Contrary to what some people think, Africans do read. They love it so much that, all around the continent, adherents of the cult of pages and the arts gather every year, across different cities, to celebrate African Literature in all its forms.
Here are twenty of the most prominent African literary festivals that you’ll absolutely love to attend.
Founded: 2017
Organizer: Quramo Publishing
Host Country: Nigeria
Quramo Festival of Words (QFEST) is a vibrant literary gathering where words aren’t just read, they’re performed, debated, and celebrated.
Born from Quramo Publishing’s commitment to spotlighting African voices, QFEST has grown into one of Nigeria’s most consistent literary events. Its programming is rich, featuring panel discussions, book chats, poetry slams, film screenings, and musical performances.
What makes QFEST stand out is its conscious effort to blend literature with other art forms, as well as its flagship Quramo Writers’ Prize—an opportunity for emerging writers to gain visibility and serious prize money.
Founded: 2017
Organizer: Book Buzz Foundation
Host Country: Nigeria
Kaduna Book & Arts Festival, fondly known as KABAFEST, is proof that northern Nigeria has a literary heart—and it beats loudly. Powered by Lola Shoneyin’s Book Buzz Foundation, KABAFEST made its debut in 2017 and immediately rewrote expectations.
In a region often underrepresented in the Nigerian literary scene, this festival showcases northern voices with boldness and flair. It hosts panels in Hausa and English, supports artists through exhibitions, and creates space for discussions around identity, politics, feminism, and religion.
Founded: 2001
Organizer: Nigeria Book Fair Trust
Host Country: Nigeria
The Nigeria International Book Fair (NIBF) is the largest and oldest book fair in West Africa, serving as a yearly marketplace for all things print and publishing.
Held in Lagos, NIBF is where publishers, printers, booksellers, librarians, authors, and educators come to strike deals, launch new books, and talk policy. But there’s also room for readers.
With children’s book corners, author signings, panel discussions, and live readings, NIBF manages to combine trade with public-facing literary culture.
Founded: 2002
Organizer: Bibliotheca Alexandrina, General Egyptian Book Organization, and the Egyptian and Arab Publishers Association
Host Country: Egypt
Held at the iconic Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, this fair blends literary culture with architectural grandeur.
Guest authors have included Nobel laureate Nadine Gordimer and Egyptian novelist Alaa Al Aswany. Alongside book stalls, there are themed exhibition galleries, live theatre events, film screenings, lectures, and children’s corners.
Founded: 1969
Organizer: Egyptian Ministry of Culture & General Egyptian Book Organization
Host Country: Egypt
Africa’s largest book fair by sheer attendance and the oldest event of its kind in the Arab world, Cairo’s annual event still draws well over two million visitors in a single edition.
The fair is also a platform for book policy and Arabic-language editions. Its array of children’s activities and literary competitions enables young readers and writers to shine.
Founded: 2022
Organizer: Creation Africa-Kenya
Host Country: Kenya
NYrobi Comic Fest is Kenya’s groundbreaking celebration of African comic art, graphic novels, webcomics, and illustration culture.
This isn’t your average literary festival—it’s where Afrofuturism meets manga, panels focus on digital illustration, and comics by African creators get spotlighted. Workshops include graphic storytelling, character design, and DIY zine-making.
For comic lovers and graphic storytellers, NYrobi Comic Fest is a rare space to encounter African sequential art in its full diversity.
Founded: 2021
Organizer: Book Bunk in partnership with Hay Festival Global
Host Country: Kenya
Nairobi Litfest takes place across historic public libraries—McMillan, Kaloleni, and Eastlands—and transforms them into “Palaces for the People.”
Each year brings a fresh theme: Writing African Cities (2021), Mtaa Narratives (2023) and in 2025, Exploring Alternative Knowledge Systems, reflecting on indigenous wisdom, climate justice, and reimagined futures.
