This was
not going to be just another empty noise from some sympathizer of
the poor African writer. I was one of the participants, a credible
witness. The African Writer’s Fund was indeed taking off as
a reality, with four fellows from different parts of Africa at Popenguine,
Senegal. Launched in Dakar, Senegal’s capital city, on January
17, 2007, it emerged like a brave cock with a record-breaking crow
heralding a new sunrise for the African writer. It would be different
from other similar schemes in aid of the African writer. It would
not merely be a cash award tied to some competition for either published
or unpublished manuscripts. It has come with an ambitious design
to tackle the problems of the African writer practically: from writing
to publishing, and from publishing to sustainability. This is TrustAfrica’s
African Writers’ Fund, an initiative to restore confidence
and pride to the African writer.
TrustAfrica is a new foundation with the aim of promoting “peace,
economic prosperity, and social justice throughout the continent.”
The organization does not only recognize the role of the writer
in this pursuit, it identifies it as integral to any conscious efforts
made to emancipate Africa from mediocrity and stagnancy. During
the formal launching of the Fund, Dr. Akwasi Aidoo, executive director
of TrustAfrica, pointed out two things that distinguished his foundation
from others: First, it aims to connect organizations and individuals
across borders so that these ideas can move from mere speeches to
actions, and be realized as concrete benefits for Africans. Second,
its focus on the people and institutions that are often regarded
as dissidents in the society though it is undoubted that these people
and institutions are in fact the real promoters of cultural identity
and patriotism in society. The case of the writer is obvious. An
outsider, for instance, who wants to know the folkways of Nigerians,
has one viable way of doing that: reading creative writings from
Nigeria. TrustAfrica understands that development is built on self-identity,
and that the genuine African writer ought to be engaged in the enterprise
of self-identification. TrustAfrica feels obligated to prioritize
its support for the African writer who, in a way, is really the
harbinger of everything good that will come out of Africa.
Consequently, the aspiration of the Fund is three-pronged. One,
it aspires to strengthen genuine, independent African writers, who
are really in the business of promoting African ideals. The Per
Sesh Writers’ Workshop coordinated by the famous novelist,
Ayi Kwei Armah, is the channel through which the Fund will identify
promising African writers, offer them a nine-month residency during
which they develop their skills through seminars. The writers are
supposed to produce their debuts with which to kick off their careers
as fiction writers of African descent. Two, the Fund recognizes
that the writer needs to walk tall with confidence to be able to
continue to write. This confidence is predicated on the resources
available to the writer. Young writers lose confidence when they
know that what they write can only become a book through self-publishing
and, given the inadequacies of self-publishing, that the book would
probably end as a failure. The Fund promises an intervention by
providing support for writers besides offering them practical training
in literary craftsmanship, as was going to begin with the four fellows
at Popenguine. Travel fund would be made available to the writer
who has produced a worthwhile work to tour Africa and interact with
other African writers. Also a residency is established in the premises
of TrustAfrica where a published author can work on his/her new
book. Three, the writer, like every professional, needs to be taken
care of. He/she needs to have a social security. The Fund offers
this security in two designs namely health insurance coverage and
a pension scheme. These two designs would be made available to writers
who live on their writings and do not take any regular jobs.
These of course are grand goals and you are entitled to fear that
TrustAfrica may falter in reaching them. But TrustAfrica, new and
virile, considers the African Writers’ Fund as its major project.
The first phase has taken off and is moving on fine. A plan for
sustainability is in place. Designed to be independent of TrustAfrica
in future, the African Writers Fund is expected to draw resources
from sponsorships and partnership from corporations such as communication
and publishing corporations; grants from foundations and agencies;
contributions from individuals, especially professionals who understand
the benefits of the writer in their societies; and public fund raising.
