What is Label Cuisine's goal? To diversify food habits by allowing people to discover new or reworked recipes, while renewing their enjoyment of reading!
This agency was born out of two observations. First, the Nigerien population is becoming less and less accustomed to reading. Second, Nigeriens eat too much fat, sugar and spice. Drawing on these observations, the agency set itself the aim of contributing to preserving health through a balanced diet, while also promoting local produce.
What better response to this dual issue could there be than a cookbook? In hard or digital format, it is simple and accessible in order to suit all audiences.
“Les assiettes de tubercules” (roughly “Plates of Tubers”), published by Edilivre in 2020, is one of the two publications by Label Cuisine and covers all of the agency’s aims: simplicity (the recipes use few or no modern tools and/or suggest a traditional alternative), accessibility (recipes written in simple French to make them easy for all readers to use) and sharing (knowledge, techniques and the prepared dishes).
Located in the municipality of Cocody, in Côte d'Ivoire, IvoiRégiE is a cultural enterprise working with women and young people in three key fields: culture, digital and the environment. Its vision is to qualitatively transform human territories through poetry, a vehicle for identity and values that constitutes a means for cultural integration, a tool for enhancement and an instrument of economic and social promotion.
The Popodipo project was created with a view to promoting and developing poetry from sub-Saharan Africa. More than just a project, Popodipo is a state of mind that unites and inspires, focusing on several themes: the economic and social promotion of women, solidarity and mentoring for young people and cultural regional development.
In concrete terms, the project intends to showcase 50 selected sub-Saharan poets on an interactive web platform and mobile application. There is also an entertaining board game that offers a fun way to familiarise the general public with poetry. Poetry recitals, giant portrait and poetry text installations, poetry frescoes on the walls of buildings and poetic stall dressings are among the actions carried out on a daily basis by IvoiRégiE.
Located in Accra, Ghana, LOATAD (Library Of Africa and The African Diaspora) is a library dedicated to championing and preserving the work of writers from Africa and the diaspora from the late 19th century to the present day. One of its flagship projects is the organisation of writing residencies aimed at writers of all levels from 16 West African countries.
The 2023 session will welcome a total of 12 writers split into one-month residency periods. A third of the places will be reserved for local Ghanaian writers, and women will represent half of participants, as will those aged under 35. During this residency, each writer will have to work on a written project set to be published at the end of the year.
The aim is to give writers the time, space and resources they need to work on a long-term project, thereby boosting their skills and confidence and, above all, helping them to create a network in the sphere of literature.
Lagos International Poetry Festival
Creative Africa Company, producer of the Lagos International Poetry Festival, is committed to training, empowering and showcasing cultural creators of African descent, with a strong bias towards young emerging voices, an inclination towards archiving new stories and narrative change.
Since 2015, the Lagos International Poetry Festival has brought together the world's leading writers, poets and thinkers from around the world. This year, this celebration of linguistic diversity returns with the theme "Babel... A New Language" to explore the ability of poetry, literature and art to speak of the common challenges facing humanity. It will take place as a hybrid experience, combining digital offerings and face-to-face events.
Mon panégyrique, mon identité culturelle
The mission of the Humanist Writers Association of Benin is to make writing, books and reading tools and channels for socio-cultural development in Benin and Africa. It aims to become the leading book organisation in Benin, impacting at least 50,000 people by 2025 through various actions.
The "Akô" is an African custom from oral literature, a series of words of a laudatory nature that recounts the origins and achievements of a person, family, ethnic group or clan. In the face of modernity and industrialisation, this Beninese tradition is under threat. To safeguard it, the project intends to identify, collect and publish (books and CDs) clan panegyrics and train 30 young storytellers and slammers (15 women and 15 men) in composition and declamation.
Of Being and Becoming: exploring language and identity in the African cultural space using VR
Open Arts is a collective committed to promoting arts and creative activities. As the organiser of the Hausa International Book and Arts Festival (HIBAF), the foundation prioritises the artworks and stories of people whose voices have been excluded from the global conversation.
The project aims to digitise the meetings, exhibitions, performances and other activities of the 2nd edition of the HIBAF festival in order to archive them and, above all, to recreate them in virtual reality. If the objective of this event is to open discussions on the Hausa language through history, music and arts of the past and present, its VR version will give it more resonance and will allow it to seduce a new public which, thanks to this technology, will be able to immerse itself and wander through the festival in Northern Nigeria, from anywhere in the world.