Exchanges in Nairobi and Lagos: Mapping Literary Networks and World Literary Space

Abstract

Focusing in on book launches hosted by publishers Kachifo in Lagos for Eghosa Imasuen's Fine Boys (2011) and by Kwani Trust in Nairobi for Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor's Dust (2013), this article conceptualizes a critical model of literary networks. Through these case studies, it explores the potential for reading literary events as “multilayered expressive fragment(s)” (Quayson 21) through which to explore the relationships and flows out of which writers and texts are created and validated. By mapping these exchanges, it argues it is possible to make visible alternative literary geographies and show the significance of Kwani Trust and Farafina in forming the foundations of a pan-African literary network out of which the space, value, and texts of 21st-century African literature in English are being made material.