…NATIONAL HEALING PANEL DISCUSSES ‘961 DAYS, BROTHERS AT WAR – NEVER AGAIN: THE NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR’
QURAMO Publishers, organisers of Quramo Festival of Words (QFest 2025), is proud to announce the 9th edition of the annual festival that continues to shape minds and expound the boundaries of thought and creative expressions. This year the festival will take place from October 2—5, 2025 at its dedicated venue, Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos. The 4-day cultural fiesta has ‘A Brave New World’ as them, and will feature a tantalising bouquet of inspiring conversations, book chats, spoken word slam, workshops and film shows.
The Kenyan-American writer and son of Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Dr. Mukoma Ngugi of Cornel University, New York, will headline the cultural showpiece, as he will hold a Masterclass workshop in writing and feature in QFest’s ‘Up Close and Personal’ no-holds-bared conversation. Mukoma is Associate Professor of Literatures in English at Cornel University, New York.
It will be recalled that one of Africa’s literary and cultural patriarchs and his father, Prof. Ngugi wa Thiong’o joined his ancestors a few months ago. Bringing his son to Nigeria is QFest’s unique way of honouring the departed cultural icon. Mukoma will handle a masterclass on writing.
Also, ace actress Joke Silva will feature in this year’s Q-Conversation, a significant aspect of the QFest that delves into the personal and professional life of a major creative the way fans have never seen before.
Festival Convener and Quramo Publishers’ boss, Mrs. Gbemi Shasore, expressed delight at how far QFest has come in its remarkable journey in contributing to enlivening Nigeria’s cultural landscape with its impactful programming and array of resource persons, be they workshop facilitators, panel members or keynote speakers and the amazing, ever resilient and engaging audience.
“At QFest we give primacy to the word, as our ever versatile creatives give expression to them to energise our cultural space,” Gbemi Shasore said, as she heads to Algiers, Algeria to attend the CANEX Prize for Publishing in Africa 2025 with the shortlist of the novel, Dear Zimi by Chizeterem Chijoke, from her stable. “This year is remarkable for Quramo Festival of Words, as our festival is bringing a big fish, Kenyan-American, Prof. Mukoma wa Ngugi, to Nigeria to join other notable cultural workers on the home turf to shed light on some weighty subjects. I’m particularly thrilled that we have taken a bold initiative to look at a certain tricky, lingering aspect of Nigeria’s socio-political life: This year’s advocacy panel of national and even global dimension is carefully curated to kick-start a national healing discourse and process. Tagged ‘961 Days, Brothers at War – Never Again: The Nigerian Civil War’, it’s our firm belief that it’s about time Nigeria healed from that open wound, so we can all find both closure, healing and true nationhood. That is why we will adopt it as an advocacy project and we will take it to the highest level of our political space beyond the incisive conversations at the festival. It is our modest hope that Nigeria will bloom after our modest efforts.
“Ar QFest we believe in the power of words to bring healing; they’re therapeutic, and we want the words we speak to bring about the reconciliation we need to set our country in the right path. Our panel members understand the importance of this and have written books that extol the similarities in diversity rather than the differences inherent in us and how we can use them to form personal relationships and national cohesion. Our goal is to deploy the power of words to fashion for ourselves a better country that is united in the singular purpose of leaving behind a true nation for the generations to come.
“Of course, QFest is known for its eclectic programming. We invite lovers of culture, everyone, to come have a banquet of ideas and fun with us, from film shows to book chats, panel discussions and keynote speeches by seasoned professionals. We hope that our Quramo Writers Prize (QWP 2025) will also throw up a spellbinding manuscript and we will reward the writer with N1 million and also publish it the way we did to Chijoke’s Dear Zimi. Keep a date with us and we promise to take you on a cultural journey you won’t forget in a hurry.”
This nationalistic conversation will feature heavy weight writers like war historians Dr. Akintunde Akinwumi and Max Siollun, Editorial Board Chairman of The Nation newspaper, Mr. Sam Omatseye Prof. Dul Johnson of the University of Jos, poet and playwright Malam Denja Abdullahi, Chigozie Obioma, lawyer and prize-winning poet Tade Ipadeola, among others. Notably, both recent and old fictional and non-fictional books on the Nigeria Civil War will be exhibited for the patronage delight of festival attendees.
QFest 2025 will kick off with an interesting array of workshops on literary excellence and film technics that will be delivered by masters of these cultural crafts. Veteran filmmaker Fidelis Duker, Oyin Talabi, novelist Dele Sijuade, Oriyomi Adebare, Obafeyikemi, Kenya’s cultural journalist, publisher of African Literature Blog and a regular feature at QFest Mr. James Murua and the Irish poet Stephen James Smith will engage young creatives in masterclasses in film, culture appreciation and poetry to help them horn their budding skills.
Also, some of the exciting programmes at QFest 2025 include critical conversations on the knotty issue of distribution of Nigerian films and the shrinking global platforms to be curated by International Documentary Film Festival (iREP), migration and displacement with such interesting books as Ndidi Chiazor-Enenmor, Silva Nze Ifedigbo and Samuel Monye, books that address ‘japa’ syndrome.
Children’s writing also occupy a special place with ‘Leaving a Legacy: Raising a Generation’ that tackle issues of child-appropriate books and who is writing and publishing them. Prize winner Olubunmi Familoni is joined by Chiazor-Enenmor, Ayo Oyeku, Henry Akubuiro and Jesutofunmi Fekoya to lead the charge. and There’s also a book chat on speculative African stories with writers such as Mazi Nwonwu, Umar Abubakar Sidi and Dele Sijuade in conversation.
Also, Moonbeam: An Anthology of Short Stories by Nigeria’s Foremost Culture Journalists (published by Narrative Landscape Press) will be unveiled at QFest 2025, with some of the contributors like Sam Omatseye, Adeniyi Kunu, Okechukwu Uwaezuoke, Terh Agbedeh and Henry Akubuiro, and moderated by the editor Anote Ajeluorou, speak on ‘The Place of Anthologies/Collection of Short Stories in a Literary Ecosystem’.
This anthology, the first by 15 culture journalists united in their singular passion for culture reporting such as Jahman Anikulapo, Toni Kan, Molara Wood, Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, Nehru Odeh, Evelyn Osagie (rest her soul), Sumaila Isa Umaisha, Greg Nwakunor and Akeem Lasisi, has been hailed as a bold cultural shift and boundary defining.
Other stimulating sessions such as ‘Telling Our Stories in the Age of AI: Creativity, Truth and African Future’ and ‘From Climate Crisis to Creativity: Building Resilient Communities through Storytelling’ will engage festival audiences on climate change issues, and they will have opportunity to pitch in and express their own truths on these important topics to make QFest 2025 a truly exciting place to be.
