StoryMoja Hay Festival Nairobi
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| Country and Region | Kenya — Nairobi Province |
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| Type of Festival | Drama, Music |
| Location of Festival | Nairobi, Nairobi Province, Kenya |
| Festival Contact Information | Storymoja Africa |
| Festival Description | The StoryMoja Hay Festival takes place in Nairobi and features writers, travellers, storytellers, poets, artists and innovators. The festival of ideas brings thinkers and doers from around the world who gather in Kenya for the annual events. The festival sees Kenya as a vibrant country doing its best to support those less fortunate, working on strong education programmes and with the events on globilisation seeing that Kenya is developing technology (such as Ushaidi — a digital system for tracking crowds developed during elections now used worldwide, and Umpesa — a revolutionary new telephone banking system which will contribute to the shape of Kenya, the African continent and the world. Please come and meet the writers and thinkers here to share ideas, stories and experiences. |
| Festival Dates | September 19 - 22, 2013 |
| Festival Links | http://www.storymojaafrica.co.ke/ |
Festival Story:
Storymoja, a publishing company formed in 2007 by five writers committed to spreading the gospel of reading, writing and ideas, has held two previous annual festivals to promote books - dubbed Storymoja Nyamachoma Fiesta. We actively nurture partnerships and work closely with various organizations from different sectors. Our 2008 event attracted 2200 people. The 2009 Storymoja Hay Festival utilized and built on that experience, it attracted about 6000 people. It definitely is the next step in achieving our Storymoja mission of getting ‘A book in every hand.’ What is the purpose of the Storymoja Hay Festival?
The festival hopes to encourage Africans to ‘own’ their problems by exploring our situations/stories, and search for solutions by generating platforms for discussion and debate. To achieve our 2030 vision, Kenyans need to read widely, discuss ideas, and honor our diversity of stories and backgrounds for the greater good. It is also part of a longer term campaign to get East Africa to value reading, writing and ideas in general.
Festival Events:
Artists 2013:
- Teju Cole
- Mukesh Kapila
- Peter Godwin
- Nii Ayikwei Parkes
- Dr Auma Obama
- Catherine Ndereba
- Paula Kahumbu
- Sitawa Namwalie
- Mongane Wally Serote
Programming highlights:
- An array of African and international luminaries
- New generation writers from Kenya and the continent
- IT and innovation range of activities featuring animation
- Exhibitions and demonstrations of the latest gadgets and gizmos.
- Key discussions/debates/presentations/interviews featuring writers/thinkers
- Performances by one major international music star
- Cookery demonstrations featuring local and international culinary stars
- Mchongoano, Storytelling and Spelling Bee competitions
- A program of exciting activities for children – storytelling, skits, craft, puppet shows, field games, cartoon characters walkabout, singing, spoken word, mchoangoano competition etc.
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