Explore the program
You’re walking up to the line and waiting in front of Track 8 because you’re a paying guest at the Sydney Writers’ Festival. A little out of breath, you tap the festival blogger (unbeknownst to you) on the shoulder. You ask, “Is this the Wakanda Forever event?” I’d think you’re being a tad racist except your skin is two shades darker than mine. “It’s called Africa Now.”
Sitting in Row K seat 9 means I am sitting in front of you. A different you. Straight blonde hair and checkerboard coat. Under an instrumental version of Dog Days Are Over, you whisper, “This is such a sexy idea for date night.” Four writers descending from the second-largest continent on Earth, divided into fifty-four countries that have histories spanning back to the beginning of humanity… sexy? This ain’t Beyonce’s Coachella set, hun.
When Abdulrazak Gurnah, Oliver Twist, Sara El Sayed and Sisonke Msimang walk up on stage, I notice another one of you leaning forward in your seat. There are two empty chairs between us, so your grey beanie fits into my periphery. You’re bouncing up and down like a fish on a hook.
Sisonke pulls all of you in: Africa lives in a conflicted and paradoxical “we”. I know her, you know – invited me to the literature festival she used to run in Perth. This was years before I rose to the ranks of Queen Festival Blogger. Back when I was a nobody from Mt Druitt, aka Struggle Street, aka Mounty County. During that trip, I asked Sisonke to sign my copy of The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela. She signed: For my favourite Winnie. And ever since, Sisonke Msimang = My favourite everything.
Abdulrazak is introduced as a professor at Kent University, a resident of Canterbury in England and the 2021 recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature. “Wow,” one of you exhales in a deep voice from behind me. “A Noble Prize winner!” Your hot breath stings the back of my neck. Seriously bro, who were you expecting to see: Spider-Man? Abdulrazak reads of ghostly markets, nightwatchmen and this sad, insistent whisper that only women hear.
Please sir, spare us all the ‘Oliver Twist’ jokes that author Oliver Twist has heard his entire life – this is real talk. 2024 marks three decades since the Rwandan Genocide. Oliver remembers land, spirit and blood cut open during a rainy season which lasted for a hundred days. You’re all wiping the tears away with your black and white kufiyahs. It’s been 231 days as the war mongers continue to chant: "No ceasefire, no ceasefire!"
One hundred of you are listening in uncomfortably sombre silence as Sara El Sayed reads: “Can we go to Australia now? Can we go to Australia now? Like a little girl asking to go to the toilet.” My laughter echoes through the theatre. A second later I receive a text message from my Arab fairy, Mr Daniel Never-Gonna-Let-You-Down Nour, who’s been standing at the back this whole time: You know, for a skinny bitch, you crack up like the fattest fob in Mt Druitt.
From across the aisle, you titter your tongue at me like I’m embarrassing. Alright ya high-cheek boned Black Widow-looking lady. Don’t scratch your head so hard trying to work out why an Egyptian is featured in a showcase for African writers.
At the tale’s end, My Favourite Everything reminds us that genocide has a long tail. She describes tonight as but a small fragment of Africa, a mere glimpse of African writing… if such a thing even exists. Many, many, many voices make a nation, a country, a continent.
On my way out of the theatre, shuffling through hordes of mesmerised old Whities, I find myself wedged shoulder-to-shoulder with, you, new friend – who thought this would be a screening of Black Panther. Dark skin, shiny-bald-scalp, bleach-white cotton shirt, airpods knocking against your cubic zirconia studs.
You murmur, “Where’s Captain America these days?”
“Nowhere,” we nod, smirk and wink at each other.
Finally, I get you. It was Africa at the dawn of mankind. Africa at the international court seeking justice for our shared future. Africa now. Africa forever.
Winnie Dunn is a Tongan-Australian writer and editor from Mount Druitt. She is also the General Manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement. Winnie's debut novel is Dirt Poor Islanders.