Past editions have featured luminaries such as Bernardine Evaristo, Taiye Selasi, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, Dipo Faloyin, and Panashe Chigumadzi. Format-wise, it offers a mix of free stages like Green Bunk (public panels, live poetry), Book Talk Venue (intimate author sessions), and the Ikulu Stage (ticketed, deeper conversations whose proceeds help public library restoration).
Founded: 1997
Organizer: Zanzibar Renaissance Literary Society
Host Country: Tanzania
Held annually in historic Stone Town, the Zanzibar Book Fair is a watery oasis for words—an intimate literary gathering hosted alongside the region’s premier film festival.
With past themes tied to Swahili heritage and cultural resilience, the fair welcomes writers from East Africa and the diaspora, featuring panel talks, poetry readings, children’s activities, and storytelling workshops.
Founded: 2023
Organizer: Soma Nami Books (Pan-African bookstore)
Host Country: Kenya
The African Book Fair is an attendee-focused gathering in Nairobi’s Upperhill (Maktaba Kuu). The fair organizes author panels, reader meet-ups, workshops, and pop-up performances.
Speakers include Muthoni Muiruri (Soma Nami co-founder) and a rotating roster of emerging and established African writers. The agenda includes poetry performances, exhibitions, storytelling sessions, and community-building initiatives celebrating local narratives and continental diversity.
Founded: 2008
Organizer: Redsea Online Culture Foundation
Host Country: Somaliland (Somalia)
Hargeysa International Book Fair (HIBF) is a reclaiming of intellectual spaces, of local narratives, and literary sovereignty. Born in turbulent times, HIBF is now one of East Africa’s boldest gatherings, bringing together Somali writers, seasoned authors, and diaspora voices with urgency and pride.
What’s unique here is how the festival gives ground back to Somali storytellers on their terms. There are live poetry performances in Somali dialects, Somali-English translation workshops, and panels debating the politics of publishing under unstable regimes.
Founded: 2025
Organizer: Centre for Memories – Ncheta Ndigbo
Host Country: Nigeria
If you think African literature festivals are simply an exercise in aesthetics, let the Things Fall Apart Festival remind you otherwise. Named after Achebe’s masterpiece, this new festival is a reckoning with colonial erasure and a celebration of indigenous imagination.
The Things Fall Apart Festival is a vibrant, week-long gathering that unites acclaimed authors, cultural advocates, historians, artists, and devoted readers in a dynamic exploration of Chinua Achebe’s enduring legacy and its profound resonance in our modern world.
Through thought-provoking discussions and creative exchanges, attendees engage with Achebe’s timeless wisdom on harmony between gender identities, self and society, and the tensions of progress and tradition.
Things Fall Apart Festival channels Achebe’s spirit—rejecting the commodification of myth while affirming the power of language to revive memory and demand respect.
Founded: 2009
Organizer: Sigana Trust
Host Country: Kenya
Sigana International Storytelling Festival is oral tradition reclaimed—where stories are not text on a page but voices echoing across generations. Initially held annually, but now biennially, this festival revives endangered Kamba folktales, songs, and proverbs in open courtyards, alongside contemporary African storytellers.
Recognizing that commercialization often smothers tradition, the Sigana festival insists that stories belong to people, not publishers. It centres elders, invites schoolchildren, and encourages intergenerational exchange. In doing so, it quietly resists the spectacle‑mindset of global publishing and returns oral narratives to their rightful place: alive, spoken, communal.
Founded: 1997
Organizer: Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Host Country: South Africa
Poetry Africa is not your average spoken word jam. It’s a rallying call dressed in metaphor and cadence. Hosted annually in Durban, this decades-old festival gathers poets from across Africa and the diaspora to speak truth—unfiltered and rhythmically defiant.
And it’s not all stage and mic; Poetry Africa hosts masterclasses, publishing workshops, and policy dialogues that bridge poetry and public life.
