AFRICAN AND EUROPEAN POETS BOND AT NEW LIT FEST
By: ADMIN
12/06/2026
On the evening of 29th May 2026, over thirty African poets and musicians performed in a high-energy three-hour show alongside five performance poets from Poland at Eugenia Park, off the Thika Superhighway. The intercultural event was part of the inaugural Asian Literary Festival in Nairobi, which took place on 28th, 29th, and 30th May.
The African performers who took part in the live-music-backed show included Griffins Ndhine, Caitline Shibo, Kevin ‘KNAMICS’ Lukachi, Alexander Nderitu, Raya Wambui, Onyango “Rixpoet” Otieno, Nahida Esmail, Carolyne ‘Afroetry’ Acen, Michel Ongaro, VivyKabz, Mae Kikete, and Collins Mosigisi. The Polish delegation consisted of Katarzyna Szweda, Julia Fiedorczuk, Jakub Pszoniak, Mikołaj Poncyljusz, and Weronika Czyżewska-Poncyljusz.
Ahead of their first-ever visit to Kenya, the Polish artistes, who are part of a travelling performing poets ensemble called Café Europa, had published the poems of twelve African poets who were to perform with them on stage. However, having arrived in the country a couple of days prior to the event, they discovered more artistes who were then incorporated into the program. Speaking at the monthly AMKA Literature Forum on Saturday, 29th May, Weronika Czyżewska-Poncyljusz, the Director of Café Europa said:
‘I found poetry everywhere here (in Nairobi) and art. We had this amazing experience in a meeting in the National Theatre, with slammers. That’s why the Café Europa evening (performance) grew so much! Because we just met amazing people there. And whomever we spoke to was somehow engaged in the field of words or music or performance. For me, this was an experience of huge richness.’
At the National Theatre courtyard, Café Europa met and bonded with members of a long-running poetry forum dubbed Poetry After Lunch (PAL), which meets every Thursday. The European and African poets quickly bonded and, at one point, engaged in a ‘cultural exchange of names’. The visitors were assigned the names Nekesa, Otis, Shiku, and Kinuthia. The Eastern Europeans also gave Polish names to various audience members.
At the AMKA Forum, based at the Goethe-Institut in uptown Nairobi, co-host Mùthoni wa Gìchùrù asked: ‘So, how did you end up in Kenya?’
Weronika (pronounced ‘Veronika’) replied:
‘It started with a meeting…in Sri Lanka. We met with a Sri Lankan poet and writer, Pramudith Rupasinghe…and when he said he has this platform called the Asian Literary Festival, and for him Café Europa is something that should be part of it, we thought, “Why not? Of course.” And since then, we have been trying to build a network of people who think like us. And here in Nairobi, Alexander Nderitu, who is the organizer of the Asian Literary Festival in Kenya, was open enough, courageous enough, to invite us. And we, of course, said, “Yes.” ’
Weronika made no secret of the fact that they thoroughly enjoyed their visit and would like to return for even more cross-cultural collaborations:
‘We had an amazing event here in Nairobi. So now, it’s not only Café Europa, it’s actually “Café Europa Africa”. Which is in itself creating a new quality…My dream would be to, of course, come back here next year and have more poets involved in Café Europa with us. Maybe more events but also translations, co-operations (sic), other projects growing after it. Because, actually, that’s the only way to make our encounter matter.’
ABOUT THE ASIAN LITERARY FESTIVAL
The Asian Literary Festival is an international literary and cultural movementfounded by Sri Lankan novelist Pramudith D. Rupasinghe. It is the flagship initiative of The Asian Group of Literature, a global social enterprise comprised of festivals, publishing, prizes, a literary agency, a literary magazine, and a house of literature. Previous editions have been held in Brussels, Bhubaneswar, and Gampaha.
Below are some images from the Café Europa Africa experience:
