Welcome to another #ReadingAfrica Week! Each year, we try to highlight genres because one of the big, huge, flashing-in-neon reasons we do this event is to point out that African literature isn’t a genre. Rather, it’s a huge, diverse world of writing from a huge, diverse continent of voices. But this year, we decided to do something a little different. This year, instead of dividing our daily focus by genre, we decided to do it by region. We’d orient our literary compass and explore the continent book by book.
Sounds easy, right?
Here’s the thing: as we began to divide this massive area into digestible pieces, it felt…. weird? Unethical? Confusing? Where exactly, does one country end and another begin? Wars are being fought over this. Families are being separated over this. Lives are being lost over this. Borders feel cruel, feel arbitrary. But on the other hand, for people screaming to be seen, to be recognized, borders are everything. They are lines—no matter how arbitrary—on a map that say home, that say you belong, that say you are safe here. And in a place as large, as contested, and as vast as Africa, we felt that we needed to acknowledge that these borders have meaning.
So while we will be focusing on regions this year, because let’s face it: it is a big place, and we only set aside one week for this event, we will also be sharing some thoughts about borders and place and art from some of our authors. Place has meaning. How we define and delineate a place has meaning. And literature can speak to that.
We’re starting with North Africa today, and we’ll be covering the continent and the North and South American diaspora this week. There’s an amazing wealth of writers from the region.
We’re beginning this in earnest, and as best we can. And we know that we’ll make some mistakes. We acknowledge that regions and borders remain contested and remain a powerful force, not just in Africa, but worldwide. We’re hoping that this year’s event helps us all think about the lines we draw, and about belonging and place. And as always, we hope that this event helps us all expand our reading horizons and go beyond whatever borders we may have created in our own lives.
Further reading
“9 Short Stories by Tunisian Women, in Translation” at Arab Lit
“Beyond Raï: North African Protest Music and Poetry” by Rachid Aadnani at World Literature Today
“The Magic Lanterns Of Libyan Literature” Words Without Borders
