Farafina Trust is a non-profit organization established to promote reading, writing, and a culture of social introspection and engagement through the literary arts. We believe that development is not possible without a coherent understanding of the dynamics of our societies, which literature and the arts can help grasp.
Our trustees are Uzodinma Iweala, author of Beast of No Nation, Jide Bello, legal practitioner in Lagos, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, author of Half of a Yellow Sun, and Muhtar Bakare of Kachifo Limited. Our patrons are Gbolly Balogun, Funmi Iyanda and Louis Edozien.
Farafina Trust is presently structured around five sustainable programs:
- The literary Skills Enhancement Programme: This consists of intensive creative and / or editors’ workshops that will be organized every year for the next three years. These workshops will be run by established editors and writers and aim to impart editing and writing skills to selected attendees
Farafina Trust has secured three years’ sponsorship for the creative writing workshop from Nigerian Breweries Plc, a subsidiary of the Heineken Group, a major producer of alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages. The maiden edition of our creative writing workshop took place in September 2009 and was facilitated by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Farafina Trust has also secured sponsorship for the first editors’ workshop from TrustAfrica, an independent grant-giving organisation based in Senegal. This workshop is billed for March 2010.
- The Public Schools Library/Book Programme: Farafina Trust will raise funds to donate books and equip public schools’ libraries all over Nigeria. The books to be donated will be published in Nigeria. We are presently seeking corporate sponsorship for this programme.
- The Editors’ Exchange Programme: This is designed to bring established editors from international publications to work in Nigerian publishing houses for 1-2 months, and to send promising Nigerian editors to publications abroad in exchange. The aim of the programme is skills and knowledge transfer. We are presently seeking partnership from international publications like Granta.
- The Online Literary platform: The aim is to develop an online forum where young African writers can engage with each other and more established writers to discuss the art of writing and other issues that relate to the development of writing skills. Farafina Trust has begun discussions with the Soros Foundation.
- Publication and Circulation of Farafina Magazine: Farafina magazine is a general interest magazine published by Kachifo Limited online from 2004 and in print from 2005 until the indefinite suspension of the publication in September 2009. The foremost reason for this suspension was the financial unsustainability of the magazine, exacerbated by the prevailing economic climate. Farafina Trust now proposes to resume publication of Farafina magazine twice annually as a non-profit venture.
