Exiled Lit Cafe

Tuesday 9th September 2025 at 7.15 pm

Breaking the Silence of Africa:

Exiled African Writers Speak Out

Magic Rainbow 1 by Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure https://chitendefineart.com/

David Chasumba – Jade Amoli Jackson – Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure

Discussion and Open Mic
Zimbabwean crafts for sale in the break

David Chasumba is a Zimbabwean Author and Poet. He has published two short story collections with Carnelian Heart Publishing: 2023 NAMA award winning, The Mad Man on First Street and Other Short Stories (2022) and Behind the Façade and Other Stories (2024). David’s poems have been published by Kalahari Review, Ipikai Poetry Journal, British Haiku Society anthology (2023), in Best “New” African Poets (2023) anthology and in MEN: An International Anthology of African and Latin American Writers, Volume 3 and in Zimbolicious 9 Anthology. David lives in Bexhill-on-Sea.

Jade Amoli Jackson was born in East Africa, studied journalism and worked as a sports reporter. After members of her family were killed and her own life was threatened, Jade was forced to flee and arrived in the UK in 2001. Her first collection is Moving a Country (2013), and she regularly recites her work in the UK which has included performing her work at Battersea Arts Centre and the Tate Galleries. She is a longstanding member of Freedom from Torture’s Write to Life group and performed in their play Souvenirs. She works as a volunteer at the Refugee Council.

Samantha Rumbidzai Vazhure is a bilingual award-winning poet, novelist, librettist, short story writer, translator and visual artist who grew up in Masvingo, Zimbabwe. She now resides in Wales. Her novel, Weeping Tomato, won National Arts Merit Award (NAMA) for Outstanding Fiction Book, in Zimbabwe in 2025. Her poetry collection, Starfish Blossoms (2022), won the NAMA for Outstanding Poetry Book, in 2023. Some of her poems appear in Ipikai Poetry Journal, Once Upon No Time an anthology published by Empoweress Press, and Tesserae: A mosaic of poems by Zimbabwean women published by Carnelian Heart. Her visual art appears in Writing Woman Anthology – An anthology of African Asian Writers and Artists Vol.3 published by Mwanaka Media and Publishing, and in Mother Nature by Zanna Zine. In 2020 Samantha established an independent press, Carnelian Heart Publishing, to amplify the voices of Zimbabwean writers and to democratise African literature. Samantha was voted African publisher of the year in 2023 by Brittle Paper as part of their Literary Person of the year Awards.

Mofiyinfoluwa O. is a Nigerian writer living in London. Her work is concerned with the interior of African womanhood; our conceptions of desire, spirit, self and embodiment. She is a graduate of The Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program. Her work has appeared in Guernica, Ploughshares, The Black Warrior Review, Pleiades and elsewhere. Her essays have received a Pushcart nomination and been selected as a Best American Essay Notable Entry (2022). She is the founder of The Abebi AfroNonficton Foundation; a literary body committed to championing nonfiction by African women. She is at work on her debut memoir interrogating the body and spirit’s relationship with desire and faith.

Tracy Ndovi is originally from Zimbabwe, but after coming to the UK she began a new life, gaining a Masters and a Doctorate in mental health. She is currently working with victims of domestic abuse and working in the NHS as a mental health practitioner. Of writing – she says, ‘It’s the foundation of all my desire to help people. Writing is still therapeutic for me; if I’m exhausted and angry with my work, if I put it in writing it soothes me. Writing makes me feel I’m where I want to be.’

Hosted by Handsen Chikowore, EWI committee member

49 Great Ormond Street
London WC1N 3HZ

Nearest tube stations: Holborn or Russell Square

£4 for 2025 Exiled Writers Ink Members
£6 for others
Book by Eventbrite or Cash only on the door
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/exiled-writers-ink-presents-breaking-the-silence-of-africa-africa-speaks-tickets-1631155583259?aff=oddtdtcreator&_gl