What is it?
This is an African storytelling festival organized by Afrobloggers every year in the month of June when it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere of the continent. The aim of the festival is to celebrate African creativity, through exchanging unique experiences and conversations shared via a blog per day challenge that lasts for 22 days.
Background
In the old days, we would gather around a fire to share stories passed on from generation to generation, stories that carried our values, and beliefs as a people. In this internet age, our new village meeting place is online. We come together to showcase our creativity, archive our stories, celebrate our culture, and learn from our different experiences. We must tell our stories as Chimamanda rightfully puts it:
“Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity. “
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the Danger of a single story
The Festival Structure
Bloggers create 22 posts for the 22 days of June (No posting on weekends) guided by a different theme every week. The themes are announced on the 22nd of May every year to allow for adequate preparation time. Once a blogger has published content they share it online using the hashtag #WinterABC; so as the month progresses the internet is filled with amazing stories from different African individuals in different parts of the world.
Who can participate
This festival is open to all Africans. New bloggers can take this opportunity to start their blog on a high note whilst established bloggers can use this chance to lure new readership by spicing up their blog exploring subjects outside their normal blogging niche. Check out the bloggers who participated in 2020, 2021 and 2022 via links at the bottom. Organizations can also take this opportunity to partner with us to make their brand visible to Africans.
What are the benefits of WinterABC?
There is so much that can be gained from taking part in this festival
- Be part of something big. Share your unique perspective on issues that matter. Challenge the harmful stereotypical narratives that exist about Africans and do away with the dangers of a single story.
- Learn how to manage your own time. WinterABC stretches you. Every day you are expected to publish something, this will sometimes clash with your other priorities. You shall learn to adapt, to create time to write, and how to schedule your work for future publishing.
- Networking and Exposure. This is a great opportunity to meet bloggers from other African countries. By participating in the hashtag #WinterABC on social media you position yourself and your work to be easily discovered by people who did not know you before.
- Build Consistency. Going to the gym every day builds muscle, and endurance, so will blogging every day. It will oil your creative mind enabling you to blog even when you are facing the block.
- Learning about yourself and your audience. Because you will be blogging on topics that straddle niches you might discover a niche that best suits you and your blog. Study your analytics, notice which blog posts brought much traffic. What did you do differently? Was it the topic or the way you presented it?
2020 Festival Participants 2021 Festival Participants 2022 Festival