ABOUT

Pirogue is an ancient collective and language of here-ness as dance with the un-sayable, a memory of wind whirling the top-sand to expose roots and beetles beneath an arid surface of definition: culture, race, gender, generation. It is to this vein of nourishment that we are bound, and to this practice, alone. We lay claim to all ancestors, to dust and to tongue, to pirogue and to wing, to the solitary uniqueness of belonging to no-one and having no possessions as we trace the spectacular and brutal songs of mystery and a shared humanity.

Pirogue Collective implements the following mission through a series of annual publications, conferences and pedagogical workshops:

1. To support and improve conditions for artists living and working in Africa, although not exclusively,
2. To encourage long-term, sustained dialogue between African artists and writers and the rest of the world,
3. To share the opportunities of engaging with language as a possible approach in dealing with socio-economic issues of poverty, repression and violence.

Breyten Breytenbach is a poet, novelist, memoirist, essayist and artist. His books have been published in several languages and his paintings and drawings have been exhibited around the world. Born in South Africa, he left his country in 1959, eventually settling in Paris in the 60’s and became involved in the anti-apartheid movement. He is married to Yolande Ngo Thi Hoang Lien. From 1975 to 1983 he was imprisoned in South Africa for “political terrorism.” He is the Executive Director of the Gorée Institute in Senegal and teaches for part of the year in the Creative Writing Program at NYU, New York. Among his published works in English are: A Season in Paradise, Mouroir, The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist, End Papers, Return to Paradise, Memory of Snow and of Dust, The Memory of Birds in Times of Revolution, Lady One, Dog Heart, Windcatcher, Voice Over.

Charl-Pierre Naudé (South Africa) has had two volumes of Afrikaans poetry published: Die Nomadiese Oomblik (Publisher: Tafelberg, 1995) and In die geheim van die dag (Publisher: Protea,2005). The first received the Ingrid Jonker Prize in 1997. The second was awarded the M-Net Prize for Afrikaans Poetry in 2005 and the Protea Prize (no link to the publisher), in the same year. Naude's first English volume of poetry, Against the light, appeared late in 2007.

Jill Schoolman is the founder of Archipelago Books, a non-profit press devoted to classic and contemporary international literature. (www.archipelagobooks.org)

Adam Wiedewitsch is the Coordinating Editor of Pirogue Collective and an Imagine Africa Cultural Fellow at the Gorée Institute in Senegal where he served as Programs Officer. He is currently at work on his first volume of poems.

Gabeba Baderoon
Annette Badenhorst
Russell Carmony
Frank Cuypers
Nicolette du Plessis
DW Gibson
Peter Holvoet-Hanssen
Ishion Hutchinson
Janine Joseph
Yusef Komunyakaa
Abdellatif Laabi
Todd Lester
Bruce Morrow
Valzhyna Mort
Henning Pieterse
Joachim Sartorius
Solmaz Sharif
Jan Willem Schrofer
Els van der Plas
Hans van de Waarsenburg
Mike van Graan
Laurens van Krevelen
Eben Venter
R.A. Villanueva
Chuck Wachtel

The Eva Tas Foundation promotes contemporary poetry, as the poetry is an essence of life: Having in mind the universal meaning of poetry expression, the Edition would be promoting perpetual values. Furthermore, in ever-growing tendencies of connectivity between languages and cultures, poetry plays a very important roles as a representation of "local" and a bond with the "universal" perception of art as such. 

Gorée Institute is a Pan African civil society organisation dedicated to the promotion of peaceful, self-reliant, and open societies in Africa through the elaboration of new paradigms, the strengthening of networks, of institutions and of people, the optimisation of the continent's “creative” human and cultural potential and its financial resources.

Gorée Center for Electoral Processes is situated within the Gorée Institute’s Programs Department and was created to provide a space for training, sharing experiences, analyses and proposals that seek to strengthen democracy through elections that respect the norms and standards adopted by African and International decision-making bodies. Electoral Processes and the strengthening of democracy are the first strategic choice of Gorée Institute in its 2009-2012 strategic document.

Imagine Africa is a campaign organised by the Strømme Foundation in Norway in partnership with the Gorée Institute located on Gorée Island in Dakar, Senegal. The campaign is based on the ARTerial Network. The aim is to constitute a global initiative for promoting and strengthening African arts and reasoning.

Island Position is the imprint of Pirogue Collective and publishes the Imagine Africa yearbook in one major European language with the commitment to further publish editions in the major African languages.