JOHN RUSIMBI was recently elected as the President of the Pan-African Writers Association (PAWA), an umbrella body of writers’ associations on the African continent and the diaspora.

To him, his election means that different African writers have confidence in Rwanda and that PAWA can now mobilize them to visit the country, see for themselves what happened, understand where it came from and where it is going.

"That will be a great benefit for Rwanda especially at this time when it is being accused falsely about its involvement in conflicts with neighbouring countries. They will come and understand the true situation, the real facts and perhaps write about it,” he said.

Prior to being elected as the president of PAWA, Rusimbi has been the President of National Youth Council and the first representative of youth in the Rwandan Parliament. He has also worked with different civil society organisations across the country.

He is currently an independent consultant and an author with four published books.

Rusimbi released his first novel "By The Time She Returned" in 1994 when he was about to come back to Rwanda from exile in Uganda. The novel tackles his experience as a refugee and the need to stop the situation.

When he returned to Rwanda, he released another book called "The Hyena’s Wedding” which he describes as "a critic of the regime that perpetrated Genocide against the Tutsi in 1994.”

In 2014, Rusimbi was the president of Rwandan authors and by then, he started engaging with different African writers across the continent.

In 2016, he was invited to Ghana, where the Secretariat of PAWA is located, and was elected to be the Vice-President, representing Central Africa which Rwanda was part of.

In July 2020, he was elected as the Interim President of the body and his role was to organise a continental General Assembly of African writers so that the body could elect a committee.

The meeting happened in the last week of June 2022, and was attended by representatives from 40 African countries and that is where he was elected as the president of the body.

PAWA’s engagement and plans

According to Rusimbi, PAWA is advocating for African writers to be at the centre of government policies so that national programs can take effect to support or train young writers, link them to publishers across the continent and help them have their works published.

"There are so many writers who do not have funds and aren’t yet known. We will advocate for them so that a system to help them get published can be put into place. That will encourage other young authors to come up," he said.

He noted that for writers to be admitted to PAWA, they have to first organise themselves in national associations and present their published literary works (prose or poetry).

According to him, one of the challenges local authors face is low income where they have to find other jobs that sustain daily necessities.

He revealed that the association is trying to address the issue of insufficient funds given that it is currently being solely funded by the Ghanaian government.

"Our role is to inform and request various governments in Africa to contribute to PAWA, but without forgetting the national associations because they are also struggling while they are the ones to strengthen the continental body," he said.

When asked why Rwandan writers are not seen winning literary prizes or even getting shortlisted for them, he said that most of them don't even have information about the prizes which leads to low participation.

"I am now able to get information and send it to authors in Rwanda so that they can try their chances," he continued, that PAWA is also planning to host a writers’ residency where young writers can come, get orientation and have time to polish and finish their works.

On that, he revealed that they seek to work with different governments and development partners.

Promoting authors who write in vernacular is PAWA’s responsibility since that complies with the philosophy of Pan Africanism, said Rusimbi.

He added: "Africans can write in the language they are comfortable with. Those writing in foreign languages have to make sure they reflect African culture and values. We really promote writing in vernacular and if the author targets a large market, the book can be translated," he said.

Rusimbi also urged the ones in charge of the national curriculum to use available books by local authors as learning materials before considering those from outside. 

"There is need for people to trust their people,” he continued. "There is still that feeling that what comes from outside is much better than what is developed within. That’ll be careless of us to think that we do not have the capacity.”

Other members of the newly elected council of PAWA include Secretary General Dr Wale Okediran from Nigeria, Vice President (East) Prof Egara Kabaji from Kenya, Vice President (West) Prof Koumealo Anate from Togo, Vice President (Central) Imela Oyono Anyigono from Equatorial Guinea, Vice President (South) Monica Mpambawashie from Zimbabwe and Vice President (North) Mustapha Hamadto from Sudan.