Introduction: Literary Activism in 21st Century Africa

Abstract

The final stages of this special issue cohered during a pandemic which has, thanks to an uneven global landscape of lockdowns and curfews, witnessed exceptional inventivity and literary activity in the digital African literary space. Literary festivals such as AfroLitSansFrontières, Aké Arts and Book Festival, Bakwa Lit Fest, Time of the Writer, Gaborone Book Festival, Heroe Book Fair, and scores more flourished across digital platforms from Instagram to YouTube. These events have accelerated transnational and multilingual conversations, while also hosting important dialogues about digital access and pan-African literary landscapes. Festivals remain key venues for knowledge production on and about African current affairs, as well as literary aesthetics and the politics of the literary marketplace. This issue's core concern with literary activism emerges in dialogue with ongoing conversations among African writers, publishers, festival organisers and translators who work across this space (in particular in Uganda,