Doek festival a resounding success
The 2022 Doek Literary Festival, Namibia’s first international literary festival, took place at the Goethe-Institut in Windhoek until Saturday.In partnership with the University of East Anglia’s (UEA) International Chair of Creative Writing (ICCW), and sponsored by Bank Windhoek, the three-day celebration of reading and writing brought lovers of literature together to take part in creative writing workshops and panel discussions.
With fiction in short and novel form, the festival was headlined by Tsitsi Dangarembga, award-winning Zimbabwean author of Nervous Conditions, The Book of Not, and This Mournable Body.
Her co-headliner, Zukiswa Wanner, was the first African woman to be awarded the Goethe Medal and the author of award-winning novels such as The Madams, Men of the South, and London Cape Town Joburg.
Nigerian writer Femi Kayode, who won the UEA/Little Brown Award for his debut novel Lightseekers, and Jean McNeil, herself an award-winning author and Professor of Creative Writing at UEA, rounded up the festival’s international guest list.
Namibian flavours for the festival’s line-up were provided by the 2022-2023 Doek Collective, a diverse cohort of emerging Namibian writers whose works have been featured in Doek! Literary Magazine, namely Charmaine //Gamxamus, Roxane Bayer, Kay-Leigh de Sousa, Ndawedwa Denga Hanghuwo, who won the inaugural fiction prize of the Bank Windhoek Doek Literary Awards in 2021, Katherine Hunter, Filemon Iiyambo, Dalene Kooper, and Ange Mucyo.
Inspiring
“This gathering of literature enthusiasts of all ages and backgrounds, the first of its kind in Namibia, was inspiring and encouraging to aspiring and established storytellers from the country’s young literary community,” said Rémy Ngamije, Doek’s founder and chairperson.
“With Bank Windhoek’s generous support, this exciting but complex festival's planning, organising, and hosting stages were smoothly executed and permitted. Without Bank Windhoek, it would not be possible for Namibia to join countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana, as a country capable of hosting prestigious literary events with national and international attendants and audiences.”
Dangarembga remarked that it was encouraging to see Bank Windhoek supporting such an initiative. “The arts are civic in nature and seeing a private institution like Bank Windhoek involved in this important project can only bode well for the country.”
Wanner added that literary festivals are important cultural events that provide readers and writers with means of encountering each other. “Festivals like Aké in Lagos, Nigeria, are supported each year by a banking institution. In Namibia, this role has been taken on by Bank Windhoek - we would like to continue seeing this support for this festival becoming a staple of the African literary calendar.”
Fertile ground
Ngamije said the Doek Literary Festival provided fertile ground for conversations about the desperate need to nurture reading, hone one’s writing craft, develop the necessary discipline and determination to pursue careers in the arts, and literary funding in Namibia.
“One of the things this festival made clear, through the workshops and panel discussions, was that there is nothing wrong with Namibian literature - the issue lies in funding,” said Rémy Ngamije. “Without the financial resources needed to create spaces for ideas and ideals to be exchanged, it is impossible to think about developing a literary culture or community. Bank Windhoek’s support for the 2022 Doek Literary Festival permitted a platform for connection and positive change to be made, and its role in Namibia’s literary present and future cannot be emphasised enough.”