Zaynab Alkali headlines Minna Book and Arts Festival

The Northern Nigeria literary landscape is witnessing more colours and voices as Art initiatives roll out programmes and projects that engage the seemingly conservative art space of the region.  A week after the KABAFEST ended in Kaduna, a new Book and Arts Festival (MinnaBAF) is set to debut in Minna, Niger state next week with renowned writer Prof Zaynab Alkali headlining the festival.

Scheduled to hold between September 18 and 21,  the festival is an initiative of AMAB  Books  &  Publishing and The Arts-Muse  Fair,  all  registered  outfits  with  their  headquarters  in  Minna.  These outfits have jointly and severally organized numerous Arts events in the past three years that served to rekindle the literary fire Minna is famed for.

Minna  Book  &  Arts  Festival  is  a literary and cultural  event  that  is  designed  to  create awareness,  build  capacities  and  promote  all  forms  of  arts.  It  will accommodate  discourses  and  engaging  interactions  in  all forms of  literary,  verbal  and  visual  arts. This debut edition has the theme, Northern Nigeria Creative Development: The Valley and the Boundary. Writers, academics and arts lovers are invited to participate in the festival. Registration can be done at www.minnabaf.com.ng or at the venue of the festival.   

Over  the  years,  the  metropolitan  city  of  Minna, the capital of Niger State  has  been  able  to develop  capacities  in  arts  and  culture,  pay  host  to  writers  and creative  individuals  and  establish  its  relevance  as  the  literary capital  of  Nigeria. In  various  events  spanning three decades,  the  city  has  hosted Wole  Soyinka,  Late  Buchi  Emechita,  Late  Ken  Saro  Wiwa,  late Prof Atukwe Okai, Pius Adesanmi,  Ishmaeel Reed,  Abubakar  Adam  Ibrahim,  Wale  Okediran,  Prof E.E  Sule,  Denja  Abdullahi, Chuma Nwokolo, Ayi Osori and many others.

The headline activity of MinnaBAF is deliberately designed around the literary career, personality and writings of Professor Zainab Alkali for her distinction of being the first woman novelist from Northern Nigeria to be published in English. Equally, her tenacious grip on African cultural identity has strengthened the force of her social vision in a society undergoing rapid socio-cultural transformation.

Some of the guest writers attending the festival include Prof. A.K Babajo, Prof. E.E Sule, Prof. Asabe Kabir, Dr. Ibraheem Dooba, Dr. Wale Okediran, Dr. Razinat Mohammed, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, BM Dzukogi, Denja Abdullahi, TJ Benson, and Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino.