BlkLitLust

Africa Writes, the UK’s largest celebration of contemporary African literature, returns for its ninth edition, and this year’s blended programme of online and in-person events highlights themes of imagination, pleasure and activism within African literature today. We asked Ghanaian feminist activist and award-winning blogger, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah, to write a love letter to literature, exploring how words induce pleasure. You can read her response below, and join us on Saturday 23 October as she discusses her boundary-breaking book, The Sex Lives of African Women.

#BlkLitLust - Definition: A lust for Black literature. A desire to read books where you’re seen in all your complexities. A desire to get lost in words and other worlds. A desire to escape, if only for a short while…

All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou was one of the first books that showed me that it was possible for women to live free and chart our own courses in life. 

Wounds of Passion by Bell Hooks on the other hand scandalised and affirmed me. “Yessss” I agreed, “nobody should be thought of as property. Being married to someone doesn’t mean you own them.”

And then, Ama Ata Aidoo. One of the few women who in my view can be described as ‘indomitable’ without irony or exaggeration.  I remember my heart going thud, thud, thud, throughout Changes.

I feel like Ayesha Harruna Atta is arguably leading the charge for contemporary Ghanaian women and I’m thankful for her words; words that make me remember what it was like to be a young woman seeking sex and adventure like her lead character in Zainab Takes New York. 

Here’s to brave women writers. To the women who create worlds as yet unseen. The women who show us how to navigate this world. The women whose very existence on the page shows us how we can exist in real life.

Here’s to the Black writers who create worlds where we actually exist. Where our imperfections are made beautiful and whole.

Here’s to the Queer writers who refuse to dissapear, reflecting a rainbow of humanity and showing us characters we can love and hate in equal measure.

Here’s to literature. Literature that inspires. Literature that heals. Literature that gives us permission to be.

Much love,

Nana Darkoa