Heinemann African Writers Series Exhibition Launch

To mark the 35th Anniversary of Black History Month, we are launching an Exhibition of manuscripts and books from the Heinemann African Writers series (HAWS), housed in the SOAS Special collections and in the SOAS Library.

The HAWS is an outstanding collection of original manuscripts, ready for publication, by leading writers from Africa during the 1970s and 1980s. Many of the authors of the series became world famous and some Literature Nobel Prize winners, like Chinua Achebe, or leading critics like Ngugi Wa Thiong’o.

By looking at this series, we will highlight the difficulty for writers from Africa to publish their books with international publishers, and according to James Currey (one of the leading promoters of the series) the HAWS was pioneering in its time, which tells about the harsh and racist environment of the 70s and 80s for writers from Africa and the Africa diaspora.

We hope that this exhibition will resonate with current issues around racism and inequalities and the relevance today of Black History Month to keep highlighting those issues and to reflect on what has changed since its inception 35 years ago.

Exhibition curated by SOAS staff - Amma Poku & Angelica Baschiera

Launch panellists: James Currey & Khadija Koroma

The launch will be followed by a drinks reception.

RSVP: click here

Organiser: Centre of African Studies

Contact email: cas@soas.ac.uk