The Asian Literary Festival (ALF) 2026, which opened from May 28 to 30, brings together the literary world to celebrate the diversity of works between Africa and Asia.
The festival is showcasing 100 writers, 70 of whom are Africans. Visitors can get this literary experience at the Eugenia Amphitheatre, National Museum of Kenya, Kenya National Theatre, McMillan Library, National Archives, and Nuria Bookshop.
The activities of the three-day festival include book launches, poetry, music performances, exhibitions, art installations, literary tributes, and children’s activities. Panel discussions on Swahili telenovelas, K-pop and K-drama are also taking place. The event culminates in the announcement of the Alexander Nderitu World Literature Prize 2026 winner.
The ALF is segmented into eight city chapters: Nairobi, Abu Dhabi, Brussels, Gampaha, Montreal, Valencia, Odisha, and Dubai, with novelist and playwright Alexander Nderitu as the director of the Nairobi chapter.
The ALF founder Pramudith D. Rupasinghe, who is based in Sri Lanka, views literature and culture as a tool for development issues.
“We asked how we shift expectations about who literature is for. How do we demonstrate that access to global literary discourse is a right, not a privilege?” Rupasinghe says.
The festival, which seeks to bring literature to communities, features speakers from different parts of the world. Weronika Czyżewska-Poncyljusz from Poland leads the Café Europa, a project where African and Polish poets collaborate and create a poetry handbook.
“Our intuition is that we share emotional expressiveness, enthusiasm and a sense of the importance of poetry. We feel we might have certain concerns and sensitivities in common towards nature, community, and art,” she says.
Czyżewska-Poncyljusz says that they are only beginning to learn about African literary traditions, adding that she is respectful of how similar and different African poetry traditions are and is curious and open to learn more.
“We would like to find out what the most urgent issues are for African poets today and what the ways are in which those issues manifest themselves in contemporary poetry,” she says.
Dr Hamisi Babusa from Kenya held a talk on Thursday about the importance of the Kiswahili language on the African continent. In an interview, he recollects how the earlier works written in Kiswahili were using Arabic letters and later addressed colonialism by authors such as Ali Mazrui.
today, the language has bridged Kiswahili authors from Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya with authors such as Said A. Mohamed of Utengano, who were read in Kenyan school set books. However, he notes that English is given the first priority in literary prizes, and Kiswahili authors don’t earn as much from their works.
“Translating a book from Kiswahili to other languages is a disservice to the language because its readership base will lag behind at the same time the stories told will cross borders,” he says.
He commends the African Union for recognising Kiswahili as an official working language in places of work in 2022, a move that Babusa says will take it far and wide. He encourages young writers to use Kiswahili, as it is their identity.
Kiswahili authors such as Ken Walibora, Said Ahmed Mohamed, and Mohamed Said Abdulla have addressed themes of technology, family issues, bad governance, gender issues, and so on.
Nahida Esmail from Tanzania has discussed the role the Indian Ocean has played in uniting cultures. In an interview, she says that the Indian Ocean has been a bridge to different cultures through trade, migration, and the exchange of ideas. She terms it as one of the clearest examples of cultural mixing for integrating words from Bantu languages, Portuguese, Persian, German, and Hindi, among other languages.
Esmail remembers the first book she read was The Gunny Sack by M.G. Vassanji, which she resonated with for its themes of migration, memory, identity, and belonging, particularly the place of South Asians in East Africa. It captures the story of the Indian Ocean, which is ultimately a story of people, of movement, of fusion of cultures and of belonging.
“The novel reinforced the idea that the Indian Ocean is not simply a body of water or a trade route. It is a space where communities, cultures, and identities have been formed, reshaped, and connected over generations,” she says.
The festival incorporates various programmes such as Yvonne Wamuyu and Clifford ‘Odijo’ Oluoch to discuss the art of writing memoirs, while Carolyne ‘Afroetry’ Acen from Uganda talks about the role of poetry in modern society.
Iman Verjee from Kenya was interviewed by author and podcaster Eric Rugara on her literary work, such as her debut novel In Between Dreams, which discusses child sexual abuse, and her second novel Who Will Catch Us As We Fall, on the culture of the Indian-Kenyans who came into Kenya during the colonial era, focusing on the conflicts between Africans and Indians.
Ayaz Shah from Denmark will launch his novel La Victoria to the Kenyan market, while Gilbert Mwangi will discuss his new book titled Mumbi and the Full Nine with novelist Ciku Kimani.
Legendary playwright John Sibi-Okumu’s open lecture is about his life in theatre while Wangari the Storyteller is showcasing her storytelling skills and signing 20 of her books.
Author and poet for urban fiction and faith-based literature Citrine Topaz will guide children on how to sketch landscapes and objects.
Wendy Njoroge from Soma Nami Books will discuss the role of book clubs in the literary ecosystem while literary activist and ardent reader Lexa Lubanga is holding her quarterly Kenyan Readathon session.