A day at the African Book Festival in Berlin (2023)
The 2024 edition starts soon! You can find all the information here.
On the last Sunday of August in 2023, I made my way to Alte Münze. I remember feeling excited and incredibly indulgent - what a gift to spend a day in a small world where stories, storytellers and the art of words and sentences have the main stage. I don’t get to do that often.
The friendly faces at the entrance checked my affordable student day ticket, and I entered the courtyard. On both sides of the improvised market street were sellers setting up their goods from across the African continent. The food stalls were starting to simmer everything delicious that would be served at lunchtime soon. On the left, towards the end of the market, was an outdoor stage where some authors would speak during the day and later music would play; on the left was the entrance to the main hall. The third smaller hall, whose door was right opposite the main entrance, I missed noticing. I will find it later.
At the very end was the bookstore, set up by the organisers from Interkontinetal, where books will be signed by the speakers and exhibited throughout the day. The selection spanned way beyond what was discussed at the festival. I would later spend the whole lunch break there, devouring the beginning of “Daughter in Exile” by Bisi Adjapon.
I entered the main hall for my first talk of the day. I sat nervously on a chair in the middle and took out my notebook that already had structured, pre-prepared pages for all the notes I would take. I waited while the organisers prepared the main stage for the author that will dazzle me for the rest of the event and beyond, even today: Leila Aboulela. She read from her new book, River Spirit, about “the bravery and agency that normally lives in the footnotes of history”. Her words started on the stage, but it was as if they had quickly expanded; the room was filled with them, and with the room were the minds and ears of everyone sitting there. I had thought about her presence often, the spacious calmness, a sort of authoritative softness that I struggle to find words to describe. With my limited budget for the day, hardcover books were out of the question, so I bought “Elsewhere, home” - a paperback collection of short stories, which she signed for me. I joined the queue to wait for that signature. My nervousness increased, my feelings of being out of place in literary spaces swayed me like gusts back and forth without moving me, and it is no secret I am quick to get car sick ^^. She was welcoming and kind and tried to make small talk. I was an awkward lump. Maybe I get to redeem that one day.
I read more of her books since then, including those short stories. I can say with certainty that I have never found anyone else to describe in such detail the feeling of having no home, both in the physical world and in oneself. Aboulela speaks wonderfully about finding a home in religion for herself, but I am still searching.
The next session I attended was called “Freedom to write. Writing to be free.” A panel featuring Tendai Huchu, Laila Lalami and Haji Jabir. The authors spoke about the literature as empowerment but also as risk, about their experience with the industry as a whole and their own writing process. Jabir elaborated on his approach to writing, mentioning that “a story is like a carpet, chaotic while being built, but put together it makes sense” (paraphrase). Lalami reflected on how the first book is free of the “gaze of the editor” and that “there is a certain amount of freedom in this ignorance”. I loved Huchu’s conversation about his series, Edinburgh Nights, mentioning that he was “playing games with time, but not by using chronology, but by using geography”.
After the lunch break came what was arguably the most emotionally impactful session. Max Lobe spoke about his book Vertraulichkeiten. At the end of the session, everyone was so moved: the author, the moderator and the audience. I teared up just by remembering the feeling after the discussion. Lobe’s words were spoken with his whole existence, the syllables inseparable from the colour of his voice, the meaning embodied in his lived experience he laid bare before us. I won’t be able to do them justice here by scribbling my scattered notes.
As the day went on, I got to hear three more sessions.
In the panel “Silence without end. Like the ocean.” the authors C.A. Davids, Fred Khumalo and Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin spoke about writing about “historical events so difficult to bear that a veil of silence seems to lay heavy as lead on them”. They discussed their process and research(6 books per chapter for Davids!), the repercussions of opening polarising questions and the price of silence. Khumalo emphasised that the goal of the historical novel is for the reader to relive those moments, as opposed to serving hard facts. Sakin added the importance of writing “our history by ourselves”.
Lastly, I listened to Bisi Adjapou in one session and Rani Selvarajah and Tendai Hunchu in another. All three authors dived deep into their latest books. Selvarajah’s book Savage Beasts was the second I got for myself that day. I was really curious to read how she worked through the story, starting from the basis of a well-known myth and expanding it to allow for a contemporary situation.
I left the day with the buzzing head, a notebook full of notes, two signed books and a long list of recommendations. I leave this list for you here at the very end. I hope you consider joining the next edition happening later this month. I am battling my nervousness this year by volunteering and keeping my hands busy, so say hi if you pass by.
Recommendations(a list I made for myself during the festival):
Elsewhere, Home - Leila Aboulela
River Spirit - Leila Aboulela
Black Foam - Haji Jabir
The Other Americans - Laila Lalami
Vertraulichkeiten - Max Lobe
Daughter in exile - Bisi Adjapon
House of stone - Novuyo Rosa Tshuma
Hauntings - Edited by Niq Mhlongo
How to be a revolutionary - C. A. Davids
Dancing the death drill - Fred Khumalo
The messiah of Darfur - Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin
So long a letter - Mariama Bâ
Savage beasts - Rani Selvarajah