On the evening of January 17, guests at the public presentation
of the Fund gave useful advice. All were elated about this new dawn
TrustAfrica is bringing to writing in Africa. One of the suggestions
was that beyond the public presentation in Dakar, comprehensive
information about the Fund should be packaged and sent to all parts
of Africa through the media and the Internet. And since it is for
every African writer, there should be no partiality, say, toward
or against Anglophone African writers, in the administration of
the Fund. It is emphasized that any African writer, writing in any
language, local or international, living anywhere, should have access
to the Fund so long as his/her vision is genuinely African.
Another suggestion was that the workshop and the residency should
be expanded to accommodate more people because one of the increasing
difficulties of the African writer is lack of the out-of-job time
to write. The African writer is burdened with a string of existential
problems. He/she must have a regular or salaried job to survive.
Most of the jobs in Africa take much of the time that the writer
needs to write well. Somebody has to have time to write before he/she
is called a writer. Some people argue that the dwindling quality
of creative writing in Africa today is hinged on the inability of
the writer to pay enough time to his writing. A practical solution
to this problem is the provision of residencies for writers who
have the temperament to concentrate on good quality works. This
is an important aspect that TrustAfrica should consider in deploying
the Fund to help writers.
Another important aspect is the setting up of an editorial team
that every African writer can have access to. Indeed the editorial
team is an organ that is inevitable if the interest of the Fund
transcends the mere empowering of anybody who goes by the name of
African writer to the production of great African creative works.
The logic is this: in spite of the suffocating economic crisis in
Africa, some writers do not need to attend a writer’s workshop
or residency to write nice works. Residency is not a password for
great arts. So a writer who sits in the discomfort of his room and
produces a manuscript will send it to the editorial team. The editorial
team, which should be made up of highly skilled editors, identifies
the greatness of the manuscript and recommends it to an African
indigenous publisher interested in publishing creative works. The
Fund apart from funding the activities of the editorial team would
need to assist the indigenous publishers in such ways as the promotion
of a writer’s works, distribution channels, organization of
reading tours and any other ways that will be beneficial to both
the writer and the publisher.
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The argument behind this point is that the ultimate joy of the writer
is to see his/her manuscript published and read. Assisting the writer
to publish his/her work is what most organizations who want to help
writers in Africa shy away from. Today, there are many literary
competitions for the African writer in Africa and other parts of
the world. We must recognise the paradox that competitions or awards
help the writer in a mean way. In Nigeria for instance there are
many award winning manuscripts that are heaving faint life from
dusty shelves. The serious writer is really not bothered about whether
he/she wins a competition or not but about whether his neighbour
in the next street has seen his published book and has read the
great wisdom he/she has put in that book.
A more cogent argument for the editorial team is that the classics
of African literature were works identified by editors employed
by the patriarchs of the publishing business in Africa, such as
Heinemann and Longman. African literary figures such as Chinua Achebe,
Sembene Ousmane, Wole Soyinka, Ayi Kwei Armah, Ferdinand Oyono,
Ngugi wa Thing’O, Flora Nwapa, Nardine Gordimer, Mariama Ba
and many more others wrote their famous debuts – and indeed
most of their works – in the privacy of their rooms and sent
them to editors that recognised the greatness in them. Since some
indigenous African publishers do not have good editorial teams,
the Fund can assist in setting up one that will work in tandem with
the publishers. This innovative engagement with the writing and
publishing process may yet provide us with its great surprises as
people hidden in some corners of Africa emerge as the new outstanding
writers of Africa.
The successful public presentation of the African Writers’
Fund showed that someone has been thinking, in an unprecedented
way, about the plight of the African writer, and is willing to explore
ways of intervening to assist in some practical ways. It is in this
light that TrustAfrica deserves commendation for taking a step that
is entirely innovative and amazingly practical. As the coordinators
of the Fund, Ms Coumba Toure and Ms Chantal Uwimana, had promised
during the launch, the suggestions – and other suggestions
that come – will be incorporated into the mission of the Fund
in order to make it truly great. With it the African writer can
hold on to something, with pride, and write as confidently as he/she
can. The African Writers’ Fund comes as a great pillar to
support the edifice that is African Literature.
