Support book clubs in Africa

We at the InterKontinental e.V. are committed to connecting people across continents. It is our belief that books have the power to open doors to new worlds, promote education and cultural exchange. However, this also requires encounters - places where literary creators and readers come together. The African Book Festival is such a place and it has been taking place in Berlin for seven years. We host award-winning authors at the festival who often present their books without an audience from the African continent.

Did you know that there are over 1,000 active book clubs in South Africa alone, for example? In the 2022 African Book Festival edition, AfroKulcha Book Club travelled from Johannesburg to Berlin to attend the festival. We also share this enthusiasm for books and reading, but we feel a lot more can be done for African book clubs.

There are two main reasons why book lovers from the African continent don’t make it to the annual African Book Festival in Berlin. One is that they don’t have money to travel and the other is that the visa required to enter Germany is denied to them by the authorities.

The African Book Festival would like to change this with your support, to enable book clubs from Africa to participate in the African Book Festival 2025. We would like to support selected book clubs from the continent by guaranteeing the entry and exit of all their members into Germany. We believe that travelling to foreign countries should not be a European privilege and that an African passport should not be an issue to make traveling possible. We want to share Berlin and our hospitality. We view this as a unique opportunity for us, book lovers, to have a real exchange.

The process will be transparent and fair. All participants will have to go through an application and selection process with their book clubs and are selected by the African Book Festival Advisory Board. We then put them in contact with German book clubs to create new networks and friendships. Also, if you are a member of a German book club and would like to be part of this project, please get in touch with us.

The book club members will have to cover their travel and accommodation costs themselves, but we provide the respective clubs with lump sums to help members who have little money to enable them to have this valuable experience of travelling to Berlin and participating in the largest European festival for African literature.

We will keep you regularly informed about the progress of the campaign. After the African Book Festival in July, we will share the impressions and experiences of the participants so that you can see what difference your support has made.

Be part of this movement! Every donation helps to spread knowledge and stories. Together we bring literature to where it moves the most. 

Donate now and let words travel!