Mulher Forte African literature awards aimed to unite African writers
Alocal creative company has held its first digital annual Mulher Forte African Literature (MFAAL) awards on March 7, 2021 at Taupye in Mahalapye. In an interview with Arts & Culture, Paula Otukile, the Coordinator and Founder of Mulher Forte African literature Pty (Ltd) said the objective of the awards was to give literature in Africa the best recognition it deserves.
Otukile explained that India got Bollywood, America Hollywood, Nigeria had made its own Nollywood so her organisation thought it would not hurt for Botswana to raise Afriwood in form of Mulher Forte African literature awards.”Winners received only Certificates of recognition. We fielded various talented Botswana youth and only two came back with a win being Boca Molf whose real name is Boitumelo Molefane and the other contestant. She won the best Orator Award. Molefane is the writer of I shall Rise. She participated in various gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual abuse webinars where she exhibitted her oratorial skills, amongst them all. We also had Gaone Ditirafalo as the best in contemporary traditional music category,” she said.
Otukile explained that she saw a need amongst the writers to unite African literature writers and performers and give their craft recognition. She added that they decided to shoot the awards live due to COVID-19. To make the awards successful, she worked with Ikonne Kelvin from Nigeria, Peter Masukuta from Zimbabwe, Dimakatso Mashiane from Limpopo, South Africa and Gaspar Joao from Angola.
They also worked with Morrison Mpulubusi who also made the event a success as he made sure that the whole event was successfully shot and aired live. However, she pointed out that there was no funding due to the Corona pandemic. She said sponsors pulled out on them at the last hour and hence they were forced to dig into their own pockets.
“There were few individuals who volunteered such as Lesego Tshere who offered her venue without payment in Mahalapye for the event. We had GBV and sexual abuse webinars throughout the session of awards. We engaged Botswana writers only seminar, various African writers webinar, children’s perspective, women only webinars and male workshops which can be found on Mulher Forte African Literature page on Facebook.
We also had webinars on the effects of the Corona pandemic on the African writers. Last one was bogus versus legitimate publishers, on which we engaged participants who were mainly writers and poets to share their experiences and light on publishing industry,” she noted.
She thanked Kenya Times for coverage throughout their awards competition, Public Eye Lesotho, Swaziland Times, Zimbabwe newspapers and Informative Zambia, as well as Tales of Africa from Ghana.
Otukile added that they intended to hold the awards competition annually and hope for the best.
Other winners include: Best Reader award, Kenny Mbuthia from Zambia; Best Folklore Author, Malesela Makwesa from South Africa; Best Short Story writer award, Mark Ogbuabo from Nigeria; Best Poetry Author award, Richard Mbuthia from Kenya; Best Poetry Performer Thami Magongo from Swaziland;, Best Novelist Bothata Kennedy Silase from Lesotho; Best Publisher Thakane Rethabile Shale of Lesotho; and many more. Newspapers that also scooped awards include Swaziland Times. Kenya Times has done a lot of coverage as well as Public Eye in Lesotho, including Zimbabwe various newspapers. Mulher Forte means strong woman in Portuguese.