The Swahili Literary Festival 2021 which happens at the Kilindini Cultural Centre, Mombasa kicked off today and runs until March 8, 2021. The festival theme is “celebrating women.”
The Hekaya Initiative organised the Swahili Literary Festival in Mombasa at the SwahiliPot Hub in 2019. In a first for that part of Kenya, there were panels covering issues of interest to the literary and general art practitioners in the coastal. You can read our coverage of that groundbreaking event here. The festival would run successfully in the same venue in the next year.
The third edition of the Swahili Literary Festival kicked off with a ceremony at the new venue of Kilindini Cultural Centre in the same city of Mombasa. This was a physical ceremony that included several speeches and a taarab performance.
The festival continues on March 6 with panels and readings featuring among others Kelsey McFaul, prof Madhu Krishnan, Prof Aurelie Jorno, Moses Kilolo (Jalada)], Renee Edwige Dro, N.S. Koenings, Anna Samwel, Zainab Alwi Baharoon, Moses Kilolo (Jalada)] [at proxy- Prof Abdilatif Abdallah, Prof Mukoma Wa Ngugi, Samia O. Bwana. And Prof Rayya Timamy.
Apart from readings, you can expect to see mashairi recitals, an informal baraza of the youth, and loads more. If you are in the coastal town of Mombasa, you are recommended to head out to the Kilindini Cultural Centre and enjoy the awesomeness on offer.
Source: James Murua
