Book Launch: Voices That Sing Behind The Veil

Book Launch: Voices That Sing Behind The Veil

In place of the June edition of our monthly reading event, Writers Project of Ghana is happy to join the Goethe-Institut, the publishers, and the editor to launch the new anthology of African short fiction, Voices That Sing Behind The Veil. This collection features fixty-six stories from Africa and the African diaspora. The event is on Friday, 1st July 2022, at the usual venue of the Goethe-Institut, Cantonments. It will start at 6 PM GMT and will feature readings and a discussion about the book.

The collection of contemporary African stories, Voices that Sing Behind the Veil – An Anthology of Short Stories from Africa and the Diaspora is published in partnership with the Pan African Writers Association (PAWA). The 665-page collection of 56 stories from 17 countries of the Anglophone and Francophone regions of Africa and from the Americasis is edited by Ivor Agyeman-Duah, Ghanaian literary historian and author.

Voices that Sing Behind the Veil is published by Digibooks in Accra and Bookcraft in Ibadan, Nigeria.

The anthology features best-selling author and professor of literature Zaynab Alkali as headline writer, Booker Prize Laureate Ben Okri, the Chair of Department of Africology at Temple University in the US, Molefi Kete Asante, and a younger generation of award-winning novelists, poets and playwrights such as the Nigerian Ogochukwu Promise, Ghanaian author Martin Egblewogbe (of Writers Projects of Ghana), Sackey Sowah, for years NAFTI-GTV short story delight, and Mary Ashun, the Principal of the Ghana International School. Other contributors are South African scholar, poet and novelist Athol Williams, the French-South African retired University Lecturer and poet living in East London, Sobhna Poonathe, President of the Malawi Writers’ Union, Chikumbutso Ndaferankhande, writer-critic of Stellenbosch University, Wesley Macheso and others from the Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Botswana, St. Maarten and the United States. According to Mr. Agyeman-Duah, these exceptional stories cover contemporary and complex issues: of love (a man who finds one) whilst visiting his wife dying of cancer at a Lagos hospital, a husband wrongfully imprisoned in Malawi escapes to find a wife about to wed, issues of mental health, male chauvinism, corpse donation for scientific research, COVID-19 affliction, Pentecostal redemption, fake prophets in Islam and Christianity and the havoc they exert on their societies.

The Ghanaian launch will be at the Goethe-Institut in Accra on July 1 2022 by PAWA, Writers Project of Ghana and UNESCO and will be a major attraction in October at Pa Gya! A literary Festival in Accra with featured panel discussions and readings.

The Nigerian historian of the University of Texas, Austin, Professor Toyin Falola has descibes the collection as “these extraordinary stories, mesmerizing and beautifully written, are surely connected to a past that remains with us, the experiences of day-to-day living and the limitless imaginings of our future. The discerning editor combines stories that communicate appreciation with apprehension, presence with essence... a good read.”

The Secretary-General of PAWA, Dr. Wale Okediran says the collection is the most appropriate appreciation of contemporary writers to mark the sixty years of the Makerere Conference in Uganda. He said it is significant that Mr. Agyeman-Duah jointly organized and edited a similar one, The Gods Who Send Us Gifts, to mark the 55th anniversary of that conference at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

We look forward to having you join us in person. You can also join us online and share in the experience.


Date: Friday, 1st July, 2022.
Time: 6:00 PM

Follow us online: IG (@writersPG) / FB (Writers Project of Ghana) / Youtube (@WPGTV)

Zoom: Meeting ID: 898 8347 1829 Passcode: 231607

Venue: Goethe-Institut, 30 Kakramadu Road, East Cantonments, Accra.