Under the Tongue: A Festival of African Literature
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News Release MAPANJE, FARAH TO READ AT BROWN Poet Jack Mapanje and novelist Nuruddin Farah will join Brown University’s Graduate Program in Literary Arts and Watson Institute for International Studies in presenting “Under the Tongue: A Festival of Literature from Africa,” April 15 and 16, 2008. In addition to the readings by Mapanje and Farah, the two-day festival will also feature panels, talks, and readings by other prominent African novelists, poets and playwrights, including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Pierre Mumbere Mujomba and Charles Mulekwa. The festival’s events will explore the cultural and artistic heritage of Chenjerai Hove, who last summer was named Brown’s fifth International Writing Fellow. Regarded as a leading figure of post-colonial Zimbabwean literature, Hove is the author of four novels – Bones, Shadows, Ancestors, and, in his native Shona, Masimba Avanhu (Is This the People’s Power?), as well as of three volumes of poetry, essays, and freelance journalism. He has lived in exile since 2001, after his writings, especially Masimba Avanhu and a play, Sister, Sing Again (both of which address the situation of women in Zimbabwe), as well as his criticism of the policies of President Robert Mugabe, brought him to the attention of the Zimbabwe government. Hove’s house was broken into, his computers stolen, his family was threatened, and he was placed under constant surveillance by the police. He left Zimbabwe with the help of the International Parliament of Writers, which found him a temporary placement in France. Later, he relocated to Stavanger, Norway, where he was a guest writer through the International Cities of Refuge Network, an organization that aids endangered and exiled writers. Brown’s International Writing Fellowship allowed Hove to relocate to Providence, where he will be a Fellow through summer, 2008. Under the Tongue: A Festival of Literature from Africa Tuesday, April 15: 3:30 pm, Joukowsky Forum, Watson Institute, 111 Thayer St.: Freedom to Write Panel, a discussion of worldwide freedom of expression issues. Panelists will include writers Nuruddin Farah (Somalia), Chenjerai Hove (Zimbabwe), Jack Mapanje (Malawi), and Pierre Mujomba (Congo), with Joanne Leedom-Ackerman (novelist and Vice President of International PEN). Larry Siems, Director of the Freedom to Write Program, PEN American Center, will act as moderator. 8 p.m., McCormack Family Theater, 70 Brown St.: Readings by Chenjerai Hove, 2007 – 2008 IWP Fellow, and Jack Mapanje, Malawian poet, linguist, editor and scholar, author of The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison, Skipping Without Ropes, The Last of the Sweet Bananas: New and Selected Poems, and Beasts of Nalunga, among other volumes. Wednesday, April 16: 3 pm, George Houston Bass Performing Arts Space at Churchill House, 155 Angell St.: Staged readings from plays by Congolese playwright Pierre Mujomba (author of The Lost Envelope and Ecce Ego, a novel) and Ugandan playwright Charles Mulekwa (author of The Woman In Me, The Eleventh Commandment, and A Time of Fire). 8 pm, McCormack Family Theater, 70 Brown St.: Readings by novelist Chimamanda Adichie of Nigeria, author of Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun, and Somalian writer Nuruddin Farah. All events are free and open to the public. “Under the Tongue: A Festival of Literature from Africa” and the International Writers Project are jointly sponsored by Brown’s Graduate Program in Literary Arts and Watson Institute for International Studies through funding from the William H. Donner Foundation, with additional support and sponsorship from Brown’s Department of Africana Studies and by the Office of the President.
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