Memory Preservation Through Literature Highlighted At SFAL 2026 In Sharjah

Discussions on memory, translation and the book trade shaped a key day at the Sharjah Festival of African Literature 2026. The event is held under the theme The African Way. Sessions at University Hall Square in Sharjah explored how African stories are written, translated and circulated. Speakers highlighted creative practices, market challenges and links between African literature and regional publishing.

One panel, titled The Book Beyond Borders: African Stories in Translation, examined how African literature reaches readers worldwide. Panellists Kola Tubosun and Ayalneh Mulatu Abeje discussed pressures on translators. They highlighted the need to keep tone, humour and cultural context clear. Another session on The Publishing Industry in Africa and the UAE brought together Goretti Kyomuhendo and Ali Al Shaali. They outlined distribution gaps, funding needs, digital change and international partnerships.

Against this wider programme, Rwandan author Scholastique Mukasonga spoke about how personal history shapes fiction. The in-conversation event, titled after her novel Our Lady of the Nile, focused on memory and trauma. Speaking at the second edition of the Sharjah Festival of African Literature, Mukasonga described writing as a way to guard memories. Mukasonga also discussed how stories can face violent pasts without depicting events directly.

Her first novel, Our Lady of the Nile, is set in a girls’ boarding school in Rwanda during the early 1970s. The narrative follows students as they confront ethnic divisions, education pressures, womanhood and questions of belonging. Instead of showing the 1994 conflict outright, the book traces daily tensions that hint at later violence. Our Lady of the Nile received major literary recognition, including the Renaudot Prize in 2012. It was adapted into an award-winning film released in 2019.

Born in Rwanda in 1956, Mukasonga grew up amid ethnic tensions. Those tensions pushed the family into exile in the Bugesera region. Mukasonga later fled to Burundi. In 1992, Mukasonga settled in France. During the conversation with moderator Abdul Karim Hanif, Mukasonga recalled losing 37 relatives in the 1994 events. Mukasonga said there was a fear that details of those memories might disappear without writing.

Mukasonga said that, despite having no formal training in novel writing, stories from Rwanda’s oral traditions guided the work. These performances helped shape a literary voice now seen in biographies and short stories. Mukasonga noted that ongoing recognition of the books encourages continued writing. Mukasonga explained that this background also inspired festival audiences to consider recording their own histories.

Her reflections, together with debates on translation and publishing, showed how African literature responds to memory, identity and changing industries. The Sharjah Festival of African Literature 2026 is organised by the Sharjah Book Authority. It runs from 14th to 18th January at University Hall Square in Sharjah. The programme offers a shared space for contributors from Rwanda, the wider African continent and the UAE.

With inputs from WAM