Dear friends,
June is tomorrow. The days are getting longer, the birds happier. Soon will come the cicadas and their shrill confirmation of summer. I couldn’t be happier here in Atlanta, where it seems the summer sun rests its full weight for the four months it sticks around. Sure, I already turn on the AC in my car and mutter some choice words about the oppressive weight of the heat but it is with the affectionate outrage one reserves for loved ones who do too much.
The sun will not be the only one doing the most this June. Here at MA, flowers from seeds donated by a very generous supporter will be in full bloom with (The) African Folklore Restoration Initiative – AFRI.
AFRI is a writer grant which will provide up to $300 in funding to unpublished African writers aged 55 years or older, to revisit the folktales of their people and update or retell them.
The idea for this project came to me in 2023 after I read about the Senegalese anthropologist Fallou Ngom who discovered a note written by his late father in a script that looked like Arabic, but sounded like Wolof, a regional West Atlantic language. He embarked on a journey which revealed a treasure trove of “religious texts, medical diagnoses, advertisements, love poems, business records, contracts, and writings on astrology, ethics, morality, history, and geography, all from people who were considered illiterate by the official governmental standards of their countries.”
This got me wondering about what happens to the brilliant and prolific African writers from older generations (55+) who have fallen through the cracks of the weak publishing infrastructure on the African continent? What, if any exist, are the opportunities available to these individuals in the current era of heightened interest in creative potential from the continent?
“I am as young as the most beautiful wish in my heart, and as old as all the unfulfilled longings in my life.” — Elderly Kung Bushman’s answer to how old he was.
AFRI is a small effort to encourage this cohort for whom there is often no special leg-up and who miss out on the various prizes and mentorships and support aimed at young writers.
How Can You Help?
Are you an African writer who meets the entry criteria? Know one who does? Visit the AFRI page to learn more!
Want to help spread the word? Please download and share this flier.
The AFRI Grant is currently funded to support 5-6 writers. Would you like to support more? Consider donating to support MA projects.
What To Expect From MA in June?
Well, we didn’t quite get to all the wonderful folklore in Ibrahim al-Koni’s Al Majus (AKA The Animists or The Fetishists) and Jennifer Makumbi’s Kintu. Then today, I read this absolutely delightful post on the folklore about butter so, of course, I want to do something about food-related folklore.
What will it be? We’ll just have to see.
Meanwhile, if you missed May’s podcast episodes, be sure to catch up! We talked about the folklore of the dreaded Lwera wastelands of Uganda, the desert, which Ibrahim al-Koni very aptly describes as nature that vanished and turned into a spirit, reflected on the folklore about neurodivergence and mental illness and read about the Lost Oasis of Waw.
We also continued with the essay series on neck rings in African culture with an exposition on how King Shaka of the Zulu used them to organize his royal court.
Wishing you the summer of your dreams!
Be well,
Helen