Aké Arts & Ebook Competition has all the time felt like a dwelling, respiration area. A spot the place tales stroll round as folks, and conversations come alive. This yr, the competition returned with its thirteenth version below the theme “Reclaiming Fact,” and from the very first hour, that theme sat boldly on the centre of every part.
Regardless that I streamed Day One just about and attended the remaining days in individual, the power was the identical on either side of the display screen. It was intentional, electrical, and true.
Day One: Streaming the Competition From My Display screen
I joined the opening ceremony from residence on Thursday, and even by way of a display screen, the heat was unmistakable. It might curiosity you to know that previous to this, I had by no means attended any Ake Competition, however I knew about it and all it stands for. However someway, Ake discovered its strategy to me this yr by way of an excellent good friend. The digital feed opened with the competition’s welcome. I noticed delicate lighting, wealthy colors, and a crowd that regarded excited and prepared.
The e-book chat session featured the Kuti household, and it was simply one of the crucial emotional periods of your complete competition. Listening to them discuss Remilekun Kuti, her energy, her legacy, her humanity, felt like witnessing a chunk of historical past fastidiously unfolded.
One other spotlight of the day was the dialog on speculative fiction. It was refreshing to listen to African writers discuss why imagining new worlds is a type of reclaiming fact itself. When the stream ended, I felt a tug, the sensation that one thing inside you has been gently rearranged.
Day Two: Witnessing Aké Bodily
Friday was my first day on the venue, and getting into BON Lodge in Ikeja GRA felt like strolling right into a heat, inventive storm. The environment was delicate however electrical. Individuals have been in every single place, laughing in corners, clutching books to their chests, photographers chasing moments, and volunteers shifting with quiet effectivity.
The primary session I attended was a e-book chat, and it felt like sitting in a comfortable lounge with sensible minds. The dialog was fluid, intimate, and infrequently humorous. The laughter was real. What struck me most was how the authors spoke their fact and about their works and inventive course of. One among my favorite experiences was wandering into the exhibition space.
Leaving that room, I then went to the competition bookstore. There have been stacks of books in each path, the scent of recent paper blended with strangers’ cologne. I shared a video on my IG story, and a good friend dropped a remark saying, “How does it really feel prefer to be in heaven?” And I responded saying, “It was pure bliss”, and really, as a lover of books, it was nothing wanting that. Strangers requested strangers, “Have you ever learn this?” or “Ought to I purchase that?” and similar to that, conversations bloomed.
Later within the day was the panel dialogue themed: The Tales That Matter. It was sincere, actual and eye-opening. The room hummed with murmurs because the audio system mentioned writing for youngsters and the way kids’s e-book writers are usually not as recognised as they need to be. It was a kind of panels that follows you residence.
Thereafter, there was a e-book chat with the Queens of Romance, Bolu Babalola, creator of Honey and Spice, and Fatima Bala, creator of Damaged. This was in all probability my spotlight for the day. It was after this session that I made a decision to go store for some books on the competition bookstore, and I shopped effectively.
One other standout session for me was the panel dialogue on Why Speculative Fiction Issues. This session didn’t final for lengthy, nevertheless it was very informative, enlightening and interactive. I significantly loved it.
Day Three: The Competition in its Full Kind
By Saturday, the competition felt prefer it had totally opened up. Faces have been extra acquainted. The gang was larger, the conversations have been deeper, and the air carried a mixture of pleasure and nostalgia.
There have been panel discussions and e-book chats, one after the opposite. However the spotlight of the day was Nobel Laureate, Wole Soyinka, strolling into the corridor. It was a magical, virtually unexplainable sight. The gang cheered on, and it was really a sight to behold.
Strolling by way of the venue between periods felt like floating. In every single place, folks have been discussing fact in politics, in romance, in poetry, in storytelling, in id. The competition theme was not simply written on banners. It was alive within the conversations taking place within the corridor and out of doors of it.
By the point I left on Saturday evening, I felt the acquainted heaviness that comes after a extremely good story ends. Aké 2025 was not only a competition. It was a reminder that fact will not be a single occasion. It’s a pursuit, a accountability and a dialog we maintain returning to, particularly in a world the place lies journey sooner than info.
Streaming day one and attending the opposite two in individual gave me a fuller image: Aké is constant, intentional, and deeply human. It’s a gathering that asks us to look inward and outward on the identical time. To rethink the tales we inform and those we select to imagine.
If the objective was to reclaim fact, then Aké 2025 did greater than that. It held it up gently, examined it below the sunshine, and handed it again to us fuller, richer, and extra pressing than earlier than.
