A Stellar Panel of Guest Writers
When it was first held in 2008, the Port Harcourt Book Festival was known as the Garden City Literary Festival. The name was recently changed to further promote the city of Port Harcourt as one of the world’s premier destinations for all things literary. Although it may have changed its name, the Port Harcourt Book Festival remains one of the most significant on the African literary calendar. The guest list at previous events has included a veritable treasure trove of important figures in Nigerian and African literature. These include such luminaries as the Nobel Laureate Wole Siyinka from Nigeria, Ghana’s Kofi Awonoor and the American writer Petrina Crockford. Siyinka was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, the very first African writer to ever be awarded this prestigious honour. International dignitaries who have graced past events include the Reverend Jesse Jackson from the United States. With the 2014 edition of the event coinciding with Port Harcourt being chosen as the World Book Capital, organisers were intent on producing a stellar line-up of guests to befit such an important occasion.
Writers in attendance at the 2014 Port Harcourt Book Festival, which ran from October 20th to October 25th, included renowned Jamaican journalist Lindsay Barrett, playwright and television producer Adiela Onyediba and Nigerian poet Dr. Obari Gomba. Although born in Jamaica, journalist, poet and essayist Barrett has lived in Nigeria for almost forty years. He, along with the other writers mentioned here, was a speaker and mentor at the festival’s residency programme. The three-week writers' residency programme was held on the outskirts of Port Harcourt at Songhai Farms. Although a huge number of aspiring writers applied to be a part of the residency, due to the high regard that the Port Harcourt Book Festival is held in, only twelve were eventually chosen. It is hoped that the work produced by these writers at the residency, based on the aspiring theme of Books: Windows to Our World of Possibilities, will be published in a special anthology.
Port Harcourt - World Book Capital 2014
The success of the annual Port Harcourt Book Festival, since the very first event in 2008, has certainly been a major factor in the Nigerian city being bestowed with the great honour of World Book Capital for 2014. Each year since 2001, UNESCO have chosen a different city from around the globe as the World Book Capital. To be nominated for the honour, each city has to meet certain criteria, including overall levels of reading participation, promotion of books and reading and freedom of literary expression. Port Harcourt is only the second African city, after Alexandria in Egypt, to be chosen as a World Book Capital. In April 2015, Port Harcourt will hand over the baton to the city of Incheon in South Korea. The Nigerian city will certainly be looking to sustain the momentum gained by its year as World Book Capital and continue to be recognised as one of the premier destinations for literature not just in Africa but across the globe.
Planning for the Future
Despite the Book Festival helping Port Harcourt’s cause immensely, it was not the only reason that UNESCO deciding to bestow the 2014 honour on the Rivers State city. Port Harcourt has a long-standing commitment to promoting literary culture amongst the city’s youth. By focusing a fair proportion of their efforts on the younger inhabitants of Port Harcourt, officials are hoping to raise literacy rates not just in the city itself but across Nigeria too. The culture of books in Port Harcourt has always been an important part of life. By continuing to promote this culture amongst the city’s youth, the future of Nigeria’s literary art looks assured.
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