'Pilgrimages,' a new project of the Chinua Achebe Center for African Writers and Artists at Bard College and Chimurenga, will send 14 African writers to 13 African cities, and one city in Brazil, for two weeks this June and July to explore the complexities of disparate urban landscapes. The writers will create 13 nonfiction travel-writing books about their trips that will capture each city as South Africa hosts Africa’s first World Cup. The 13 collected books are intended to prompt a shift in the focus of African reportage and will comprise the “Pilgrimages” book series, to be published simultaneously in Lagos, Nairobi, and Cape Town during the 2012 African Cup of Nations football tournament.
The Pilgrimages web site (www.pilgrimages.org.za ) will present blogs, videos and other content from the 14 pilgrims, as well as essays from other prominent writers, bloggers, and commentators, such as Professor Achille Mbembe (WISER) and Dr Grant Farred (Cornell University). The website will also invite contributions—short essays, letters of support, grammar school football tales, travel pieces—from the general public.
The 14 writers that will participate in the 'Pilgrimages' project and the cities they will visit are: Chris Abani (Johannesburg, South Africa); Doreen Baingana (Hargeisa, Somaliland); Uzodinma Iweala (Timbuktu, Mali); Funmi Iyanda (Durban, South Africa); Billy Kahora (Luanda, Angola); Kojo Laing (Cape Town, South Africa); Victor LaValle (Kampala, Uganda); Alain Mabanckou (Lagos, Nigeria); Nimco Mahamud Hassan (Khartoum, Sudan); Akenji Ndumu (Abidjan, Ivory Coast); Yvonne Owuor (Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo); Nicole Turner (Nairobi, Kenya); Abdourahman A. Waberi (Salvador, Brazil); and Binyavanga Wainaina (Touba, Senegal).
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