African Writers Development Trust

The African Writers Development Trust (AWDT) was founded in Abuja Nigeria in 2018 by Anthony Onugba,^[1] who currently serves as the Executive Director. Its aims to empower writers of African descent through cross-cultural learning, capacity building and sharing of creative ideas. Other goals of the trust include; to promote writers by providing publishing grants, educational grants, to promote the African reading culture, and to conceptualize grassroots programs and projects aimed at bringing writers together.^[2]

History[edit]

African Writer’s Development Trust was founded in May 2018 by Anthony Onugba and registered as a non-governmental organization in Abuja, Nigeria. It is open to writers of any form of literature irrespective of their economic, religious, cultural, tribal, national, political or philosophical orientation

Management[edit]

African Writers Development Trust is headquartered in Abuja with an office in Nairobi, Kenya. The organization is run by a board of Trustees. The current chairman of the board is Prince Saka Dbosz Junior. Other members of the board are Nahida Esmail, Halieo Motanyane, Benny Wanjohi, Edith Magak, Nyashadzashe Chikumbu, and Anthony Onugba.^[3]

Activities[edit]

The organization publishes the monthly Writers Space Africa Magazine, it also runs the annual African Writers Conference. As well, the organization funds and administers the annual African Writers Award, and the Wakini Kuria Award for Children’s Literature

Writers Space Africa Magazine[edit]

WSA magazine^[4] is a monthly African digital literary magazine publishing writers of African descent. The first edition was published in January 2017. The Magazine has interviewed writers including Sabah Carrim, Manu Herbstein, Nahida Esmail, Nsah Mala, Alexander Nderitu, Emeka Nobis, Sandra Oma Etubiebi, Lubacha Deus, Meaza Aklilu and Tom Odhiambo.

African Writers Conference[edit]

The African writers' conference is an annual writers event conceptualized by the African Writers Development Trust.

The first conference was held in December 2018 at the Abuja International Conference centre in partnership with the Association of Nigerian Authors.^[5] The Chairperson of the conference was Her Excellency, Hadiza Elrufai, the First Lady of Kaduna State. ^[6]Notable partners of the conference included Pearson, Art Moves Africa (AMA), MTN Nigeria, UNESCO.^[7]

The second conference was held in September 2019 at the Sarit Centre in Nairobi, Kenya, in partnership with the Writers Guild of Kenya and the Nairobi International Book Fair.^[8] The chairperson was Lawrence Njagi, Kenya Publishers Association Chair. ^[9]

African Writers Awards[edit]

The awards were created in 2018. The prize winners for the categories of short stories, flash fiction, and poetry are announced during the African Writers Conference awards dinner.^[10] Past winners include Manu Herbstein, Benson Mugo, Priscillar Matara.^[11] During the dinner, awards are also presented to individuals who have contributed to the development of the African Literary space; some of the past winners include Khainga O O’kwemba, Jackson Biko Zulu, Halima Usman, Dr. Tom Odhiambo.

Wakini Kuria Award[edit]

The Wakini Kuria Award for Children's Literature^[12] was established in 2019 and honours the memory of Wakini Kuria, who died at the age of 26. She served on the Advisory board of the African Writers Development Trust and also served as the Chief Editor of Writers Space Africa magazine. The winner of the 2019 award was Marjorie Moono Simuyuni from Zambia.

Programs[edit]

Writers Mingle[edit]

The writers mingle is an event that brings writers from different African countries to socialize with the writers while discussing the development of the African literary space The first edition of the Writers Mingle was held on September 2019 at Strathmore University,^[13] Kenya and had writers from Zimbabwe, Kenya, Nigeria, USA, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. The second edition was held in March 2020 in partnership with the Goethe Institut with writers from Uganda, Zambia, Kenya, Rwanda, Mauritius, and Nigeria.

Writers Residencies[edit]

The 2019-2020 residency was funded by Culture at Work Africa^[14] and co-funded by the European Union. In the first edition hosted in Abuja, it had writers from West and Central Africa.^[15] The second edition was hosted in Nairobi and had writers from East and Southern Africa^[16]

References[edit]

This article "African Writers Development Trust" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical. Articles taken from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be accessed on Wikipedia's Draft Namespace.