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Regional Residency for African Women Writers

FEMRITE was the first organisation on the continent to start a regional writing activity for women which is called The Regional Residency for African Women Writers. This commenced in 2008 with 14 women from 10 African Countries. The first Residency run from 15th to 22nd November 2008.  The Residencyis an activity that brings together women from across the continent to write together for a period of two weeks. FEMRITE’s main strategy for the residency is to create a sense of belonging for African Women writers so they can start to see themselves as a team that will work together towards a more sustainable women writers’ movement. The first regional residency was funded By the Commonwealth Foundation and Africalia.  It was held at Hotel International, Muyenga, Kampala, and Dr Helen Moffett from South Africa facilitated it. Participants came from Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Ethiopia and Ghana. Since then, many more countries have participated. Objectives of the residency include: To provide space for women to write, To create opportunities for promotion of African women writers, To create opportunities for strategic networking, To celebrate women’s literature and To generate stories and poems for publication. 

To-date the residency has hosted 93 women writers from 18 African Countries and published 5 anthologies as an output from the regional residencies.

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