‘Reclaiming Truth’ as Onome, Graham, The Recurrence lit up Aké Arts and Book Festival 2025 opening

“This year’s theme, ‘Reclaiming Truth,’ comes at a moment when the world feels increasingly unhinged from familiar realities… A time when truth, once an anchor, now competes with echoes, distortions, and deliberate misinformation. When the line between what is real and what is convenient often dissolves under the weight of digital noise. And when nations, including ours, are confronted with the urgent need to distinguish fact from fiction in order to build a future that stands on solid ground

By Anote Ajeluorou

The RecurrenceWITH Aké Arts and Book Festival happening at the heart of one of festival founder Lola Shoneyin’s pies aptly tags ‘Lagos Festember,’ an online aggregator that maps and documents cultural and artistic events taking place in Lagos during the ember months, it was no surprise to see a room packed with festival enthusiasts on November 20 at BON Hotel Residency, Ikeja GRA, Lagos. The 3-day cultural showpiece is scheduled to end on November 22 with a gathering of some of the best writers, journalists, poets and creatives from the African continent, diaspora and others. Aké Arts and Book Festival is coming in the heels of Lagos Book and Art Festival tat ended last Sunday, and happening simultaneously with Lagos Fringe Festival at Freedom Park. This was after Quramo Festival of Words (QFest 2025) opened ‘Lagos Festember’, followed by MUSON Festival 2025 and Felabration 2025 (a month-long celebration of the music and revolutionary ideals of Afrobeat maestro, Fela Kuti) took place in October. Interestingly, this year’s Felabration lasts through December at Ecobank HQ, Victoria Island, Lagos, wit ah major exhibition of Fela’s life work.

The RecurrenceAt the opening of Aké Arts and Book Festival, Louisa Onome, Yashika Graham and The Recurrence musical band thrilled the audience and gave it a taste of what to expect in the 3-day cultural fiesta that was born in the rocky city of Abeokuta, Ogun State, before making Lagos home. With expert guidance from poet and activist, Wana Udobang, Jamaican Graham took to the stage and pelted her audience with her velvety voice that flowed with rhythmic cadence as she performed from her poetry collection, Some of Us Can Go Back Home. Hers was a heartfelt performance. Then Canadian-Nigerian Onome read from her novel, Pride and Joy, and easily enthralled her audience with the story of a family saga that felt so true and touching. Completing the performance was 3-man The Recurrence music band that got the audience to its feet, singing, rollicking and clapping along. It also sang a birthday song to a festival guest.Earlier, festival founder Shoneyin warmly received her guests from around the globe, when she said, “Welcome to the 2025 edition of the 13th edition of Aké Arts & Book Festival… ‘Reclaiming Truth’ as theme emerged from an urgent observation of our times. Our histories are contested by narratives crafted to serve the powerful. Lived experiences are dismissed, denied, or rewritten for convenience. We now live in an era where misinformation moves faster than light, where authority is compromised, and where truth is no longer a collective assumption. This year’s theme is therefore both a call to arms and a prayer: that our futures be shaped by those who dare to tell their truths courageously.

“Since the last edition, Book Buzz Foundation has experienced significant growth. In January 2025, we co-curated the Sharjah Festival of African Literature in the UAE, expanding African literary presence in a region where our voices are not often spotlighted. At that festival, Prof. Wole Soyinka was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award, making us all proud.”

She went on to inform her guests of her new passion in upskilling young book illustrators and making Lagos the new hub of illustration on the continent. This was hardly surprising since Shoneyin is also a children’s book writer and author of a beautifully illustrated Mayowa and the Masquerades.

According to Shoneyin, “Two months ago, we hosted the inaugural Lagos International Festival of Illustrations (LIFI) – the first of its kind on the African continent. We welcomed nine illustrators from Spain, Slovenia and Latin America to Lagos for three days of teaching, learning and collaboration with 45 Nigerian artists. Together, they explored how images carry cultural memory, identity and transformation storytelling. Continuing tis work, we are collaborating with Masa P. Zmtek to establish a Centre for Illustration in Lagos.

“Last month, we launched the Nigerian Picture Book Project, funded by the European Union, with support from the Bologna Children’s Book Fair and the Mimaster School of Illustration in Milan. Over the next 12 months, we will train 48 young Nigerian writers and illustrators, with the goal of publishing high-quality, culturally rooted picture books for Nigerian children and the global market.

“Following a conversation with the governor of Lagos State, we are committed to developing ‘Lagos Festember’, an online aggregator that maps and documents cultural and artistic events place in Lagos during the ember months. This platform will highlight the remarkable work of cultural founders and curators who make Lagos one of most dynamic creative cities in the world.”

Festival’s lead sponsor, Sterling Bank Plc had its MD/CEO, Mr. Abubakar Suleiman, represented by the Chief Marketing Officer, Mr. Donatus Okpako, at the opening, who said the 13th edition of the Aké Arts and Book Festival has been “a space that has, for over a decade, dared us to think boldly, question bravely, and imagine freely.” He spoke to the festival theme and stated why its appropriate in the trying times humanity was facing with myriads of problems, especially for Africa.

“This year’s theme, ‘Reclaiming Truth,’ comes at a moment when the world feels increasingly unhinged from familiar realities,” Okpako said. “A time when truth, once an anchor, now competes with echoes, distortions, and deliberate misinformation. When the line between what is real and what is convenient often dissolves under the weight of digital noise. And when nations, including ours, are confronted with the urgent need to distinguish fact from fiction in order to build a future that stands on solid ground.

“Yet, if there is any continent that understands the power and fragility of truth, it is Africa. For generations, truth has been contested on our soil, suppressed, rewritten, misrepresented, and at times stolen. And for generations, our storytellers have reclaimed it.”

He recalled one important forerunner of Africa’s literary and storytelling tradition, and how what he did and left behind continues to be a guiding light to the path of those who’d gathered for the festival.

“Today, we honour some of the giants who carried that torch, luminaries like Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, whose passing earlier this year reminded us of the immense responsibility storytellers bear. Ngũgĩ taught us that narratives can liberate or imprison, that language is political, and that a people’s truth must never be outsourced. His foundational work, Weep Not, Child, remains a timeless lesson in how literature preserves memory even when history tries to forget.

“This festival, graced by over 60 authors, brilliant thinkers and poets from 16 countries, is an invitation not just to consume ideas but to interrogate them. It calls us to reclaim truth not as a rigid artifact, but as a living force, one that demands honesty, courage, and vigilance.”

Okpako also called for the reclaimation of truth in a time of crisis, especially for Nigerians for whom “reclaiming truth is a lived reality and an ambition we must pursue. We grapple daily with narratives that obscure as much as they reveal about our economy, our institutions, our identity, and even our hopes. In a season of rising misinformation, policy fatigue, and social anxiety, truth becomes more than a moral ideal; it becomes a national resource.

“This is why spaces like Aké where ideas breathe and perspectives collide are essential. They help us sharpen our discernment, strengthen our collective memory, and rebuild trust in our shared future.”

Thereafter, the festival started in earnest. With Amyn Bawa-Allah as host, Fatima Bala, Adesuwa Nwokedi and Oreva Olujimi (Absolution and Avalanche) had a panel discussion on ‘The Rise of Romance’ as fictional genre and gave nuances to its current form. This was followed by a book chat about the Congo basin that featured two Congolese on both sides of the River Congo, one from DRC Kinshasha (Bofane In Koli, author of Nation Cannibale and Congo Inc.) and the Brazaville (Alain Mabancko, author of Dealing with the Dead) and hosted by Nnamdi Ehirim. The two writers gave the audience background to the turmoils that so often embroil the two Congos that are traditionally and historically linked with one umbilical cord which the colonial powers severed and made DR Congo a land of bloodbath in their quest for rare earth mineral resource extraction.

Another book chat featuring Iris Mwanza (The Lion’s Den) and Andie Davis (Let Me Liberate You) with Wanjiru Koinange took place before the second panel session on ‘Whose Truth is It Anyway?’ that featured Sonia Faleiro (The Robe and the Sword: How Buddhist Extremism is Shaping Modern Asia), the Executive Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, Isa Sanusi and Dipo Faloyin (Africa is Not a Country), and hosted by Ayisha Osori (Love Does Not Win ElectElections) is wa followed by a book chat that was hosted by the psychiatrist and poet, Dr. Dami Ajayi (Clinical Blues and A Woman’s Body is a Country), featuring the Kuti family and based on the biography, Mrs. Kuti. It had her children and grandchild – Yeni, Femi and Imade Kuti in session. The day was capped off with The Recurrence serenading festival guests and Adedapo Adeniyi rendering ‘Bedtime Story’ from his novella, Wanderer.

TODAY, Friday, November 21, 2025, festival guests will be treated to four exciting book chats: Nkereuwem Albert and Marvellous Michael Anson (First Born of the Sun), and hosted by Sharon Adeoye-Ajanlekoko; Bolu Babalola (Sweet Heat) and Fatma Bala (Hafsatu Bebi) will be hosted by Leonora Ifeanyichukwu, just as Tunde Onakoya, Kayode Onimole and Lola Shoneyin will be hosted by Muthoni Muiruri, as they explore Tunde Onakoya, The Chess Champion. The conversation between Adania Shibli (Minor Detail) and Khadija Sanusi rounds off book chats for today. However, two panel sessions add to the festival programming: ‘The Stories that Matter’ will feature Mazzi Odu (Get Rid of Your Phone Mummy), Kiisa Soyinka (Jojo and Sandwich) and Paul Okeugo (Zaza the Special Boy), with Tonye Faloughi-Ekezie (Ugo and Sim Sim) as host while ‘Why Speculative Fiction Matters’, hosted by Mazi Nwonwu (How to Make a Space Masquerade) features Marvellous Michael Anson, Chisom Umeh and Adedapo Adeniyi. The film, When Nigeria Happens, will be screened with Emma Edosio and Bayo Oduwole will be in conversation with Omotoke Solarin-Sodara. ‘Bedtime Story’ returns with Fatima Bala taking the stage to cap off Day Two of Aké Arts and Book Festival 2025.

Of course, Day Three, Saturday, November 22 when Aké Arts and Book Festival 2025 comes to an end will be when the big masquerade and festival headliner, Prof. Bernadine Evaristo, will be unmasked in an interview session tagged ‘Manifesto: On Never Giving Up’, which opens the festiva’s last day’s programming activities and fittingly ends with ‘Palm Wine and Poetry’ session.

‘Reclaiming Truth’ as Onome, Graham, The Recurrence lit up Aké Arts and Book Festival 2025 opening