Festival ends with life and times session on Ama Ata Aidoo

omotolani

November 20, 2017 10:19 AM

Koleka Patema, Maryam Bukar, Poetra Asantewa, Ladan Osmar and Aduke Gomez brought the house down with poems about African history and feminism.

The Ake Arts and Books Festival 2017 is over with a Life and Times session on Ama Ata Aidoo followed by Palmwine and Poetry and a closing party.

The session featured Molara Wood interviewing Ama Ata Aidoo and a short documentary on the legendary author and headliner of the festival.

AAA began by describing Salawa who had performed at the opening concert as a revelation. She then proceeded to read two poems, the first was about women’s conferences and the second is a poem dedicated to her daughter.

She also read from her unpublished short story titled ‘Applications’. The last line of her second poem reads, “A girl’s voice doesn’t break. It gets firmer.” A clip from a documentary about her was shown where she talked about growing up as a young woman. Her father had been a chief in her village. She says of her father “he was a modest man. A fierce Nkrumah-ist.

Her advice to young writers is, “Don't write stories about miserable Africa just because you want to get published. Keep on writing. Don't bother if people will like your writing. Just keep on writing. Distractions will come when you decide to write. Make time for your writing. Stay focused on writing. If the publishers discouraging, use the internet. Just put your work out there.”

The Palmwine and Poetry session followed and five female poets from Nigeria, Ghana and South Africa performed spoken word.

Koleka Patema, Maryam Bukar, Poetra Asantewa, Ladan Osmar and Aduke Gomez brought the house down with poems about African history and feminism.

Lola Shoneyin gave her closing remarks, signifying the end of Ake Festival 2017. A closing party that lasted into the early hours of the morning followed.

omotolani