Abulrazak Gurnah – Afterlives
We are delighted to announce the third in a series of creative writing workshops that is part of the Africa Writes — Exeter Book Club which explore language, history and craft. The series is being launched through Exeter’s UNESCO City of Literature Programme.
Presented in partnership with Saseni!, Authors.Cafe, Jalada Africa, Festival of Ideas, Libraries Unlimited and the University of Exeter.
Africa Writes – Exeter Book Club – Crafts Workshop
Poetry Workshop: Fragments of Self
Led by: Sawti’s Amaal Said
Date: Saturday 27 March
Time: 1pm — 3pm (Nairobi), 10am —12pm (Exeter)
RSVP HERE before Thursday, March 25th to secure your slot RSVP link
SAWTI facilitator Amaal Said will lead a 2-hour poetry workshop titled ‘Afterlives: Fragments of Self’ based on an excerpt of Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives concerned with the tracing of lineage across borders.
The workshop will explore what not having a ‘complete story’ means for us in our lives, and how we can fill in some of those gaps using poetry. Participants will consider an excerpt from Afterlives as well as the works of poets Fady Joudah, Safia Elhillo and the photography of Tanzanian photographer Hellen Gaudance.
About Amaal Said
Amaal Said is a Danish-born Somali photographer and poet, based in London. Her photographs have been featured in Vogue, The Guardian and The New York Times. She is concerned with storytelling and how best she can connect with people to document their stories. She won Wasafiri Magazine’s New Writing Prize for poetry in 2015. She is a member of Octavia, poetry collective for womxn of colour, and is a former Barbican Young Poet.
Kindly confirm your attendance to receive pre-workshop materials RSVP link
We also have a live interview and Q&A with Abdulrazak Gurnah!
Africa Writes – Exeter Book Club Presents: Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Afterlives
Date: Tuesday 30 March
Time: 16:00 – 17:00 (GMT)
Location: Crowdcast
Tickets: FREE (suggested donations: £2 / £5 / £10) via Eventbrite Register Here
With Abdulrazak Gurnah and Novuyo Rosa Tshuma.
“To read Afterlives is to be returned to the joy of storytelling.”
minatta Forna
Taking up where his 1994 Booker finalist novel Paradise left off, Abdulrazak Gurnah transports his readers back to the First World War in his latest novel Afterlives. This coming-of-age novel follows the unanchored adolescent lives of Ilyas, Hamza and Afiya disrupted by the war in the early twentieth century, and interrogates the personal and political cost of rebellion.
Ilyas is stolen by the askari, a Swahili and Arabic name for the German colonial troops, Schutzruppe. Years later he returns home orphaned and his sister, Afiya, given away. Hamza is not stolen, but was sold and comes of age in the army. Ilyas and Hamza’s experience in the askari during the war form the nexus of Afterlives. Meanwhile a quiet and resilient romance buds between Hamza and Afiya.
Praised by Giles Foden as ‘one of Africa’s greatest living writers’, award-winning author Adbulrazak Gurnah will be in conversation with Novuyo Rosa Tshuma to discuss the power and essence of how compelling characters drive a story forward in Afterlives. We welcome you to join us even if you haven’t read the book.
Buy Afterlives HERE
Presented in partnership with Saseni!, Authors.Cafe, Jalada Africa, Festival of Ideas, Libraries Unlimited and the University of Exeter.
This event is part of the Africa Writes – Exeter Book Club series which is being launched through Exeter’s UNESCO City of Literature Programme.