Abuja Festival of Literature and Ideas Set to Open New Cultural Platform for Nigeria’s Capital Abuja Festival of Literature and Ideas Set to Open New Cultural Platform for Nigeria’s Capital Abuja Festival of Literature and Ideas Set to Open New Cultural Platform for Nigeria’s Capital Abuja Festival of Literature and Ideas Set to Open New Cultural Platform for Nigeria’s Capital Abuja Festival of Literature and Ideas Set to Open New Cultural Platform for Nigeria’s Capital Abuja Festival of Literature and Ideas Set to Open New Cultural Platform for Nigeria’s Capital Abuja Festival of Literature and Ideas Set to Open New Cultural Platform for Nigeria’s Capital

By Simpson Global Media News Desk

Abuja is set to welcome a new addition to Nigeria’s cultural calendar next week as the inaugural Abuja Festival of Literature and Ideas (AFLI) brings writers, thinkers, scientists, artists, policymakers and readers together for two days of literary and intellectual exchange.

The festival is scheduled for October 9 and 10, 2026, at The Nordic, Plot 795, off Shehu Yar’Adua Way, Jabi, Abuja. It is being organised by the Book Buzz Foundation, with the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS as a partner and the participation of the embassies of Italy, Spain and Sweden.

The event is being presented as more than a conventional book festival.

Its programme brings literature into conversation with subjects including peace, technology, artificial intelligence, identity, democracy, science, creativity and the future of culture.

For organisers, the objective is to create a space in Nigeria's capital where books and storytelling can serve as starting points for conversations about issues affecting contemporary society.

The festival's arrival also gives Abuja a new platform for literary programming at a time when Nigeria's creative sector is increasingly expanding beyond music and film into publishing, literature, visual arts, theatre, fashion and other cultural industries.

Book Buzz Foundation Director Lola Shoneyin said the idea for an Abuja festival had existed for about 14 years, dating back to the period when she organised Infusion, a monthly gathering focused on music, art and culture in the city between 2009 and 2012.

The organisers are now hoping to translate that earlier experience into a larger, international gathering.

A New Festival for Abuja

The Abuja Festival of Literature and Ideas is entering the cultural calendar with a deliberately broad identity.

Rather than limiting its programme to authors discussing books, AFLI has been designed around the relationship between literature and wider public life.

That distinction is reflected in the festival's name.

The word “Ideas” signals that the programme will include conversations that go beyond conventional literary criticism, book launches and author appearances.

The organisers have assembled sessions covering international peacebuilding, artificial intelligence, science, migration, identity, Northern Nigerian literature, youth concerns and poetry.

According to Shoneyin, the intention is to make Abuja part of wider conversations about literature and culture rather than concentrating those conversations in other Nigerian cities.

The Book Buzz Foundation's official information lists the Abuja festival among its upcoming cultural and literary programmes, alongside its established Aké Arts and Book Festival.

The new event therefore forms part of a broader programme of literary development rather than standing entirely on its own.

From Infusion to AFLI

The origins of AFLI go back more than a decade.

Shoneyin previously organised Infusion in Abuja between 2009 and 2012, creating a regular gathering where people could interact with writers and artists.

The experience, she has said, demonstrated that there was an audience in Abuja for creative and intellectual events.

The idea eventually developed into a new festival concept.

The Book Buzz Foundation, which Shoneyin leads, has experience organising literary events including the Aké Arts and Book Festival and Kaduna Book and Arts Festival.

The organisation describes its broader mission as promoting literacy, developing reading spaces and organising literary festivals in Nigeria and internationally. Its official platform says it has brought more than 1,000 writers, poets, musicians, actors, filmmakers, artists and thinkers together through the Aké festival over more than a decade.

AFLI now extends that experience to Abuja.

The inaugural edition is being approached partly as an opportunity to test the concept and understand how audiences respond.

Shoneyin has described the first edition as a pilot that could inform whether the festival returns in subsequent years.

That approach gives the event a practical dimension.

Rather than assuming that a new festival will automatically become an annual institution, the organisers intend to learn from the first edition.

