A Virtual Presentation on African Literary Restitution by Marianne Wamuyu and Tarus Sharon
On 30th September 2025, the second convening of the African Arts Libraries Lab (AAL Lab) brought together scholars, librarians, researchers, and cultural practitioners to explore the evolving landscape of African literary archives and libraries. Titled Worlding from Below: Mapping African Literary Spaces, the event formed part of the AAL Lab Convening Series, Contemporary Art and Archive Practices (CAAP), jointly Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation and Yinka Shonibare Foundation (Y.S.F.) within the framework of the Re:assemblages programme.
Facilitated by Naima Hassan, curator of Re:assemblages, the convening featured a presentation by Marianne Wamuyu and Tarus Sharon of Book Bunk, who reflected on the ongoing restoration of Nairobi's McMillan Memorial Library and the role of women-led, community-centred approaches in transforming the former colonial institution into an inclusive civic space. Responding to the presentation, Dr. Laura Nkula-Wenz and Dr. Polo Moji of the University of Cape Town's African Literary Cities project expanded the discussion to consider African literary restitution and the ways literary spaces can function as sites of memory, repair, and collective knowledge production. Together, the presentations and discussion traced connections between Nairobi and Cape Town while opening broader conversations about reclaiming African literary geographies from the ground up.
The dialogue was framed by the recent release of How to Build a Library (2025), the documentary by Maia Lekow and Christopher King, which follows the work of Book Bunk, the charitable trust founded in 2017 by Shiro Koinange and Angela Wachuka to restore Nairobi's historic public libraries. The restoration of the McMillan Memorial Library, originally established in 1931 as a whites-only colonial institution, served as a compelling case study through which participants explored the possibilities of decolonising library infrastructures and reimagining public knowledge spaces across the continent.
Extending the conversations initiated during the convening, a forthcoming chapbook by Dr. Laura Nkula-Wenz and Dr. Polo Moji, commissioned as part of Re:assemblages, will bring together a written response to this CAAP activation.
The AAL Lab Convening Series forms part of Re:assemblages, guided by an advisory committee comprising Serubiri Moses, Dr. Beatrix Gassman de Sousa, Natasha Ginwala, Dr. Rangoato Hlasane, and Dr. Oluwatoyin Zainab Sogbesan. The series is made possible through the generous support of the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Event Details
Date: 30th September 2025
Time: 4:30pm - 6:30pm WAT (GMT +1)
Location: Online (Zoom Webinar)
About the Speakers and Facilitator
Marianne Wamuyu
Marianne Wamuyu is the Programmes & Events Director at Book Bunk, where she steers flagship initiatives such as the Nairobi Litfest, Arts Programmes, and Library Clinics. A Literature and Political Science graduate and METIS Fellow, she brings extensive experience in cultural management, strategy, and stakeholder engagement. Her work positions libraries as civic infrastructures for education, creativity, and community building, while also negotiating the practical intersections of programming with operations, fundraising, and facilities management. Marianne’s leadership has been central to cultivating partnerships and scaling initiatives that reclaim public libraries as inclusive, transformative spaces within Nairobi’s cultural and literary landscape.
Marianne Wamuyu courtesy of Paul Munene.
Naima Hassan
Naima Hassan is a researcher, curator, and archivist based in Berlin. Her practice foregrounds alternative epistemologies, curatorial and archival ethics, with a focus on the epistemic transformation of postcolonial collections and memory cultures. She currently leads Re:assemblages, jointly developed with Guest Artists Space Foundation and Yinka Shonibare Foundation, as Associate Curator and Archivist. Under the multi-year programme Re:assemblages, she aims to connect the G.A.S. Library and Picton Archive and other allied archives to a transnational network of communities, artists, scholars, and institutions.
Naima Hassan, 2024. Photo: Alexander Steffans.
Laura Nkula-Wenz
Laura Nkula-Wenz is a lecturer and student affairs coordinator for the MA in Critical Urbanisms, University of Basel, as well as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the SNSF-funded ‘Governing Through Design’ project, where she co-leads the South Designs initiative together with Prof. Kenny Cupers. She is a human geographer by training with a passion for postcolonial urban theory, African urbanism, new pedagogies of the city and public culture. Her research has focused on local urban governance transformation, the impact of international events and urban accolades, on urban experimentation and interurban knowledge networks, the nexus of cultural production and urban change, as well as the role of professional integrity in the urban development sector. Nkula-Wenz received her PhD in Geography from the University of Münster/Germany (summa cum laude), where she also completed her undergraduate and graduate studies in Human Geography, Communication Studies and Political Science. Prior to joining ACC in January 2018, Laura was a postdoctoral fellow at the Pôle de recherche pour l’organisation et la diffusion de l’information géographique (Prodig) in Paris, funded by the Laboratory of Excellence “Territorial and Spatial Dynamics” (Labex DynamiTe). Nkula-Wenz’s work has been published in Environment and Planning A: Economy & Space, the Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, Habitat International, Cultural Trends, etc.
Laura Nkula-Wenz. Courtesy of African Literary Cities.
Polo B. Moji
Polo B. Moji ( PhD Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris III) is an Associate Professor of English Literary Studies at the University of Cape Town. She is a literary scholar whose research interests range from intersectional feminisms, comparative anglophone / francophone African and Afrodiasporic literatures, as well as critical black geographies. She a principal investigator on the NRF funded African Literary Cities research project. Her co-edited special journal issues include: “Ghostly Border Crossings: Europe in African and Afrodiasporic Narratives” (Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, 2019) and “The Cinematic City: Desire, Form and the African Urban “ (Journal of African Cinemas , 2019). She is also the co-editor of Cinematic Imaginaries of the African City (Routledge, 2023) and the forthcoming edited volume Conversational Bridges: Building African Feminisms (HSRC Press,2025). Moji’s monograph Gender and the Spatiality of Blackness in Contemporary AfroFrench Narratives (Routledge, 2022) won the 2024 African Literature Association First Book Award.
Polo Moji. Courtesy of African Literary Cities.
Tarus Sharon
Tarus Sharon is the Communications Manager at Book Bunk, where she steers the organisation’s communications strategy across platforms, strengthening its public presence and advancing its mission of transforming Nairobi’s public libraries. She leads messaging for flagship initiatives such as Nairobi Litfest, impact campaigns, and fundraising communications, ensuring consistent and compelling storytelling about Nairobi's literary spaces. She holds a BA in Communications (Public Relations and Marketing) and brings over a decade of experience spanning strategy development, brand building, digital engagement, and stakeholder relations. Her work foregrounds impact-driven narratives that link literary spaces to community futures, reflecting her passion for the cultural and creative sector.
Tarus Sharon courtesy of Paul Munene.