Founded: 2024
Organizer: Abridged Afrika Collective
Host Country: Nigeria
In a city known more for politics than verse, the Abuja International Poetry Festival is a breath of defiance—and it smells like ink and revolution.
With an unapologetic blend of performance, page poetry, and critical theory, AIPF takes poetry out of the classroom and into the streets, the clubs, the marketplaces of cultural exchange.
Founded: 2024
Organizer: Goethe-Zentrum Kampala and Ugandan German Cultural Society
Host Country: Uganda
Kampala Writes LitFest is more than a literary celebration—it’s literary resistance. It’s a space where emerging feminist writers find kinship and where seasoned authors confront institutional silence. From intimate workshops to firecracker panel discussions, every event feels deliberate and urgent.
Writers like Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi, Beatrice Lamwaka, and Zukiswa Wanner have shared stages with queer poets, refugee storytellers, and teenage writers scribbling revolution into their notebooks. Kampala Writes is not loud—but it is uncompromising.
Founded: 2021
Organizer: Book O’Clock
Host Country: Nigeria
Sokoto might not be the first name on everyone’s literary map—but maybe it should be. The Sokoto Book and Arts Festival (SOBAFest) is the quiet storm of Nigeria’s literary circuit. Founded in the aftermath of regional neglect and educational decay, it pushes back with books, dialogue, and celebration.
Its inaugural theme—Changing the Narrative—was a manifesto in itself. Since then, it has hosted conversations on Islam and literature, feminism in the North, and language politics in Hausa storytelling. There’s a strong tilt toward northern voices, often overlooked in mainstream publishing.
Founded: 1999
Organizer: Kenya Publishers Association
Host Country: Kenya
If African publishing had a capital, Nairobi would be on the ballot—and this fair is its campaign headquarters. The Nairobi International Book Fair (NIBF) is the longest-running literary event in Kenya and among the most commercially impactful on the continent.
This is where publishers meet distributors, readers meet writers, and deals are sealed over tea and long catalogues. T
While not always as politically charged or performatively artistic as other festivals, NIBF makes up for it with sheer scale and reach. Kids’ literature, Christian publishing, scholarly work, Afro-futurism—you’ll find them all.
Founded: 2024
Organizer: Poetic Wednesdays
Host Country: Nigeria
In the historic city of Kano—where oral traditions stretch back centuries—the Kano International Poetry Festival (KIPFest) is a bold attempt to turn heritage into contemporary fire. Organized by Poetic Wednesdays, a grassroots movement of northern poets, KIPFest was born from open mics and community love.
The festival uplifts local talent while drawing pan-African guests. Think of it as less TED Talk, more heart-to-heart on stage. And yes, there’s suya, drumming, and a nighttime slam that feels more like ritual than recital.
Founded: 2013
Organizer: Book Buzz Foundation
Host Country: Nigeria
Ake is not just a festival. It’s an experience. An institution. A cultural reckoning.
Held annually in Nigeria (often in Lagos or Abeokuta), Ake Festival is Africa’s answer to Hay or Edinburgh—with more spice, more politics, and way more soul. Its themes cut deep: Black Bodies and Grey Matter, Generational Discordance, This F-Word (yes, feminism). Nothing is off-limits.
It has hosted a who’s who of literary royalty: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Nnedi Okorafor, and Maaza Mengiste, to name a few. And it’s not just writers. Ake brings dancers, artists, actors, philosophers, and revolutionaries into the same room.
Founded: 1999
Organizer: Committee for Relevant Art (CORA)
Host Country: Nigeria
LABAF is a seven-day carnival of books, music, film, and visual arts, it takes over Freedom Park in Lagos every November.
LABAF is loud, political, grassroots, and proudly Nigerian. It celebrates books not just as texts, but as living, breathing artefacts. Past editions have tackled corruption, democracy, fake news, and the decay of public institutions—all through poetry, theatre, satire, and storytelling.