Attendance, audience response, partnerships and financial sustainability can all influence its future.

Why Abuja?

Nigeria already has established literary and cultural festivals in several cities.

Lagos hosts major literary and arts gatherings, while other states and cities have developed their own programmes.

Abuja, however, has a different cultural position.

As the Federal Capital Territory and the country's political and administrative centre, it brings together residents from different parts of Nigeria and a large diplomatic and international community.

That diversity provides a potential audience for a festival built around cross-cultural conversations.

AFLI's organisers are seeking to use that position to connect Nigerian writers and thinkers with international participants.

The festival's partnership with European institutions reinforces that international dimension.

The European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS is involved, alongside the embassies of Italy, Spain and Sweden.

The resulting programme crosses national and disciplinary boundaries.

Writers will appear alongside scientists.

Peacebuilding specialists will share space with poets.

Conversations about literature will sit alongside discussions about artificial intelligence and the internet.

That structure is intended to make the festival relevant not only to people who already follow the literary world but also to audiences interested in wider questions about society.

International Voices Coming to Abuja

The programme includes a number of international participants.

One of the prominent guests is Sergio Jaramillo, Colombia's former High Commissioner for Peace and one of the principal architects associated with Colombia's peace process.

His session, “How Divided Societies Learn to Dialogue,” will examine how communities affected by conflict can move towards listening, negotiation and rebuilding trust.

The inclusion of Jaramillo introduces a political and peacebuilding dimension to the cultural festival.

It also demonstrates how the organisers intend to use literature and public conversation as entry points into wider questions about societies.

Another international participant is Zimbabwean writer and academic Simukai Chigudu, who will discuss his memoir Chasing Freedom.

The book explores family, colonialism, race, migration and the meaning of freedom after empire.

His participation brings historical and personal dimensions to the festival's broader conversation about identity and the legacy of colonialism.

The programme also includes astrophysicist and science communicator Roberto Trotta, who is expected to bring science and imagination into the festival through discussion of his work Starborn.

Together, the international speakers demonstrate the organisers' attempt to make AFLI multidisciplinary rather than purely literary.

Literature Meets Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence will be one of the most significant contemporary technology themes at the festival.

The organisers have deliberately placed AI within a cultural programme because of its growing influence on writing, publishing, visual art, film, music and other creative activities.

The debate is becoming increasingly relevant to artists and writers as generative AI systems become capable of producing text, images, audio and video.

Questions surrounding authorship, intellectual property, privacy and creative labour are therefore becoming part of everyday cultural discussions.

AFLI will examine those questions through sessions involving Spanish filmmaker Stéphane M. Grueso and Swedish digital expert Carl Heath, among others.

Heath's session, titled “Musings on the Internet,” is expected to consider the implications of AI for authorship, intellectual property, privacy, artistic labour and the future of human creativity.

The festival's organisers have also linked the AI conversation to practical concerns about regulation and safeguards.

Shoneyin has said that Nigerians need to begin serious discussions about how AI could affect sectors including banking, businesses and personal security and what regulatory responses may be appropriate.

That makes the AI programme relevant beyond the creative industry.

It reflects a wider question confronting societies around the world: how should rapidly developing technology be integrated into everyday life while questions about privacy, ownership and accountability remain unresolved?

A Literary Festival With a Northern Focus

AFLI will also devote attention to literary voices from Northern Nigeria.

One panel, “Exciting Themes in New Northern Nigerian Women's Fiction,” will feature Nana Sule, Hadiza El-Rufai, Fatima Bala and Edify Yakusak, according to the published programme.

The inclusion of the panel reflects an effort to draw attention to contemporary writing from the region and the experiences represented within it.

Northern Nigeria has a substantial literary history and a diverse range of languages, cultures and storytelling traditions.

Contemporary writers from the region increasingly engage with questions involving gender, family, religion, migration, identity, social change and the relationship between tradition and modernity.

A festival in Abuja provides an opportunity for these writers to engage audiences within the region's political and cultural centre.

