At the heart of the cultural and literary effervescence is the annual Lagos Book & Art Festival, LABAF 2024, which is celebrating its 26th edition in style. This year, distinguished Professor Akin Adesokan, a specialist in comparative literature and film and media studies at Indiana University Bloomington, will have the honor of delivering the keynote address at the symposium.
A true jack-of-all-trades, Adesokan is an acclaimed novelist (Roots in The Sky), poet, translator (The Age of White Rulers, an English translation of Chief Isaac Delanọ’s Yoruba novel Aiyé D’aiyé Òyìnbó), and essayist (Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics, Everything is Sampled). He is flying specially to Lagos for the second time in 11 years to participate in LABAF.
Under the working title “The Traps of Memory, from Hope to Despair and Retribution”, his talk will focus on Wọle Ṣoyinka’s Nobel Lecture, “This Past Must Answer its Present”, and the 2003 documentary “The Return of Sara Baartman” (by South African director Zola Maseko) tracing the repatriation of the remains of Sara Baartman, the so-called “Hottentot Venus”, to South Africa in 1998.
LABAF 2024, an event marking a quarter century of this national “cultural picnic”, promises a week rich in exchanges and reflections. From 11 to 17 November at Freedom Park on Lagos Island, this festival with the theme “OVERCOMING: HOPE IS A TENACOUS THING” will welcome lovers of the arts and literature. The three days of the weekend, from Friday 15 to Sunday 17 November, will be dedicated to the festival’s flagship books.
The symposium, a highlight of LABAF, brings together renowned speakers. Personalities such as professors Biodun Jeyifo, Niyi Osundare, Awam Amkpa and the poet Odia Ofeimun have left their mark on this celebration of literature. The writer Ayisha Osori, author of “Love Does Not Win Elections”, is also one of the influential figures who have spoken at previous editions.
Kunle Ajibade, activist journalist and president of the festival in 2021, will preside over Adesokan’s speech, the highlight of this edition. The theme of hope and perseverance resonate strongly in this context marked by the challenges of our society. The books selected for the event highlight strength and determination through works such as “Wat nt shemsw: The Way of Companions” by Ayi Kwei Armah and “Everything is fucked: A book about hope” by Mark Manson.
LABAF 2024 promises to be an unmissable event for culture and literature enthusiasts, offering a privileged space for exchanges and reflections on the power of writing and creativity in a constantly changing world.