Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Wednesday 21 October
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
The final of this year’s Africa Talks series focuses on stories, both true and invented, with Africa at their heart. We’ll discuss ways in which stories of Africa work to define our understanding of the continent, learn about important works that are yet to reach English-speaking readers, and dig into ideas about how modern African stories should be told.
Many of us are familiar with the stories of bestselling South African novelists Bryce Courtenay and J. M. Coetzee, and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart – interrogating the influence of colonialism on a traditional Nigerian community – is a modern classic.
While a new generation of contemporary African-born writers like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and NoViolet Bulawayo have found success with keenly-observed and exciting books, do stories from the continent and diaspora remain on the periphery of the Australian readership? What are some of the key themes and issues in writing, publishing – and sharing – African writing in Australia?
Host Santilla Chingaipe and guests including Abdi Aden, Alia Gabres and Valanga Khoza will explore the most exciting new work from African writers and storytellers, the classics of African literature and the recent crop of local books with Africa at their core.
Featuring
Santilla Chingaipe
Santilla Chingaipe is a filmmaker, historian and author, whose work explores settler colonialism, slavery, and postcolonial migration in Australia. Chingaipe’s critically acclaimed and award-winning documentary Our African ...
Valanga Khoza
Valanga Khoza left South Africa in 1976, exiled along with many other young people because of their struggle against apartheid or racism. The music and stories he has since created reflects the places he has been and the people he has touched throughout his journey across the world as a refugee, finally settling in Australia.
Valanga has performed and warmed audiences of adults and children at selected world music events and in many schools across Australia and the Pacific. As well as recording six albums of original music, he is also the author of well known Gezani and the Tricky Baboon republished by Ford Street Publishing in 2014.
Valanga charms his audiences with humour and wit, telling stories that are embellished by beautiful music form many traditional instruments such as the kalimba, marimba and shijoro (jaw harp) aswell as irresistable rhythms from the guitar, percussion and Valanga’s velvety voice.
Abdi Aden
Abdi Adenwas a teenager when he arrived in Melbourne as a refugee to begin a new life. Until recently, he was a Youth Worker for Hume City Council in Melbourne, completing postgraduate studies in adolescent mental health. He is married to the daughter of British immigrants and has three young sons. His biography, Shining: The story of a lucky man, written with Robert Hillman, was released in June 2015.
Alia Gabres
Alia Gabres is a Melbourne based creative producer, cultural broker and storyteller.
She has worked with diverse and creative communities in Melbourne in various roles such as Lead Creative Producer for Industry and Creative Initiatives at the Footscray Community Arts Centre, and Lead Youth Arts and Events Producer for the City of Brimbank.
She has recently completed a residency at the New Jersey Performing Arts Centre in the USA, exploring new frameworks for broader and more diverse engagement in the arts.
She has designed and delivered innovative programming such as the ‘West Writers’ programme in Melbourne's Western suburbs, and worked as Lead Producer on the innovative the ‘Creatively Ageing’ programme and the international Women of the World Festival in 2017.
In 2016 she was invited to attend the Makassar International Writers Festival in Indonesia and 2015 saw Alia awarded as one of Melbourne Writers Festivals ’30 Under 30’, attend the Africa Writes Festival in the UK and complete a residency at the School for Social Sciences in Eritrea.
In 2014 Alia was in residence in Indonesia with Kunci Cultural Institute delivering a project that mapped traditional stories and recipes. In the same year she was program coordinator on the Global Express program that launched ‘Dialect’ a multi-lingual publication for emerging writers.
In 2013 Alia was invited as teaching artist with the Minor Disturbance Youth Slam team in Denver Colorado and co-produced an intergenerational narrative project in California. 2013 also saw Alia’s poetry video ‘Cotton Summer Dresses’ selected as a finalist of the National Blake Prize.
Alia has a Masters in Community and Cultural development at the Victorian College of the Arts. Alia is also currently a member of the Program Advisory Committee for the Creative Writing Degree at RMIT University. She has sat on Literature, Community Arts and Cultural Development and Multi-Art Form assessment panels for Creative Victoria and the national funding body for the arts, the Australia Council.