James Currey, Claude Joseph, Onyeka Nwelue and Nkiru. Njoku Chaired by Dan Hicks

Former publisher James Currey, Haitian politician Dr Claude Joseph, writer and academic Onyeka Newlue, and writer-director Nk’iru Njoku discuss the history of the Africa-focused publisher James Currey Publishing, its efforts to promote African and Caribbean voices, and the work to continue its legacy at the University of Oxford’s African Studies Centre.

James Currey Publishing was founded in 1984 by South African James Currey after he had spent a decade pioneering Heinemann’s African Writers Series. It is now part of Boydell and Brewer and publishes books by leading figures in African studies and by new authors. It works with co-publishers to ensure wide circulation for the books. The James Currey Society was founded at the African Studies Centre by Nwelue. It aims to make the work of Currey known through workshops, conferences, prizes and residences. It runs the James Currey Prize for African Literature, James Currey Fellowship, James Currey writing and publishing workshops, and the James Currey Literary Festival.

Currey has been called the ‘godfather of African literature’. He studied at Oxford before going on to work for Oxford University Press and Heinemann. At his OUP interview he was asked to pick a country to go to and chose South Africa. Joseph is a former assistant visiting professor at University of Connecticut and a Haitian politician who served as minister of foreign affairs and acting Prime Minister of Haiti. Nwelue is a filmmaker, talk-show host, writer, bookseller, teacher and academic visitor at the University of Oxford African Studies Centre He is also advisor to the festival’s programme of African literature and culture. Nwelue’s aunt Flora Nwapa has been called the ‘mother of modern African literature’ and was the first African woman novelist to be published in the English language in Britain by Currey under the Heinemann African Writers Series. Njoku is a writer-director, who was the head writer on the Nigerian soap Tinsel for seven years and was on the 2021 BBC London Voices scheme. Her short film Oriki won the women in film award at the Black Star International Film Festival in Ghana.

Discussions are chaired by Professor Dan Hicks, author of The Brutish Museums: the Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution, described by Ben Okri as ‘an important book which could overturn what people have felt about British history, empire, civilisation, Africa, and African art’.

This event is part of the festival’s programme of African literature and culture.