The African Literary Revolution on Our Doorstep?

Abstract

Both literary NGOs (LINGOs), FEMRITE and Kwani Trust, have celebrated themselves as new and revolutionary phenomena. After attending the “Kwani? Litfest” in December 2006, the US American literary critics Elissa Schappell and Rob Spillman announced that “those in the know are buzzing about an African literary renaissance. Nowhere is this more evident than at the Kenya Kwani? Litfest. The African revolution is on your doorstep.” ³ Kwani Trust has been using her statement for marketing purposes to advertise its publications and literary activities.⁴ Using similar language, FEMRITE, on the other hand, has been promoting itself as “a wildfire, [that is] starting up a literary revolution in the country.” ⁵ In this chapter, I argue that FEMRITE and Kwani Trust, in contrast to these assumptions and their self- marketing strategies, are not entirely new or truly revolutionary phenomena. Rather these LINGOs give evidence of a blossoming of the Anglophone literary scene in Kenya and Uganda in the twenty-first century.

A revolution would imply a departure from some other thing. A literary revolution would also imply that there are diametrical differences between what was and what is.¹

— David Kaiza (2008)

In Uganda, I would really call it a revival.²

— Patrick Mangeni (2008)