The audience of the Sharjah African Literature Festival interacted with the performance of the 'Dau Kanteriz Music Academy' group, which presented a musical performance on the festival stage. The performance evoked the memory of music in Zanzibar and the Indian Ocean coast through the melodies of traditional music and coastal rhythms. The musicians and performers delivered a performance that combined deep melodies with traditional instruments, in harmony that reflects the richness of Zanzibari musical heritage. The group specializes in teaching and preserving this heritage since its founding over two decades ago. The festival hosts a select group of African writers alongside Emirati writers, aiming to enhance cultural dialogue between Africa and the Arab world and to celebrate the richness of the African creative experience. The performance combined poetry, jazz, and traditional chants, supported by cinematic visuals, linking African traditions such as 'Kiba' and 'Malopu'. The second day of the festival focused on exploring literature as a tool for communication between cultures and highlighting the transformation of identity in intertwined local and global contexts. Discussions reflected the diversity of the African experience and its contemporary extensions, while highlighting commonalities in children's literature in both the UAE and African countries. The 'Shared Stories for Young Readers' session, featuring Noha Ismail, Richard Mmbala, and Fatima Al-Amiri, and moderated by Toyin Akaatse, examined the features of children's literature in Africa and the UAE as a product of oral traditions, folk tales, and societal values. The 'African Voices Crossing Borders' session addressed the impact of globalization on shaping African economies, cultures, and social structures, focusing on the lived experiences of African migrants worldwide. It featured Sifi Ata, Beatrice Lamoka, Elias Ndembe, and Lipotang Masheli, offering multiple perspectives that reflect the diversity of the African experience both within and outside the continent. The festival is distinguished by its qualitative focus on literature as a bridge for cultural communication. It does not merely showcase arts or folklore but delves deep into the written and told African narrative, bringing together writers and thinkers to discuss issues of identity, memory, and history from an African perspective. Through dialogue sessions and live poetry and story readings, the festival offers the public an unprecedented opportunity to discover and critically and aesthetically interact with the treasures of African literature. It also encourages the movement of translation into Arabic, inspiring publishers and translators to convey the voice of African literature to the Arab reader and generating a continuous dialogue that enriches the local cultural landscape with insights and experiences from the African continent, aligning with Sharjah's vision of consolidating cultural diversity and expanding the horizons of knowledge through human communication with various civilizations. Notably, this festival is perhaps the only one in the Arab region dedicated entirely to African literature, and it gains its importance by proposing a sustainable and comprehensive vision for deepening the presence of African literature in the Arab cultural space and supporting Arab-African intellectual exchange. As part of the events, the festival featured a musical narrative performance by the South African artist Mowawrika Wa Moghaya, who, in the style of an African storyteller, presented a work that highlights the role of women in preserving memory and genealogy through the character of 'Rakgadi' (the aunt).
