Episode 248: When Refuge in Words Finds Voice with Vamba Sherif

Greetings Glocal Citizens! This week our Writing as Activism @ Pa Gya! 2024 continues in conversation with Liberian novelist, journalist, film critic, curator, speaker and lecturer of African Literature and Arts at Leiden University in the Netherlands, Vamba Sherif. Vamba has written several novels, including The Emperor's Son (2024), a novel about emperor Samori Touré, The Witness (2011), Bound to Secrecy (2007), The Kingdom of Sebah (2003), Land of My Fathers (1999), and the memoire Unprecedented Love (2021). He has curated several anthologies, including the bestselling Black: Afro-European literature in the Netherlands and Belgium. His work, which has been translated in many languages, deals with themes such as migration, belonging, love, the history of slavery, colonialism and the African resistance to it, and the mysteries of existence. These are all themes that Vamba brings to vivid life in our discussion. Click the and check out Vamba’s Pa Gya! session (https://www.youtube.com/live/GIP5DqSjC_k?si=uV_GjrsM0mwn_wJK) centering his latest book The Emperor's Son. Where to find Vamba? On LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/vamba-sherif-50767755/) On Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/vamba.omarsherif/) On Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/vamba.sherif) On X (https://x.com/vambasherif) Vamba’s essential Pan-African activism reading list: [The Radience of the King)(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheRadianceoftheKing) by Camara Laye (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camara_Laye) and excerpt to the introduction by Toni Morrison (https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2001/08/09/on-the-radiance-of-the-king/?srsltid=AfmBOoqxwN5ZH14QIhyQGo80szFC7bLl7aF7ogRxSVSw6N6M5oh1mwJc) Other topics of interest: Who was Samori Touré (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samori_Ture)? Kolahun, Liberia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolahun_District) Liberia’s First Civil War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Liberian_Civil_War) About Edward Wilmot Blyden, father of Pan-Africanism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Wilmot_Blyden#:~:text=As%20a%20writer%2C%20Blyden%20has,of%20the%20%22African%20race%22.) About the Gulf War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War) Senegalese filmmaker, Ousmane Sembène (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ousmane_Semb%C3%A8ne) About Groningen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groningen) Why lekker (https://www.iamexpat.nl/expat-info/dutch-expat-news/why-dutch-always-lekker) is so sweet… The Comet (https://youtu.be/aQzgZTmwAPc?si=O9t7qHFyV2PeYLYa) by W.E.B Dubois