''Kwani?'' ( Sheng for ''so what?'') is a leading African literary magazine based in

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

that has been called "undoubtedly the most influential journal to have emerged from sub-Saharan Africa". The magazine grew out of a series of conversations that took place among a group of

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

-based writers in the early 2000s. Its founding editor,

Binyavanga Wainaina Kenneth Binyavanga Wainaina (18 January 1971 – 21 May 2019) was a Kenyan author, journalist and 2002 winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing. In April 2014, ''Time'' magazine included Wainaina in its annual ''Time'' 100 as one of the "Mo ...

, spearheaded the project shortly after winning the 2002 Caine Prize for African Writing. The first print issue of the magazine was published in 2003. ''Kwani?'' is produced by the Kwani Trust, which is "dedicated to nurturing and developing Kenya’s and Africa’s intellectual, creative and imagination resources through strategic literary interventions". The organisation receives significant funding from the Ford Foundation. The magazine has become a major platform for writing from across the African continent, and has served as a launching pad for the careers of several writers, including Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, winner of the 2003 Caine Prize;

Uwem Akpan Uwem Akpan is a Nigerian writer. He is the author of '' Say You're One of Them'' (2008), a collection of five stories (each set in a different African country) published by Little, Brown & Company. The book inspired Angelique Kidjo to write th ...

, author of the bestselling short-story collection ''Say You're One of Them'', and

Billy Kahora Billy Kahora is a Kenyan writer and editor based in Nairobi. He was commended by the 2007 Caine Prize judges for his story ''Treadmill Love''. His stories ''Urban Zoning'' and ''Gorilla’s Apprentice'' were shortlisted for the prize in 2012 a ...

, now the magazine's managing editor. Each edition of the journal contains up to 500 or more pages of new journalism, fiction, experimental writing, poetry, cartoons, photographs, ideas, literary travel writing and creative non-fiction. Each volume of ''Kwani?'' is organized around a theme. For example, the seventh edition, subtitled "Majuu" (a Sheng (Nairobi street slang) word meaning "overseas"), was "a 570-page testament to the journal's diasporic roots".

History

Kwani Trust

Kwani Trust is a regional literary hub and a community of writers that is committed to the growth of the region's creative industry through publishing and distributing contemporary African literature, offering training opportunities, producing literary events and establishing global literary networks. The Kwani? Literary Festival is organized on a biennial basis, where for the course of one week, the literary leaders of Kenya, enriched with visiting writers from around the world explore issues through the lenses of the continent’s past, present and emerging literatures.

''Kwani?'' Manuscript Project

In 2012, the ''Kwani?'' Manuscript Project was launched, a one-off literary prize for unpublished fiction manuscripts from African writers across the continent and in the

African diaspora The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were e ...

, with a judging panel comprising

Jamal Mahjoub Jamal Mahjoub (born London 1966) is a mixed-race writer of British and Sudanese parents. He writes in English and has published eight novels under his own name. In 2012, Mahjoub began writing a series of crime fiction novels under the pseudonym ...

Ellah Allfrey Ellah Wakatama, OBE, Hon. FRSL (born 16 September 1966), is Editor-at-Large at Canongate Books, a senior Research Fellow at Manchester University and Chair of the AKO Caine Prize for African Writing. She was the founding Publishing Direct ...

(deputy editor of '' Granta'' magazine),

Helon Habila Helon Habila Ngalabak (born November 1967) is a Nigerian novelist and poet, whose writing has won many prizes, including the Caine Prize in 2001. He worked as a lecturer and journalist in Nigeria before moving in 2002 to England, where he was a C ...

Simon Gikandi Simon may refer to: People * Simon (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name Simon * Simon (surname), including a list of people with the surname Simon * Eugène Simon, French naturalist and the genus ...

, Mbugua wa Mungai (chairman of Kenyatta University's Literature Department) and

Irene Staunton Irene Staunton is a Zimbabwean publisher, editor, researcher and writer, who has worked in literature and the arts since the 1970s, both in the UK and Zimbabwe. She is co-founder and publisher of Weaver Press in Harare, having previously co-founded ...

(of Weaver Press in

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

). The longlist was published on 12 April 2013, and in July 2013 the winner was announced as

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa East Africa, Eastern Africa, or East of Africa, is the eastern subregion of the African continent. In the United Nations Statistics Division scheme of geographic regions, 10-11-(16*) territor ...

n writer

Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (born 1960s) is a Ugandan-British novelist and short story writer.Daniel Musitwa"Ugandan Author Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi wins 2013 Kwani? Manuscript Prize" africabookclub.org, 4 July 2013. Retrieved 15 February 2016 ...

, the runner-up being Liberia's Saah Millimono for ''One Day I Will Write About This War'' and third place going to Kenya's Timothy Kiprop Kimutai for ''The Water Spirits''."Uganda's Jennifer Makumbi Wins Kwani? Literary Prize"
''The Star'', 3 July 2013. AllAfrica.

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

Kwani? websiteartmatters.info
- a critical review *Stephen Derwent Partington

''Daily Nation'', 9 February 2013. 2003 establishments in Kenya Literary magazines Magazines established in 2003 Magazines published in Africa Mass media in Kenya Mass media in Nairobi