Macondo Literary Festival

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Macondo Literary Festival

Festival on African histories and futures with authors writing in French, Portuguese, English, Arabic

10/05/2026

This Sunday, we revisit the work of Yamen Manai, a guest author from Tunisia at our 2025 edition. His novel, The Ardent Swarm, uses the sudden threat to a peaceful bee colony as a powerful allegory for the fragility of a young democracy.

Set in the Tunisian countryside, Manai’s prose is both a love letter to the environment and a sharp critique of the forces that threaten to destabilize it. A must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of nature and political thought.

08/05/2026

A thrilling moment to introduce Frank Njugi, a Kenyan poet and journalist from Naivasha, as part of our 2026 . His work examines the tension between our natural environments and the narratives we construct around them.

As we prepare to welcome our Indian poets to Nairobi next week, we look forward to the cross-cultural exchange and the new works that will emerge from their time in Turkana.

05/05/2026

Did you know Portuguese is spoken by over 260 million people?

Today we spotlight our 2025 guest author and Cape Verdian, Joaquim Arena. A journalist, his book Under Our Skin, traces the layered history of Portugal’s slave trade while also navigating a more intimate search: what it means to belong.

This year, we deepen this connection with our Lusophone friends in our sixth edition.

Mark your calendars !

Dates: 📅 18–20 Sept 2026

Cc: Embassy of Portugal in Nairobi

01/05/2026

A new digital home for Macondo!

We’re excited to share our new Macondo Literary Festival website with you.

The refreshed platform is designed to be clearer and easier to navigate, bringing together our programmes, past festival conversations, and archives. It also reflects the growing community of of readers, writers, artists, and partners engaging with the festival’s work across continents.

We invite you to explore the new site and are curious to receive your feedback: https://macondolitfest.org

30/04/2026

Macondo Book Society warmly invites you to join us for the Showcase on 23rd May at Cheche Bookshop and Cafe, Nairobi, from 6pm.

After a week-long immersion in Turkana, where our 2026 poets will engage deeply with ecology silence and the non-human world(s), the cohort returns to share their experiences and possibly new work that is informed by nature, place, and reflection.

This showcase promises an event of poetry and conversation between poets from the retreat and our wider creative community.

Save the date and join us for this poetry experience!

26/04/2026

Sunday reading: "The Woman Next Door" by South African–based Macondo 2025 guest author, Yewande Omotoso.

This novel traces the lives of two elderly neighbours in Cape Town, once strangers, begin to confront their pasts after an unexpected accident brings them into closer contact.

Yewande invites us to think through our relationship with those around us and how we reconcile. Enjoy!

23/04/2026

On World Book and Copyright Day, we reflect on the publishing ecosystems that bring stories to life.

Last year at the Kenya Writes tent, we hosted Making Space: Publishing as a Creative Practice with Joan Thatiah and Ahmed Aidarus, in conversation with Otieno Owino. Together, they explored what it means to shape, support, and sustain stories beyond the page.

As we think about the journeys from manuscript to reader, we’re reminded of the writers, editors, translators, and publishers who make this work possible.

If you joined us for that conversation, what stayed with you? And what does publishing as a creative practice mean to you today?

Join us again this year as we continue engaging this ecosystem of word and worldmakers.

22/04/2026

More from our 2026 cohort: Evalyn Githina.

For Evalyn, poetry is a way of holding what cannot easily be contained: her feelings about the world, her relationships, and the tensions that exist within them. At the heart of this practice is nature, which fuels her writing and continuously shapes how she makes sense of these experiences.

Through this connection with nature, her poetry deepens her relationship with her ancestors, the earth, and the universe, and in turn feeds back into her creative process.

It is from this place that her reflections on this nature poetry retreat theme, “Disrupting the Nature Narrative,” emerge. For her, it is both about listening to nature and taking on the responsibility to protect it.

Watch the video to hear her perspective, and let us know your thoughts in the comments.

19/04/2026

Sunday reading featuring..."Redemption in Indigo" by Karen Lord, Barbadian writer & 2025 guest author.

Inspired by West African folklore, the novel follows Paama, a gifted cook who walks away from an unhappy marriage, only to find herself drawn into a world where spirits meddle in human affairs and chaos has a will of its own.

Journey into a mythical world about power, choice, and magic. Perfect reading with a warm mug to soothe you.

15/04/2026

At Macondo LitFest, art has always been more than expression, it is a way of asking difficult questions.

In 2023, an installation opened up reflections on home and belonging: what is disrupted, and what remains?

That thread continues through our sessions, where artists, writers, and thinkers explore artivism and how creativity moves into action in response to social and ecological realities. See an image from our 2025 exhibit.

On World Art Day, we celebrate art that invites us to question, resist, and reimagine.

Address

Nairobi

Website

http://www.macondolitfest.org/, https://linktr.ee/macondolitfest

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