The Sunday News
Thobekisiwe Gumede Sunday Leisure Reporter
BULAWAYO born author, Njabulo Moyo has added yet another accolade to his long list of achievements, following his recent appointment as the African Young Writers Organisation (AYWO) director for Zimbabwe.AYWO is a youth organisation based in Ghana that seeks to bring together African writers to share their stories and works.
The organisation which started in Ghana has its activities and programmes run in five African countries namely Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya and Ghana.
In an interview with Sunday Leisure, the 26-year-old motivational speaker said he was honoured by landing the post.
“It is a huge honour for me considering that West Africa has over the years produced the best works and writers in the literature category and for me to associate with such an institution is only just but an indication of how much my work has grown in its influence,” he said.
Moyo said his duties were to create a culture of reading among youths all over Africa.
“My duties, together with the other two co-country directors, will be to promote a culture of reading and writing through the creation of platforms such as book fairs, literacy programmes, advocacy works, publishing, marketing and yearly compilation of writings for exhibitions,” he said.
Moyo believes his recognition from Ghana was inspired by his contribution to the literature industry.
“I received an invitation letter from AYWO and after careful consideration I accepted it as I saw it as a springboard for me to learn and share in terms of the literary arts. I believe the invite was inspired by my continued work in different platforms to promote a culture of reading and writing,” he added.
Moyo expressed hope that Africa would be turned into a reading continent where positive African stories dominate the commercial markets.
“We are on a mission to turn Africa into a reading continent and to have African books compete in the international markets with best-sellers and we get to a place where we simply read because we love to.
“I believe the content of Africa books and stories must move away from just merely being written to be studied for literary purposes in schools but instead be written for the sheer joy of general information,” he said.
Born and bred in Bulawayo, Moyo is not new in the arts industry; he has performed at Intwasa Arts Festival since 2009 under the spoken word genre supported by British Council’s Echoes of Young Voices.
In 2006, the artiste was a finalist during the high school competition called Power in the Voice. In 2010, he featured as a performing poet in the Action Youth’s Listen to Youth project. Some of his published works are Sketches (2012) and Sketches from My Soul (2013).
Passion, knowledge and experience have seen the inspirational young poet representing the country in South Africa, Sweden, Denmark and Lebanon.
