The Sokoto Book and Arts Festival (SOBAFest) has confirmed its 2026 edition, scheduled for August in Sokoto, northern Nigeria. Now in its sixth year, the festival is organised by Book O’Clock Literary Foundation in partnership with Poetry Club UDUS.
This year’s theme, “Awakening: The Oasis,” centres on collective consciousness, healing, cultural memory and community-building in contemporary northern Nigeria.
“At its core, Awakening: The Oasis is an invitation: to pause, to gather, to listen deeply, and to collectively build spaces where creativity becomes not only expression, but sustenance,” said the organisers in a statement..
Curators Majeed Bn Saleeh and Usman Adam have shaped a programme that moves beyond cultural critique toward what the organisers describe as reflection, connection and possibility.
The festival will feature conversations, performances, exhibitions, film screenings, workshops and storytelling sessions. Programming priorities include language preservation, indigenous knowledge systems, youth identity, spirituality and the role of northern Nigerian creatives in shaping social consciousness.
The “oasis” framing is both metaphor and aspiration, positioning artistic and literary spaces as sites of refuge and renewal in a region navigating instability and transition.
Majeed Bn Saleeh is a multilingual spoken word poet and multiple slam champion whose work addresses climate change, identity and mental health. He has performed at HIBAF, KAPFest and ZABAFest, among other national platforms. Usman Adam, a law graduate of Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, is an award-winning poet, photographer and video editor currently resident at the Ebedi International Writers Residency. Both are former SOBAFest prize winners.
Since its 2021 launch, SOBAFest has engaged more than 2,000 participants in cultural and artistic programming across Sokoto State.
Enquiries may be directed to sobafest@gmail.com.
