The Macondo Literary Festival returns to Nairobi for its sixth edition, running September 18–20, 2026, under the theme Ink, Sea, Silence, a frame built around Africa’s histories, cultural memory, and the archives that colonial extraction has silenced. The theme and programme were launched on September 4 at Maktaba Kuu, the Kenya National Library Service, with a panel on the restitution of African heritage that set the tone for the questions the festival will spend three days sitting inside.

Hosted by Mutanu Kyany’a of African Digital Heritage, the launch panel took up the fact that an estimated 90–95% of African artefacts remain in Western museums and private collections, bringing together Kenyan poet, writer, and filmmaker Ngwatilo Mawiyoo and French art historian Bénédicte Savoy, co-author of the landmark 2018 Sarr-Savoy restitution report commissioned by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Macondo Book Society co-founder Anja Bengelstorff, who leads the festival alongside award-winning Kenyan novelist Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor, frames this year’s theme as an invitation to interrogate not only what has been silenced, but the ink itself — who has held the pen across the continent’s history, and who holds it now. “Africa’s story has been inscribed by many hands, not always in goodwill,” Bengelstorff said, describing this year’s sessions as an examination of how African writers are reclaiming authorship of their own becoming amid narratives that are being contested and rewritten at speed.

Over three days, the festival’s 2026 featured guests include Canadian novelist of Ghanaian heritage Esi Edugyan, Sudanese author Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin, Kenyan entomologist, artist, and naturalist Dino Martins, Nigerian writer and photographer Emmanuel Iduma, award-winning Botswana writer Lauri Kubuitsile, Réunion Island author Gaëlle Bélem, Egyptian writer Yasmine El Rashidi, Indian poet and novelist Meena Kandasamy, Iranian-American author Said Khatibi, Brazilian novelist Itamar Vieira Junior, Nigerian author Tochi Eze, and Indian/UAE-based author Deepak Unnikrishnan. They’re joined by a strong local lineup: Kiswahili literary prize winners Dominic Maina, Edwin Omindo, and Nicholas Ogal, alongside Kenyan artists and performers Rebian, Adam Chienjo, Dorphanage, and the musical collective Kevin Munyi & Friends.

The programme moves across literature, art, music, dance, and food, and is designed to be multilingual and accessible: authors will engage in French, Portuguese, English, Arabic, and Swahili, with eight sessions interpreted into Kenyan Sign Language and four livestreamed for audiences outside Kenya. Highlights include an exclusive screening of Mati Diop’s Dahomey (2024), on the return of 26 looted royal treasures from Paris to Benin; Scribes on Silent Waves, an interdisciplinary performance blending Rebian’s spoken word with Adam Chienjo’s dance; a live concert from Kevin Munyi and Friends with Mariam Akin, Checkmate Mido, and Steve the Saxophonist, alongside courtyard soundscapes curated by Kiori Mburathi; and a run of specialized masterclasses on children’s stories, nature writing, protest writing, and write-to-destroy techniques.

Full programme details are available on the festival page, press materials can be found in the press kit, and tickets are available via KenyaBuzz.