African Oral Storytelling Enriches Audiences At SFAL 2026

Visitors at the second edition of Sharjah Festival of African Literature (SFAL 2026) spent the second day moving between live performances and panel discussions that linked African literature, music, ritual and migration. The programme highlighted oral storytelling, women’s roles in memory, children’s narratives in Africa and the UAE, and how globalisation shapes identity for African communities worldwide.

Organised by Sharjah Book Authority (SBA), the festival’s main stage combined visual media, music and spoken word. Performances and discussions showed how African literature continues to draw on oral roots while responding to modern challenges, offering audiences in the UAE a close look at cultural exchange, shared histories and contemporary questions of belonging.

One central discussion, titled 'Shared Stories for Young Readers', brought together Nahida Esmail, Richard Mabala and Fatima Al Ameri, with moderation by Toyin Akanni. The panel compared children’s literature in Africa and the UAE, treating it as an extension of oral storytelling, folk tales and community values, and looking at how these elements move into print and classroom settings.

Speakers on this panel examined how stories for young readers can support a sense of identity while still touching on shared human concerns. They discussed themes such as curiosity, honesty, integrity and belonging, noting that these ideas travel easily across cultures. The session also highlighted how early reading can build empathy and cross-cultural understanding among children in both regions.

The festival’s stage programme also featured an oral storytelling work, 'The Black Mona Lisa Series', by South African artist MoAfrika Wa Mokgathi. Blending poetry, music and chants, the performance focused on Rakgadi, the aunt figure, to examine how women help preserve memory and lineage across generations within African families and communities.

Cinematic visuals accompanied the performance, connecting the narrative to specific African practices, including the Kiba music and dance form and the Malopo ritual honouring ancestors. This combination of sound, image and story underlined how artistic traditions continue to operate as archives of experience. It also showed how African literature often overlaps with performance, ceremony and collective remembrance.

Music also shaped the day’s opening atmosphere, as the Dhow Academy from Zanzibar presented a vibrant set on the main stage. The group introduced traditional coastal rhythms and musical storytelling from the Tanzanian archipelago, giving audiences a sense of Swahili maritime culture and how such performance traditions relate to broader narrative forms within African literature and history.

Questions of movement and belonging surfaced strongly in the session 'African Voices Across Borders', which analysed how globalisation affects African economies, cultures and social systems. Speakers Sefi Atta, Beatrice Lamwaka, Lebogang Mashile and Elias Wondimu discussed the experiences of African migrants in different parts of the world and how these stories appear in African literature and personal testimony.

Through their exchanges, the panel explored shifting identities, opportunities and challenges facing Africans within and beyond the continent. They stressed how literature and memoir can document routes of migration, negotiations of home, and ongoing ties to origin countries, offering audiences in Sharjah a nuanced perspective on how African lives connect with an increasingly interconnected world.

With inputs from WAM