The 2025 Aké Arts and Ebook Pageant has come and gone, abandoning the acquainted pleasure it brings every year — highly effective conversations, e book launches, movie screenings and a gathering of among the brightest voices in African literature. As at all times, Lagos was buzzing. Nonetheless, because the competition grows, one level turns into inconceivable to disregard: Aké wants to start out taking place in different cities as properly.
Lagos has the vitality, the venues and the visibility, however it additionally has limitations. Many younger readers, writers and creatives throughout Nigeria merely can not afford the journey. Transport, lodging, and the quick tempo of Lagos make the competition really feel out of attain for folks in cities like Enugu, Abuja, Kaduna, Port Harcourt, Jos and Benin. But these similar locations are dwelling to vibrant studying communities, universities and cultural hubs that might gladly embrace the competition.
Taking Aké on the highway — even when only one version each few years — would open the doorways to 1000’s of recent contributors. College students who’ve solely learn concerning the competition on-line may lastly attend. Native writers and storytellers from completely different areas would have a platform with out the financial barrier of travelling to Lagos. And every metropolis would deliver its personal flavour, its personal tales and its personal viewers.
The reality is straightforward: a travelling Aké Pageant would deepen its affect. It might unfold literary tradition extra evenly throughout the nation and strengthen the concept African storytelling belongs to everybody, not solely those that can attain Lagos.
Aké has already confirmed itself as considered one of Africa’s largest cultural gatherings. The subsequent step — and a really thrilling one — is giving different Nigerian cities the prospect to host it. The readership, expertise, and starvation for information are there. The organisers solely must discover it.
