In week 2 of the #WinterABC, bloggers from across Africa came together and weaved stories of Africa. As the curtain closes on the two out of five weeks of the #WinterABC2022 story telling festival hosted by Afrobloggers, I’ll amplify various stories from Africa. The thoughts, poems, controversies, rants and everything that came between and beyond. Various amazing bloggers told stories worth re-telling. (I should be quick to mention that whereas I may not comprehensively recap or re-share all the amazing stories that emerged through this week, please visit the Afrobloggers account on Twitter or search for the #WinterABC2022 hashtag to read more content!)
There’s no better story of Africa than stories from Africa and by Africa. Through this week’s WinterABC theme, different African voices harmonized to sing a beautiful song about Africa.
This is my recap:
Before we dive in, if you want to enjoy some amazing African Music curated by me, click this link: Sounds from Africa
To start with, the amazing poem titled “Chronicles of a poem for the potential” by Half Thoughts beautifully described Africa. “I am a bird finding my wings but they were never lost; I am an artist with a blank canvas waiting for the brushstrokes of tomorrow; I am not the mistakes of my past but the dreams of my future … I am the heartbeat of a billion drums; I am AFRICA ” – so beautifully written and well captured.
I also shared a poem, emphasizing how Black Is Not Pain and how we, as Africans, are more than our history. That we have been ushered into a generation of rebirthed hope, shifted perspectives and changed narratives. Through our power, creativity, passion and duty, if its that last thing we do, we will ensure that future generations fail to even imagine a world when the word “black” is synonymous to “pain”.
Two prompts were shared by this week’s sponsors.
The first prompt that sparked conversation and controversy was the thought-provoking request by Africaniwa to write “A story which begins or ends with the proverb: Until the Lion Begins To Write, the Stories Would Glorify The Hunter”. In response to the theme: Nashe wrote a show stopper post titled Of Lions With Notebooks . He wrote, “… It’s not true what they say when they crop out the truth and screenshot their lies to the front pages of our history books… I will teach you to find pieces of yourself that you lost in history books, to shade away the skin of your misguided convictions …” These words felt like an awakening, a revolution and I couldn’t be more proud of the manifestation of our ‘woke’ African mindsets. I replied to Nashe’s post with a devil’s advocate letter from the Hunter’s perspective titled, Dear Lion that aimed at also looking at the ‘enemy within’. I wrote, ” Dear Lion, is it I who hunts you still or the hunter now lives within? … Police brutality; Cadreism and Corruption … on internal struggles you don’t seem to concentrate”.
Lazrs, also responded to this theme with a thought-provoking story titled, Nkalamu The Lion Cries. He wrote: “How can I tell my story when I can’t even write my truth? They expect me to flow with the hunter’s story so that his image remains glorified for injustices done against me,” Nkalamu complained. This story is definitely a MUST READ.
Mwene explains in his post on the Heroes Day in the Peril of Africa, that the African proverb, “Until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter,” is used to metaphorically describe how dominant groups inscribe power through historical tales. He explains this from a political view giving an insightful angle worth reading.
For avid readers that are looking to reading some amazing African Literature, various book recommendations were shared thanks to the second prompt of the week by African Writers Trust. The prompt asked bloggers to write on the, “First book that ever introduced you to African literature“. We had a number of books being reviewed. Read more here:
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe was reviewed by Joseyphina’s World
- Mission to Kala by Mongo Beti was reviewed by The Black Print
- Home Going by Yaa Gyasi; We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo; Disgrace by JM Coetzee; A Bit of Difference by Sefi Atta; Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; and Mighty Be Our Powers by Leymah Gbowee were all reviewed by Lindani’s Space
- Satu’s Journey by Ansu Momoh was reviewed by Nsatu-Rated Thoughts
- Mine Boy by Peter Abrahams was reviewed by August Raindrops
- Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo was reviewed by Child of the World
- History of Manicaland by CM Hulley was reviewed by The Leo Nation
- Child of War by Ben Chirasha was reviewed by The Baobab
One of my most relatable rants of the week was with regards African Culture and Women. Because well, I am both African and Woman so I inevitably related to both sides of the coin. In this ambit, The Leo Nation wrote about Patriarchy and freedom for African women with a focus on Zimbabwe. She shared how, “In Africa, it is well known that women suffer the brunt of our many social and economic issues …. adding that, Freedom is the birthright of ALL, regardless of gender ” I couldn’t agree more to the echoed sentiments. Similarly, Her Diary Conversations talked about the Social Expectations for African Women during Social Gatherings explaining how among other things, there is a way in which African women are always policed by “those who deem themselves fit to be law enforcement agencies in other people’s live” on how to handle themselves. Needless to say, valid and relatable points were raised.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the stories that came from Africa this week. Ours is undoubtedly a brave, insightful, creative and extremely talented generation. I look forward to what the weeks to come have in store.
I want to send a HUGE thankyou to you all for constantly reading, engaging, encouraging and all the fine jazz!
To my fellow bloggers, thankyou for your content, keep on creating!
Keep on being amazing!
And above all,
Keep your happiness and sanity in check!
This post was written by Nsatusile Mgode, usually called Nsatu. She blogs at Nsatu-rated Thoughts where you can find more of her work.
Nsatusile did the thing with her curtain closing post. I wish there was an audio version of that article.