HIBAF 2021 - First Edition

The central theme of the 1st edition of the Hausa International Book and Arts Festival (HIBAF) 2021 was 'Spaces'.

This edition explored the spaces in between; spaces of origin of people and language; spaces of being and becoming; spaces of our stories; the multiplicity of spaces of our humanity; how we embrace the layers of spaces within our identities in literature and creativity.

In 2021 we explored the origins of Hausa literary spaces; conversed and discussed notions of gender, identity, culture, and politics. We acknowledged that Spaces are governed by cultural stereotypes, conventions, customs, clothing, and literature, that the aim of HIBAF is to associate the fictional space with the practical space using language as a code to model space, define it and arrange it, to create safe spaces that allow for creative risk, a space for the delivery, performance and reawakening of literature.

The 1st edition of Hausa International Book and Arts Festival was a healing space for Hausa readers and writers, an introspective space, a space fully saturated in Hausa stories, poems, performances, a hybrid of virtual and physical engagements from October 21 to October 23, 2021 in Kaduna, Nigeria.