The 2025 All African Women Poetry (AAWP) Festival started off activities with events in Nairobi, Kenya, in January. This will now be followed by the main festival dates in Accra, Ghana, this May. The Nairobi leg celebrated award-winning Kenyan poet, playwright, and performing artist Sitawa Namwalie, who is known for her unique dramatized poetry performances, which combine poetry and classical Kenyan musical traditions.
The Accra leg of the festival will celebrate Ghanaian diplomat, poet, and scholar Ambassador Prof Abena Busia whose life bridges continents and causes. As Ghana’s Ambassador to Brazil (2017–2024), she served 11 nations across South America. A Professor Emerita of English and Women’s & Gender Studies at Rutgers University, she co-founded the Centre for African Studies and lent her voice to global gender advocacy. Her poetry, first published by Chinua Achebe, appeared in many anthologies, stages, and festivals across Africa, Europe, and the Americas—testimonies of exile, traces of life, woven in verse. She has received fellowships from the Rockefeller, Fulbright, and Ford Foundations, and honors for public service. A committed philanthropist, she served on the boards of the African Women’s Development Fund and AWDF-USA. With her sister, Akosua Busia, she co-founded the Busia Foundation International, rooted in the legacy of their mother, Naa Morkor Busia, nurturing voices, stories, and futures across generations.
Nancy Bosmans, Kuuks, Scar Poetry, Sitawa Namwalie, Grace Storm, Zanemvula, and Jesmeyza will also feature from host country Ghana as well as Kenya, South Africa, and the Netherlands.
To kick things off on May 22nd, the festival will host an open mic session titled “We Speak From Our Mother’s Bones”. This session will feature notable names like Aisha A. Bolaji, Noor Salah, Audrey Shipp, Nambozo Nsengiyunva, Dami Lola, and Magdalene Agweven.
The All African Women’s Poetry Festival aims to celebrate African literature and literary legends, empower African women and women of African descent, educate the youth, and engage with marginalised communities through sustainable events, programming, and projects. The festival invites literary enthusiasts from all parts of the world to engage with and promote authentic African stories through poetry and folklore, offering an innovative cultural platform to discover new ideas.
This year’s theme reflects on the loss of people, culture, and identity highlighting the pain of losing loved ones, the erosion of traditions, and the silencing of native languages that has left many unable to speak their mother tongue. It also expands the conversation to address the loss of biodiversity and environmental degradation, linking cultural preservation with climate justice.
