Jennifer Thorpe – South Africa
Kagure Mugo – South Africa/Kenya
Kechi Nomu – Nigeria
Moiyattu Banya – Sierra Leone
Njoki Wamai – Kenya
Rita Nketiah – Ghana
Ritah Atwongyeire – Uganda
Tendai Garwe – Zimbabwe
Valérie Dginia Bah – Benin/Haiti
Resources: Notes from Scriptwriting Masterclass by Ade Solanke
Resources: Notes from Scriptwriting Masterclass by Ade Solanke
At the 2nd African Women in Film Forum (AWIFF), Ade Solanke, award winning playwright and screenwriter led a masterclass on scriptwriting.
The power point from this session is embedded below:
Yari Yari Ntoaso: Continuing the Dialogue – An International Conference on Literature by Women of African Ancestry
Yari Yari Ntoaso: Continuing the Dialogue – An International Conference on Literature by Women of African Ancestry
[tp lang=”en” not_in=”fr”]I am excited that Yari Yari Ntoaso, an international conference focusing on African women writers is coming to Ghana from the 16th-19th May. Our very own Ama Ata Aidoo is one of the founding members of this initiative and the conference will bring together numerous inspirational women writers of African descent. Women like Angela Davis and Carole Boyce Davis who helped shape my thinking around the intersection of race and gender. Nnedi Okorafor, whose book is currently in the pile of ‘books to read’ on my bedside table. Bibi Bakare-Yusuf who started the Cassava Republic Press, and who I had the privilege of interviewing for ‘Women Leading Africa‘.
I am honoured that I have been invited to speak on a panel about ‘Writing Sexuality’. The entire Yari Yari programme is FREE and the general public are invited to attend, participate and learn from all the resource people who will be there.
Click links below for the full programme and press release
YYN DRAFT Schedule YYN GHANAPress Release[/tp]
[tp lang=”fr” not_in=”en”]Je suis heureuse que Yari Yari Ntoaso, une conférence internationale axée sur les femmes écrivains africaines se tienne au Ghana du 16 au 19 mai. Notre chère Ama Ata Aidoo est l’un des membres fondateurs de cette initiative et la conférence rassemblera de nombreuses femmes écrivains inspirantes d’origine africaine. Des femmes comme Angela Davis et Carole Boyce Davis, qui ont contribué à façonner ma pensée autour de l’intersection de la race et du sexe. Nnedi Okorafor, dont le livre est actuellement dans la pile des «livres à lire» sur ma table de chevet. Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, qui a commencé la Cassava Republic Press, et que j’ai eu le privilège d’interviewer pour ‘Women Leading Africa‘.
Je suis honorée d’avoir été invitée à prendre la parole lors d’une discussion sur “Ecrire la Sexualité”. L’ensemble du programme Yari Yari est libre et le grand public est invité à y assister, à participer et apprendre de toutes les personnes ressources qui seront là.
Cliquez ci-dessous pour le liens programme complet et communiqué de presse
YYN DRAFT Schedule YYN GHANAPress Release[/tp]
Meet Kuukua Dzigbordi Yomekpe : Marcella Althaus-Reid Award winner who will be reading at ‘Women of the World: Talking about a Revolution’
Meet Kuukua Dzigbordi Yomekpe : Marcella Althaus-Reid Award winner who will be reading at ‘Women of the World: Talking about a Revolution’
Kuukua is one of the many talented writers who will be participating in AWDF and Alliance Francaise (Accra)’s book slam for International Women’s Day, 8th March. She will also be sharing her thoughts on writing, and providing insights into some of her experiences that has inspired her particular writing style.
She characterizes herself as a memoirist, essayist, and writer of social commentary. Kuukua is the author of several essays and prose poems. Some of her essays have been anthologized in: African Women Writing Resistance (UW Press), Becoming Bi: Bisexual Voices from Around the World (BRC), and Inside Your Ear (Oakland Public Library Press). Her essay, “The Audacity to Remain Single: Single Black Women in the Black Church,” won the Marcella Althaus-Reid Award for best “Queer Essay,” and is anthologized in Queer Religion II (Praeger Publishers). Her piece of creative non-fiction, “Where is Your Husband: Single African Women in the Diaspora and the Exploration/Expression of Sexuality” is due to be published shortly. She has participated in the Voices of Our Nation residency at UC Berkeley.
She has her hands in three projects currently: The Coal Pot, a Culinary Memoir celebrating her Ghanaian roots, Musings of an African Woman, her blog which features a collection of personal essays about immigration and assimilation, and The Innocents, an adolescent mystery novel. She hopes to compile an anthology of stories by adult children of immigrant parents sometime late 2013. Her scholarly and writing interests lie at the intersection of race and skin color, African culture, Black women’s bodies, expression of voice, and non fictional writing.
She avidly feeds a voracious travel bug that occupies the hinterlands of her soul, so is often found wandering various parts of the world. She has been feeding her love-hate affair with Ghana for the past 4 months.
Even though she’s struggling with the adjustment to Ghana—irregular availability of water and electricity, men’s sexist attitudes, and the Traffic (nothing can adequately capture it), her vision for the country requires that she deal with her own participation in the brain drain. For now, she is enjoying being Addidas, which in Twi means eating and sleeping and doing it all over again. In her case, the occasional memoir or blog post thrown in for color.
Meet Monica Arac de Nyeko, 2007 Caine Prize Winner who will be reading at ‘Women of the World: Talking about a Revolution’
Meet Monica Arac de Nyeko, 2007 Caine Prize Winner who will be reading at ‘Women of the World: Talking about a Revolution’
Monica Arac de Nyeko is a Ugandan writer. She was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for African writing in 2004 for ‘Strange Fruit, winning the prize in 2007 for ‘Jambula Tree’ which was described by the chair of judges, Jamal Mahjoub, as “a witty and touching portrait of a community which is affected forever by a love which blossoms between two adolescents”.
In celebration of International Women’s Month, Monica will be participating in 2 events with the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) and our partners Alliance Francaise (Accra). On Thursday 7th March Monica will join a panel of writers including Mamle Kabu, Mama C and Kuukua Yomekpe to hold a vibrant discussion on writing which will include sharing inspiration behind characters, experiences of writing, and may even include a tips for all the aspiring writers out there. On Friday the 8th of March, Monica will join writers, poets and a DJ in Ghana’s first ever book slam . This event costs GHC10 with proceeds supporting the work of AWDF.