Announcing 'Quills From Africa 30: Long Walk To Freedom'

"I wanted the story to be true" said Achebe about Things Fall Apart, "How would you describe fiction as true?" the interviewer asked him. It's our belief as fiction writers that there is a way fiction is told, that the writers are not just trying to make up stories and fables that have no relevance or appropriateness in the life of those they represent.

Achebe's things fall apart was the closest Nigeria and indeed Africans had to tell their own stories after decades and centuries of 'tellings' done by people who had no need to protect or preserve the humanity of Africans. Incomplete tales of the white religion; the death of African faith and culture.

This year 30 writers will author an anthology compiled by Damilola Jonathan Oladeji. "Quills from Africa 30" is a bold statement about my belief in One Africa. The authors are Nigerians but we are also Africans. We will make Africa listen, then the world will listen. This is not just about fiction, this is about finding our identity from the place of disillusionment, poverty, black struggles, disease, religion and death.

Damilola speaks:

I will not say I have mentors but my greatest literary influences this year will be Mandela and Achebe. Lola sent me a video of his interview this morning and only then did I know Achebe was crippled since 1990. CreativeFreelance Writerz-Nigeria had him as the profile image for almost the whole year until we started promoting this book launch. I may never be able to achieve as much as he has done but if he wrote "Things Fall Apart" at 28, then I still have two years ahead. Many of the writers in this collection are quite young and most still have a long way ahead but you can give them a hand by helping us promote this anthology.

This collaborative literature is published by a Zimbabwean publisher, we only see Africa. You can join Creative Freelance Writers in promoting this journey. They are using some hashtags to grow this project into a social movement #freedom #longwalk #cfwriterz. They also have a periodic magazine done in the same spirit, it's how they know to shift the conversation in their favour.

If you have a page, website, social handle. Just grab the advert images and post from this blog post on your platforms.

Share this blog post as far as you can and let's give these young writers a shot at retelling their own stories and eventually telling our story.

We are shifting the narrative and owning our African minds.

CC: CREATIVE Freelance Writerz Group

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