The organisers have also included a youth-focused session examining the future of young people in Northern Nigeria.

Youth Speak

The Youth Speak programme will bring younger participants into the festival's discussions.

Participants listed for the session include Khadija Sanusi, Maryam Laushi Dasilva, Raymond J. Yusuff, Usman Hayatu and Nana Fatima Bello.

The organisers say the session is intended to provide a space where young people can speak directly about their vision for the future.

That approach is important for a literary festival because young people are not only consumers of cultural products.

They are also writers, artists, filmmakers, publishers, readers and future cultural organisers.

Their participation can help broaden conversations that might otherwise be dominated by established voices.

The organisers' interest in youth participation also connects with the Book Buzz Foundation's wider literacy mission.

Its official platform says the foundation works to support reading spaces and libraries and to develop initiatives involving writers, illustrators, editors, graphic designers and agents.

A festival can therefore function as part of a larger ecosystem of literacy development.

Poetry Takes the Stage

The programme will also include an evening of poetry.

Deborah Johnson, Moyosola Olowookure, Salim Yunusa and Mariam Abdullahi are listed among the poets participating.

Poetry occupies a particularly important place in African literary culture because of its connection to oral traditions, performance, music and storytelling.

A live poetry programme can also introduce festival audiences to forms of literary expression that may not receive the same attention as novels and nonfiction.

The combination of poetry, fiction, science, technology and public discussion is part of AFLI's attempt to create a varied cultural experience.

It means audiences can move between different forms of expression rather than spending two days in a single literary format.

Science and Imagination

The presence of Roberto Trotta adds another dimension.

Science communication can sometimes appear distant from literary culture, but both disciplines rely heavily on imagination, explanation and the ability to communicate complex ideas.

A science-focused conversation can therefore fit naturally within a festival built around ideas.

Trotta's participation is expected to connect scientific questions with storytelling and imagination through discussion of Starborn.

That broader approach reflects the festival's central philosophy.

The organisers are not presenting literature as an isolated cultural activity.

Instead, books and ideas are being used as platforms for conversations across different fields.

Books and Public Life

The festival's organisers have repeatedly emphasised that AFLI will not be limited to discussions about books.

The programme includes peace, technology, science, identity, democracy and creativity.

That is consistent with the way literary festivals have increasingly developed internationally.

Authors and readers often use literature as a way to discuss society, history and public life.

Fiction can explore social changes.

Memoirs can preserve personal histories.

Poetry can express experiences that may be difficult to capture through conventional political or academic language.

Science writing can make complex ideas accessible.

A literary festival can bring those forms together.

AFLI is seeking to establish that kind of space in Abuja.

The Role of Cultural Exchange

The involvement of European diplomatic missions gives the festival an international cultural-exchange component.

The participation of Italy, Spain and Sweden has helped bring international speakers into the programme, according to organisers and reports about the event.

Such exchanges can create opportunities for Nigerian audiences to encounter writers and thinkers from other countries.

They can also create opportunities for Nigerian cultural practitioners to establish relationships beyond the country.

Cultural exchange does not necessarily require formal government programmes.

Literary festivals can create informal networks among writers, publishers, artists, academics and audiences.

Those networks can eventually lead to collaborations, translations, publishing opportunities, residencies and other projects.

For a country with a large and internationally recognised creative sector, such connections can be significant.

Nigeria's Expanding Literary Ecosystem

Nigeria's literary sector has produced internationally recognised writers, publishers and cultural institutions for decades.

The country's literature has travelled through novels, poetry, drama, academic writing, journalism and oral storytelling.

Nigerian writers have also contributed to global conversations about colonialism, migration, identity, gender, politics, family and culture.

Literary festivals have become an important part of that ecosystem.

They give writers opportunities to meet readers directly and give emerging authors opportunities to encounter established figures.

They also create spaces where publishers, booksellers, educators, critics and cultural organisations can interact.

The Book Buzz Foundation's experience with Aké and Kaduna gives AFLI an organisational background within that ecosystem.

