Yari Yari Ntoaso: an international conference of African women’s literature coming up!

As readers/followers of this blog will know, I am always on the lookout for interesting literary/library/information events taking place here in Accra.  And May definitely looks like a month to look forward to.

Recently I received a press release about the forthcoming Yari Yari Ntoaso African women’s literature conference.

An excerpt follows:

The Organization of Women Writers of Africa (OWWA) and New York University (NYU), in collaboration with Ghana-based Mbaasem Foundation and the Spanish Fundación Mujeres por África (Women for Africa Foundation), will present Yari Yari Ntoaso:   Continuing the Dialogue – An International Conference on Literature by Women of African Ancestry. This major conference will put writers, critics and readers from across Africa, the USA, Europe, and the Caribbean in dialogue with each other in Accra, Ghana, from May 16-19, 2013.

 More than a dozen emerging and established Ghanaian writers and scholars, including Ama Ata Aidoo, Amma Darko, Ruby Goka, Mamle Kabu, Esi Sutherland-Addy and Margaret Busby will speak about their work on topics ranging from identity, to the craft of writing, to literary activism. These authors will be joined by other international writers such as: Angela Davis (USA), Tess Onwueme (Nigeria), Natalia Molebatsi (South Africa), Yolanda Arroyo Pizarro (Puerto Rico), Sapphire (USA), Veronique Tadjo (Côte d’Ivoire), Evelyne Trouillot (Haiti), and many others (a list of participants is below). Local organizations participating in this exciting gathering include the Pan-African Writers Association, the Ghana Association of Writers, and the Writers Project of Ghana. 

…

Most events will be held at the facilities of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons (No. 54 Independence Avenue, near the Ridge Roundabout) in Accra. A draft program is available in the “Gallery” section of www.indiegogo.com/owwa

Ever since I heard of this event, I have been looking forward to it, and am already planning which sessions I will attend!

An older loved paperback

Usually the books I read tend to be newer – that is, bought within the last five years or so [I do have several shelves of to be read books!].  Or of course “bought” or is it “leased” on my Kindle?

That isn’t to say that I don’t have older books on my shelves, far from it.  When I was last doing a big clean of my bookshelves – a task, but not completely a chore, usually done on long weekend holidays – I noticed that there were books bought while in college in the early 1970s, plus some bought while in Ibadan (the mid 1970s), as well as some that were my husband’s light reading, probably going back to his time in university.

Recently Accra Book Club discussed Frank Herbert’s classic science fiction story, Dune.  I knew I had read it – but that was more than half a lifetime ago.  So I was pleased to see that it was actually one of the books I brought with me when I first came to this part of the world.  And it even had my maiden name in it!  All of which date it to the early 1970s or possibly the late 1960s!

So here it is… Admittedly the pages are browner, and the cover did have to be taped back on, but it wasn’t falling apart!

And yes, I did enjoy it – probably more than I did the first time!

March bookish activities

March bookish activities

I did a fair bit of reading in March, but not much buying. Yet there were a lot of books and information related activities I was involved in.

I finished reading the following novels – no non-fiction during this month!

• The particular sadness of lemon cake, by Aimee Bender [great title, but I have to admit I didn’t feel the content quite lived up to it]
• The night circus, by Erin Morgenstern [really enjoyable, even though there were lots of questions unanswered at the end]
• Skellig, by David Almond [classic teen story; a bit of a tearjerker perhaps]
• The library of shadows, by Mikkel Birkegaard [another mystery/thriller which started off better than it ended]
• Nairobi heat, by Mukoma wa Ngugi [detective story set in both the US and East Africa; not sure the ending was the right one, but well…]
• Dune, by Frank Herbert [classic science fiction story, read for Accra Book Club. Remarkably prescient? I think I first read this more than 40 years ago!]

I didn’t buy much: two books at literary events, plus one visit to Vidya Bookstore which netted three books for me, and two Accra Book Club reads on my Kindle!

As for events related to themes dear to my heart, there were quite a few:,

• A book slam, organized by AWDF (African Women’s Development Fund) and Alliance Francaise, with several well known African and Ghanaian writers reading excerpts from either their prose works or poetry. A great way to spend the evening of International Women’s Day!
• Ghanaian author, Alex Agyei-Agyiri, read excerpts from one of his novels at the March Writers Project of Ghana event at Goethe Institut. I did buy one of his books, but I have to admit that I was not impressed by his actual reading – rather sad, as many authors are pretty good at reading their own work.
• Earlier in the last week I gave a talk/presentation on “Literacy and me” for the Rotary Club of Ring Road Central. Basically I talked about reading, bookish events, and some of my work in information.  There was also a brief discussion  of Rotimi Babatunde’s Caine Prize winning short story “Bombay’s Republic”.
• And last but not least, there was a work related meeting of CARLIGH –  a consortium of libraries here in Ghana, to which Ashesi belongs, followed at the end of the month with a gathering of academic librarians from all over Africa, brought together by the AAU to discuss progress on institutional and digital repositories.

I am not sure what April will be like… I rather tend to go with the flow…