Nigerian Breweries host Farafina Literary Evening

Oredola Adeola and Adeola Ogunrinde

Nigerian Breweries once again has kept its promise to continue to support notable project that will develop the minds of many Nigerians. In the seventh edition of Farafina literary evening which Nigerian Breweries have sponsored six editions , this year’s  literary evening witnessed  array of writers and readers who came to Oriental Hotel Victoria Island to celebrate Nigerian literature, also to see the new crop of graduates from the 2015 Farafina workshop.

The 10 days workshop which ended with a literary night on Saturday, June 26, 2015, at the Oriental Hotel , Victoria Island, Lagos, was the vision of Nigeria’s award-winning and inspiring writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who designed it to create a veritable platform for those who are talented African writers to interact with others to receive validation for their skills.

The literary evening traditionally brings to a close the annual workshop which has helped to discover budding writers across Africa. Twenty five participants who were camped for the training had two Kenyans and other creative young Nigerians, under the tutelage of Nigeria’s, Chimamanda Adichie, Kenya’s Binyavanga Wainaina, a Caine Prize award winner, who was included among the TIME 100 as one of the most influential People in the World’ and Aslak Sira Myhre, a Norwegian Culture administrator.

The literary night was anchored by Olisa Adibua, owner of Beat FM, also witnessed topnotch performance from Hi Extreme Dancers and Efe Paul Azino who treated the crowd to a smashing poetry jam. The event also featured performance from sensational music star, Kiss Daniels who charged the literary evening up with his rave making single, ‘WOJU’.

In her remark, at the dinner, Adichie expressed her gratitude to the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Breweries Plc, Mr. Nico Vervelde, whom she described as a reader who had also use his good office to support a writing workshop. She said, ‘‘it was a difficult task for the panelists to narrow down the entries to the required 25. In the last few years since the event started, we have received more than 1000 entries and we can only have 25 people in the camp. It was so tasking to pick the finalists because interesting materials were submitted by applicants. One of the things that I have learnt in reading through entries in the workshop is that there are so many people, who would want to tell their stories..

She however noted that the writing skills of the people selected this year were spectacular. She added that the writing workshop does not teach participants how to write; rather help to perfect the writing skills of the writers. She also noted the workshop gives the writers sense of validation in what they do. According to her, ‘‘there is a spur that occurs when you are in the midst of 25 people from different background, who are passionate about what you do. It allows you to believe strongly in what you do.’’

She further revealed that most of the works examined during the training were based on fictions and non fictions. She added that the panelists had urged the writers to tell African stories with their works. She warned that reading does not necessarily mean reading of text books. According to her, reading gives everyone the opportunity to grow their career and it must not be relegate to reading of story books alone.

According to Mr. Nico Vervelde, sponsorship of the workshop was borne out of the company’s desire to encourage the development of literary writing skills in Africa, through championing programs that add value to the well being of the society. He said, ‘‘I was privilege to have attended the last six editions. What I have discovered over the years is that so dreams have been realized. The creative writing workshop fits into the Corporate Social Responsibilities-CSR, of Nigerian Breweries Plc. Over the years we have been able to use the workshop to enhance the writing skills of budding writers.’’

He however urged the new writers to focus more on their individual personalities. He also charged them to use the workshop to launch their skills. According to him, the world would like to benefit from the works of the writers in the future.