Its official website describes Aké as having brought more than 1,000 writers, poets, musicians, actors, filmmakers, artists and thinkers together over the years.

AFLI now adds Abuja to that network.

A Potential New Cultural Institution

One of the questions surrounding the festival is whether it can become a recurring feature of Abuja's cultural calendar.

The organisers have not presented continuity as an automatic outcome.

Instead, Shoneyin has described the inaugural edition as a test or pilot.

The first event will allow the organisers to see how audiences respond and what lessons emerge before deciding on future editions.

That approach acknowledges a common challenge facing cultural festivals.

Launching an event is one thing.

Maintaining it year after year requires sustained funding, partnerships, audience support, infrastructure and organisational capacity.

The Book Buzz Foundation has indicated that AFLI is being supported through its own contribution and partnerships.

Shoneyin has described the investment as an “intellectual investment,” while also acknowledging the importance of sustainability for cultural events.

The financial structure will therefore be an important factor in determining whether AFLI becomes a permanent annual event.

Ticketing and Access

The Book Buzz Foundation's official ticketing page lists a ₦25,000 ticket for the two-day festival.

The ticket provides access to AFLI 2026 events and includes an AFLI festival identification card and lanyard.

Online ticket sales are scheduled to close on October 5, 2026.

The venue is The Nordic, Plot 795, off Shehu Yar'Adua Way, Cadastral Zone B04, Jabi, Abuja.

The organisers have described the event as heavily subsidised while recognising that the ticket price may still be difficult for some potential attendees.

That tension reflects a broader challenge for cultural organisations.

Festivals require money to pay venues, technical teams, speakers, logistics, publicity and other costs.

At the same time, cultural events often seek broad public access.

Finding a sustainable balance between affordability and financial viability is therefore an ongoing issue for festival organisers.

Building Reading Culture

AFLI also fits into the Book Buzz Foundation's wider work on literacy.

The organisation states that one of its main objectives is to promote literacy by developing reading spaces for children.

It also organises literary festivals and initiatives aimed at developing writers and other publishing professionals.

This gives the Abuja festival a broader context.

The event is not simply about bringing famous names to the capital.

It is part of an ecosystem intended to encourage reading, writing, publishing and cultural participation.

For young readers, seeing writers and poets interact with audiences can make literature more accessible.

For aspiring writers, meeting authors and editors can provide exposure to the professional side of the industry.

For educators and librarians, festivals can offer ideas about how reading culture can be strengthened.

Connecting Literature With Technology

The festival's decision to place AI prominently on its programme is also significant for Nigeria's publishing sector.

Artificial intelligence is already changing how people produce and consume written material.

Authors can use AI-assisted tools for research, brainstorming, translation and editing.

Publishers are examining how digital technologies affect production and distribution.

Readers increasingly consume books and articles through phones, tablets and other digital devices.

At the same time, questions about copyright and authorship remain unresolved in many areas of generative AI.

AFLI's discussions provide an opportunity to consider these changes from a cultural perspective.

The key question is not simply whether technology should be accepted or rejected.

It is how writers, publishers, artists, readers and institutions can understand the opportunities and risks associated with new tools.

That is one reason the inclusion of technology within a literature festival is relevant to the wider creative economy.

Preserving Human Creativity

The debate over AI also raises questions about what distinguishes human creative work.

Writing is not only the production of words.

It can involve memory, experience, cultural context, emotion, observation and interpretation.

For Nigerian writers, creative work can also involve the preservation of languages, histories and social experiences.

AI systems can generate text, but questions remain about how they handle cultural specificity, ownership of source material and the lived experiences represented in literature.

The AFLI programme's attention to authorship, intellectual property, privacy and artistic labour places these questions directly within the cultural conversation.

For Nigeria's creative community, these debates are likely to become increasingly important as digital tools become more accessible.

Northern Nigerian Voices and Representation

The festival's focus on Northern Nigerian women writers also addresses questions of representation.

Nigeria's literary landscape is extremely diverse, but the experiences of different regions and communities are not always equally visible in national cultural conversations.

