STORYMOJA

Nonetheless, the StoryMoja Hay festival was a rare treat. Different cultures, films, books, stories, drama, IT…what more could we have asked for?

Aly-Khan Satchu, author of the provocatively titled bestseller, Anyone Can Be Rich, leads this session on the investment opportunities offered by the Nairobi Stock Exchange.

If you were HIV-positive, would you go ahead and have a child? Asunta Wangura did and told the world about it in her Nation newspaper column that inspires thousands. Come listen to her amazing story of how she has dealt with the harrowing stigma of living with HIV. A leading health activist, Ms. Wangura is the founder and director of one of the oldest HIV advocacy groups in Kenya, KENWA. She will be interviewed by Kingwa Kamencu, author of “To Grasp a Star” and soon-to-be Rhodes Scholar.

Honourable Minister Mohamed Haroun Kafi, Sudanese writer and Diplomat will be at the Storymoja Hay Festival with his daughter Ludia Shima Haroun.

Always gripping, often terrifying, and occasionally inspirational, the Kenyan prison memoir is one of the country’s most controversial literary forms. Today, three formerly imprisoned writers come together to discuss their experiences and their writing.

Friday 31st July 2009, at 4pm – 5:30pm Publishing and Marketing Panel Discussion w/ John Mwazemba, Agatha V, KPA – Laurence Njagi of Mountaintop Publishers, Stanley Gazemba, Doreen/Bibi Bakare /Billy Kahora

Fiction leads us into usually unfamiliar worlds that both repel and thrill us. This conversation brings together writers who explore the dangerous side of human nature: the lives of prostitutes (Nigerian award winning writer Chika Unigwe), criminals (Kenyan writers Onduko Bwa’Atebe and Moraa Gitaa, American writer Lee Siegel and Nigerian writer Tony Kan).

Kate Adie – BBC Journalist
Kate Adie – BBC Journalist

Kate Adie, who spent fourteen years as the BBC’s chief news correspondent, is one of Britain’s most high-profile television journalists. Due to her brave and groundbreaking career in broadcast journalism, Adie was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1993. She currently presents From Our Own Correspondent on BBC Radio 4.

What is the future of African writing? The face of it is in young writers such as Petina Gappah from Zimbabwe, Chika Unigwe from Nigeria and Monica Arac from Uganda. Is it a coincidence that they all live away from their “homelands”? Do African women writers tell differently the myriad stories to be told?

Daniel Morden and Jan Blake will run a Storytelling Skills Factory Workshop at the Storymoja Hay Festival which will certainly inspire the next generation of storytellers on Friday 31st August 2009 at 2pm to 5.30pm in the British Council Pavilion