Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor
“Re-Worlding Africa: Imagination, Time & the Crafting of Futures”
This keynote address will focus on the active, imaginative processes of worldmaking in African literatures and cultures, and how they fuel, inspire, undergird shape our understanding of space, time, and possibility.
About Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor:
Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor is a Kenyan author whose works explore desire, longing, memory, beauty, being, and the reimagining of African pasts, presents and futures. Born in Nairobi, she holds an MPhil in Creative Writing from the University of Queensland and served as the executive director of the Zanzibar International Film Festival, where she established its first literary forum. Her novella The Weight of Whispers won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2003, and her debut novel, Dust (2014), was shortlisted for the Folio Prize, among others. It has been translated into multiple languages.
Her second novel, The Dragonfly Sea (2019), examines historical and contemporary China–East Africa relations through the intimate lives of Swahili Sea characters. Owuor’s writing, characterised by its poetic fragmentation and emotional depth, interrogates African geopolitics, futures, and world-building.
She is working with African producers to train and establish “Writing Rooms” to refine African film story development. Additionally, she has participated in initiatives fostering East Africa–Asia cultural discourses and co-founded the Macondo Literary Festival. She serves on several boards, including The Elephant, East Africa’s leading digital contemporary news journal. A speaker and cultural advocate, she has been recognised with several awards, including Kenya’s Head of State Commendation (2016). Her literary work also extends to environmental themes, where she collaborates with Kenya-based institutions to support African creators and scientists in telling African science and nature stories through film and literature. An avid hiker and “sea-citizen,” she draws inspiration from Africa’s landscapes and heritage sites. Owuor’s contributions extend to institutionalising artistic and intellectual exchanges across the Indian Ocean (Ziwa Kuu/Swahili Sea) region, anticipating multipolar futures. Owuor is currently working on her next novel, tentatively titled “Nocturne.”
Photo by Yusuf Ahmed
Wanuri Kahiu
“Freedom to Adapt”?
Wanuri Kahiu is an award-winning filmmaker, speaker, and science fiction writer. Her film Rafiki was the first Kenyan film to screen at Cannes, earning global recognition. Named one of Time’s 100 Next in 2019, she is a cultural leader for the World Economic Forum and an advocate for freedom of expression. Through AFROBUBBLEGUM, Kahiu champions fun, fierce and frivolous African art. She directed Washington Black for Hulu/20th Century Fox, Netflix’s Look Both, and is set to direct Disney’s Once on This Island.