Programme

Siya Khumalo grew up in a Durban township where one sermon could whip up a lynch mob against those considered different. Drawing on personal experience -- his childhood, life in the army, attending church, and competing in pageants -- Khumalo explores being LGBTQI+ in South Africa today. In You Have to Be Gay to Know God, he takes us on a daring journey, exposing the interrelatedness of religion, politics and sex as the expectations of African cultures mingle with greed and colonial religion.

"Me I be Rita, I’m unforgiving, vengeful, and as petty as fuck." Mixing family saga, mobster pulp, and queer coming-of age, Lakiriboto is a staggeringly original and surprising novel about Nigeria’s queer and feminist communities, the struggles they face, and the lengths they will go to to overcome them.

More people are recognizing consensual non-monogamy as a new way to live and love. From the outside it might look like lots of sexual adventures and impeccable scheduling. Our panelists explore lessons that all types of intimate constellations can learn from polyamory by reimagining and redefining desire and commitment.

Hard to listen on an empty stomach? This is the time to get some food, relax, browse books and other goods on the market in the corurtyard, hang out and relax.

Carried along by a powerful style of writing in which the harshness of reality vies with cold humour, Les Aquatiques is both the inner portrait of a woman revealing herself to herself and a profound reflection on the power games in contemporary African society.

Peering deep into the inner lives of rebellious writers and their characters, this panel explores one of the true horrors of the human condition: can a female body ever really be yours?

Our guest authors recommend books that have inspired them and answer the most pressing question of all: What should I read next?

Wird sie die Amazonen retten - oder in den Untergang führen? Düster, dramatisch und atemraubend actionreich: Dark Fantasy aus der Welt der Amazonen Die Zeit der Unterdrückung ist vorbei! Troja wird fallen, und die Amazonen werden sich endlich an den Helden rächen, die ihresgleichen töteten. So besagt es eine Prophezeiung von Artemis, der Göttin der Jagd, Herrin des Mondes und Hüterin der Frauen.

A. Igoni Barrett's Blackass is a fierce comic satire that touches on everything from race to social media while at the same time questioning the values society places on us simply by virtue of the way we look. Barrett brilliantly depicts life in contemporary Nigeria and details the double-dealing and code-switching that are implicit in everyday business. But it's Furo's search for an identity--one deeper than skin--that leads to the final unraveling of his own carefully constructed story.

So much food for thought, it's time to nourish the body and take a lunch break without missing anything.

Butter Honey Pig Bread is a story of choices and their consequences, of motherhood, of the malleable line between the spirit and the mind, of finding new homes and mending old ones, of voracious appetites, of queer love, of friendship, faith, and above all, family.

Blackwashing Homophobia is a timely intervention for theorising the discourse of homophobia-related violence and what it reveals and conceals, enables and hinders, in relation to queer identities and political imaginaries in times of violence. The book’s interdisciplinary approach to the topic will appeal to social and political scientists, philosophers and psychology professionals, as well as to advanced psychology undergraduates and postgraduates alike.

Touch explores sex as a vast, yet intertwined experience with oneself and between people. It draws on the experiences of sex from people across genders, sexualities – even borders. It delves into the ways in which sex features in our lives.

Love Offers No Safety: Nigeria’s Queer Men Speak is a raw and powerful collection of 25 first-person narratives that explore the diverse experience of queer Nigerian men. These stirring stories cut across age, class, religion, ethnicity, family and relationships, offering a glimpse into what it means to survive as a queer man in Nigeria.

Ein sprachgewaltiger und überraschender Coming-of-Age-Roman für Jugendliche, voller Tiefgang und Gefühl, neu und aufregend. Novas Geschichte beginnt mit einem Umzug ans andere Ende von Berlin. Ein neues Zimmer, das ein Zuhause werden kann. Denn nur noch der Gipsarm zeugt von der Gewalt, die Nova, ihre Mutter und ihr kleiner Stiefbruder erlebt haben. Nun soll es für die dunklen Erinnerungen keinen Platz mehr geben. Nova will ankommen im Neuanfang, wieder Freude am Rollkunstlauf spüren und vom ersten Kuss träumen. Und tatsächlich wird ihr Leben wieder bunt: Glücklichsein, neue Freunde und Akoua, das Mädchen, in das sich Nova verliebt, für sie die Sonne, so strahlend und Schwarz. Doch dann kehrt die Gewalt zurück. Ein temporeicher Versroman mit einer queeren, Schwarzen Protagonistin, die den Mut findet, nach vorn zu schauen.

Too hungry to listen? This is your chance to get some delicious food from the vendors in the courtyard, have a drink, browse books and various other goods, hang out and chat.

This genre-bending Africanfuturist horror novel blends The Handmaid’s Tale with Get Out in an adrenaline-packed, cyberpunk body-hopping ghost story exploring motherhood, memory, and a woman’s right to her own body. In this devastatingly timely debut novel, acclaimed short fiction writer Tlotlo Tsamaase brings a searing intelligence and Botswana’s cultural sensibility to the question: just how far must a woman go to bring the whole system crashing down?

Growing up in rapidly gentrifying 90s Harlem, Malaya struggles to fit into a world that makes no room for her. She's funny, creative and smart, but all people see - even those who love her - is her size. Compelling and compassionate, Big Girl is an unforgettable portrait of a queer Black girl as she learns to take up space in the world on her own terms.

August is a God-fearing track star who leaves Enugu City to attend university and escape his overbearing sisters. He carries the weight of their lofty expectations, the shame of facing himself, and the haunting memory of a mother he never knew. It’s his first semester and pressures aside, August is making friends and doing well in his classes. He even almost has a girlfriend. There’s only one problem: he can’t stop thinking about Segun, an openly gay student who works at a local cybercafé.

Get some food, take a break, grab a book and have a good time.

Stories from the queer Kenyan community.

Say goodbye to all the festival guests and win a prize.