Lola Shoneyin, Founder of Aké Festival, on a Re-imagined Africa
Photo: Courtesy of Lola Shoneyin
Lola Shoneyin is a Nigerian author, educator, publisher and book store owner. Her debut novel, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, won a PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award and the Ken Saro-Wiwa Prize for Prose, and was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction.
In 2013, she founded the annual Aké Arts and Books Festival with the aim of celebrating, curating and promoting African art, culture and literature. The theme this year re-imagined an Africa of the future.
Shoneyin spoke with Shayera Dark about the recently concluded fifth edition of the literary festival, which held in Lagos.
Shayera Dark: How did you come up with the theme Fantastical Futures?
Lola Shoneyin: Up until now, previous Aké themes looked a lot into the past up. We talk about our discontent with the present and think a lot about the future, but we don’t talk a lot about the future. I believe that we need to have lots of conversations about the Africa that we want, but not in the spiritual sense of speaking it into being. I’m looking at the practicalities where two or three thinkers get together and talk about the Africa they desire and imagine. And in having those conversations, they can start fine-tuning that vision. Also, we’ve had a wave of science fiction and fantasy in Africa, so I wanted us to look at that and broaden the conversation around that sort of literature.
Shayera Dark: Was the movie Black Panther, with its Afro futuristic bent, an inspiration for the theme?
Lola Shoneyin: Not at all. Choosing the theme for the year is the peskiest part of the process. It’s important that the theme captures the mood, and sometimes I choose it after informally confirming which authors will attend the festival.
Shayera Dark: The theme Fantastical Futures invokes two meanings: marvellous and outlandish in the sense that ideas are unmoored from present realities. Was that the concept you had in mind for the 2018 festival?
Lola Shoneyin: I was trying to kill two birds with one stone. The word ‘fantastical’ conjures something amazing but also out of this world, as in something we’re not touching yet. Something that is almost beyond out imagination. I chose fantastical to capture science fiction in literature, the technological advancements and ideas we have that haven’t come into being yet but are being written about. There’s that element of a possibility of getting there.
Shayera Dark: Previous editions of the Aké festival all held in Abeokuta. Why was it moved to Lagos this year?
Lola Shoneyin: Part of the reason was logistics. We needed heavy security to escort people from the airport in Lagos to Abeokuta, which added to the cost of hosting the event. In Lagos, the airport is ten minutes away from the venue, so there isn’t much worry about the safety of our guests.
The other part was that I didn’t feel like the host state at the time had a clear enough picture of the benefits of having the festival hold in Abeokuta. We were told outright that the venue we were using for seven days, which we used to pay for, was only going to be given for three days. It was quite painful because it was clear there was an exodus to Abeokuta for the festival and hotels were fully booked. Perhaps we weren’t doing enough to earn the moral support of the state government.
Shayera Dark: Some of the book chats, conversations and documentaries at the festival referenced past events like the Nigeria-Biafra civil war and the impact of colonialism on indigenous religions and women’s political role in Africa. Why was it necessary to reflect on history at an event geared towards exploring Africa’s future?
Lola Shoneyin: Going into history, having access to some of our mistakes, some of the collision between cultures, some of the exploitation but also some of the advancements are important. History and the exploration of our past is something that we do in every festival. It’s critical. You can’t plan a future without understanding where you’re coming from. Supporting fiction and nonfiction on historical figures is important as we’re missing those on the continent, especially with regards to women.
Shayera Dark: At first blush, most of the crowd at the Fear of Queer panel discussion were largely young, hip and liberal. If shifting mind-sets and effecting change is of the essence, shouldn’t religious leaders and policy makers be present?
Lola Shoneyin: They may not show themselves but of course they’re there. It’s difficult to make generalisations about compositions of any audience at Ake festival. But what I know is the word gets out. Our events are livestreamed. Not one person can win an argument with me about the importance of having these conversations. I’m a fervent believer in dialogue, where I can listen to your viewpoint and you can listen to mine. You’ve got a panel talking about She Called Me Woman, a book on transgender women in Nigeria they had edited. Why would I throw in a religious leader into that mix? Some people can if they like, but it’s nice if we can just focus on the topic. If people have issues with the book, there’s plenty of time for Q&A to speak their mind. So it’s not like I’m hiding from them. They’re welcome to attend.
Shayera Dark: Do you worry Aké Festival is preaching to the converted?
Lola Shoneyin: No, because at every festival seventy percent of those who come have never been before. And even then, if the place is full of liberals, it’s nice for them to find one another because they can have their own debates within their strands of liberalism in terms of expanding and fine-tuning their beliefs.
Shayera Dark: There was a huge interest among Aké attendees for Rafiki, the Kenyan lesbian movie that won rave reviews at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and was subsequently banned in its home country. Was your decision to screen it at the festival predicated on the controversy it generated in Kenya?
Lola Shoneyin: Rafiki is a beautiful piece of art. I don’t need any other reason or consideration. If it’s a beautiful piece of art, we at Aké want to see it. Nothing else really matters. They fact that it’s about a lesbian couple is another reason to screen it because it’s humanity. Maybe there’s something viewers would understand about the nature of these young Africans in a same-sex marriage that will heal and help them, or help them understand the humanity in others.
Also, by nature, the fact that it was banned was enough reason to want to screen it because I’m against all forms of repression and censorship and it’s absolutely hideous when government sticks its dirty, stinking, hypocritical nose into creativity. They need to stay out of it. People don’t start painting themselves blue and trying to join NASA after watching Avatar. So why this ridiculous notion that watching a film will somehow corrupt your mind and turn you into a gay person? It’s so stupid and people should be ashamed to say that.
Shayera Dark: Speaking of controversy, some wondered why men were on a panel about menstruation.
Lola Shoneyin: When we’re talking about what it means to be a woman, it’s critical that we have men because we need sensible allies. And if you’re going to fight bias and shame, you need to know what’s causing it and why the other side has this opinion. One of the men on the panel, Toni Kan, wrote for an anthology called We-Men. There’s a story where he describes in great detail a grown woman who is anxious and afraid to get up because she thinks her period has started and she’s stained. I thought it was interesting for a guy to write on that topic from the perspective of a woman.
Shayera Dark: You mentioned it took four years to finally bring Somali writer and Nobel Prize for Literature nominee Nurrudin Farah, who was also the keynote speaker at Aké this year. Who is your dream speaker for the next Ake festival and why?
Lola Shoneyin: There’s a difference between who I want and what’s best for Aké festival. We have a short list that I can’t share of people who would be best for the festival. But for me, I’d love to have Toni Morrison because she was instrumental to my career as a writer and I absolutely love her work. That said, just because I have that relationship with her doesn’t mean others will. One has to think about who resonates best with the Aké audience.
Shayera Dark: What do you hope Aké attendees gained from this year’s festival?
Lola Shoneyin: A better love of books and appreciation of the arts. I hope they’re better equipped to answer questions about the future that they want for their continent.
A version of this interview appeared in the November issue of the Johannesburg Review of Books.
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