A dedicated panel gives writers from Northern Nigeria an opportunity to discuss contemporary fiction from their own perspectives.

The panel's focus on women's fiction adds another layer.

Women writers can bring different experiences and literary approaches to questions involving family, social expectations, identity and public life.

The festival's Youth Speak programme extends the regional focus by asking young people to discuss their vision of Northern Nigeria's future.

Together, the sessions create space for multiple generations and perspectives.

Literature and Peace

The presence of Sergio Jaramillo introduces a further theme with particular relevance to societies experiencing division.

His session on how divided societies learn to dialogue is expected to draw on Colombia's experience of peacebuilding.

For a Nigerian audience, the discussion provides an opportunity to examine how societies can address disagreement, conflict and mistrust.

The festival is not being presented as a political conference.

Rather, the session places peacebuilding within a wider cultural and intellectual programme.

Literature has historically provided spaces for societies to examine conflict through stories, memoirs and historical accounts.

A discussion involving a peace-process practitioner extends that conversation into public policy and conflict resolution.

Culture Beyond Entertainment

The development of AFLI also reflects a broader understanding of culture.

Culture is sometimes discussed primarily through music, film, festivals and entertainment.

Those sectors are important, but literature and intellectual exchange form another part of the cultural economy.

Books preserve memories.

Archives preserve history.

Poetry carries language across generations.

Storytelling can transmit values and experiences.

Public conversations can create new interpretations of social change.

A festival that brings these elements together can therefore serve both an entertainment function and an educational one.

AFLI's programme is structured around that broader conception of culture.

Abuja's Cultural Identity

Abuja has developed a cultural identity of its own despite its relatively recent history as Nigeria's capital.

Its population includes people from across the country and a significant international community.

The city hosts diplomatic missions, universities, public institutions, galleries, performance spaces and cultural organisations.

A literary festival can add another layer to that cultural infrastructure.

The success of AFLI could also encourage additional cultural organisations to develop programmes in the city.

Shoneyin has said she hopes festivals can inspire other people, particularly younger Nigerians, to create cultural events of their own.

That vision places the festival within a wider objective of building cultural capacity rather than creating only one annual event.

The Importance of Continuity

The first edition will be watched closely by people within Nigeria's literary and cultural community.

If audiences respond positively, organisers could consider returning in subsequent years.

That would require continued funding and partnerships.

The Book Buzz Foundation already has experience with recurring festivals, but each city and audience presents different logistical and financial circumstances.

AFLI's pilot nature means its future will depend partly on what the organisers learn during the inaugural event.

The festival's ability to develop a distinct identity will also matter.

Abuja already hosts conferences and cultural events throughout the year.

AFLI will need to establish what makes its literary and ideas-focused programme distinctive.

Its current combination of literature, science, technology, peacebuilding and regional voices provides one possible answer.

A Meeting Point for Different Audiences

One of the festival's notable features is its attempt to bring together people who might not normally attend the same cultural event.

A novelist and a scientist may speak to different audiences.

A peacebuilding expert may attract a policy audience.

A poet may draw literature enthusiasts.

An AI discussion may attract technology professionals.

By putting them into one programme, AFLI creates opportunities for those audiences to overlap.

That can produce unexpected conversations.

A technology professional may encounter a poet whose work addresses digital identity.

A student may hear a peacebuilding expert discuss dialogue.

A writer may learn about scientific ideas that influence future work.

A policymaker may encounter cultural perspectives on technology and identity.

This cross-disciplinary structure is central to the festival's identity.

The Festival's Wider Timing

AFLI is opening at a period when Nigeria's creative industries are receiving increasing attention as sources of cultural influence and economic activity.

Music, film, fashion, literature, visual arts and other sectors increasingly operate across national boundaries.

Nigerian creative work is consumed by audiences around the world.

That international visibility creates opportunities but also challenges.

Artists and writers need access to international markets.

Creators need stronger intellectual-property awareness.

Cultural institutions need sustainable funding.

Young people need training and platforms.

Festivals can contribute to these objectives by connecting people.

AFLI's international partnership structure and multidisciplinary programme place it within that broader cultural-development environment.

The Road to October 9

With the opening only days away, attention will now shift from planning to execution.

The organisers will need to coordinate speakers, venue arrangements, audience registration, technical facilities and the programme schedule.

The international component adds additional logistical considerations.

The festival's ticketing window remains open until October 5 according to the official Book Buzz Foundation platform.

The programme itself has already been publicised, giving prospective attendees an opportunity to identify sessions of interest.

The two-day format means that audiences will have to choose among a programme spanning different subjects and formats.

What the Festival Could Leave Behind

The most lasting outcome of a cultural festival is not necessarily the number of people who attend.

It can also be the relationships, ideas and projects that emerge afterwards.

A writer may meet a publisher.

A young poet may find a mentor.

A student may discover an interest in literature.

A researcher may establish an international collaboration.

A cultural organisation may find a new partner.

A conversation about AI may inspire a new approach to copyright or creative practice.

A discussion about Northern Nigerian literature may lead to greater interest in writers whose work has received less national attention.

Those outcomes are difficult to measure immediately, but they can determine the long-term cultural value of an event.

A New Chapter for Abuja's Literary Calendar

The inaugural Abuja Festival of Literature and Ideas arrives with an ambitious programme and a deliberately broad cultural remit.

From poetry and fiction to science, technology and peacebuilding, the event is designed to make literature a gateway into wider discussions about contemporary life.

Its international partnerships give it a cross-border dimension, while its focus on Northern Nigerian writing and youth voices gives it a strong Nigerian component.

The festival also draws on the experience of the Book Buzz Foundation, which has organised established literary events in Nigeria.

Its inaugural edition will nevertheless be an experiment.

The organisers have said they want to assess the first edition before determining whether and how the festival should continue.

That makes October 9 and 10 important dates for Abuja's cultural community.

The event will provide an opportunity to test whether the capital can sustain a large literary gathering that deliberately crosses the boundaries between books, science, technology, public affairs and creative expression.

Conclusion

The Abuja Festival of Literature and Ideas will open on October 9 for its first two-day edition, bringing together writers, thinkers, scientists, artists, policymakers and readers at The Nordic in Jabi.

Organised by the Book Buzz Foundation, the festival is being presented with the support of the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS and the participation of the embassies of Italy, Spain and Sweden.

Its programme reflects an effort to expand the meaning of a literary festival.

Books remain at the centre, but the discussions extend into artificial intelligence, peace, identity, democracy, science, technology, migration, creativity and the future.

International guests such as Sergio Jaramillo, Simukai Chigudu and Roberto Trotta will join Nigerian writers and cultural voices, while dedicated sessions will focus on Northern Nigerian women's fiction, youth perspectives and poetry.

Artificial intelligence will be one of the most contemporary themes on the programme, with discussions expected to examine its implications for authorship, intellectual property, privacy, artistic labour and human creativity.

The festival's origins stretch back to Shoneyin's earlier cultural work in Abuja, including the Infusion gatherings she organised between 2009 and 2012.

More than a decade later, that idea has developed into a two-day international festival.

The Book Buzz Foundation is treating the first edition partly as a pilot, meaning its long-term future will depend on audience response, organisational experience, partnerships and financial sustainability.

The official ticketing platform lists the two-day ticket at ₦25,000, with access to the festival's events and an AFLI identification card and lanyard. Online sales are scheduled to close on October 5.

For Abuja, the festival offers another opportunity to strengthen its cultural calendar.

For Nigeria's literary community, it creates a new meeting point for established and emerging voices.

For young people, it offers space to participate in conversations about the future.

And for the wider creative sector, it demonstrates how literature can intersect with technology, science, public life and international cultural exchange.

Whether AFLI becomes a permanent annual institution will only become clearer after its inaugural edition.

For now, its arrival marks a new chapter in Abuja's literary and cultural programming — one built around the idea that books can be more than objects of reading, and that festivals can become places where different disciplines, generations and cultures meet to examine the questions shaping contemporary Nigeria and the wider world.