The inaugural congress of the World Organization of Writers (WOW) will be held in Abuja, Nigeria, by the Pan-African Writers Association (PAWA) in collaboration with the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA).
Writers from all over the world will come together for the congress, which is set to take place in the ANA Writers Village in the Mpape hills, in Abuja from April 4–6, 2024.
After writers without Afro-European or Asian ancestry begged to join the club, WOW, the organization formerly known as Afro-Euro-Asia Organization, was created in 2023.
The main focus of WOW’s goals, which include deploying writers to promote world peace and providing a forum for writers to discuss international disputes, is its tagline, “We Are People of the Same Planet.”
While not a member of PAWA, Hon. Dr. Wale Okediran, Secretary General, said that Nigeria was given the opportunity to host the event before he was awarded the organization’s Most Outstanding Writer for the Year 2023 honor.
“Having the honor of hosting the organization’s next gathering is one of the award’s advantages.
“With WOW, we are working together to hold its first congress in Abuja, Nigeria. It was mandated to PAWA to host that congress. I made the choice to give the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Nigeria the hosting rights because, after searching all of Africa, I couldn’t find a nation with the resources that ANA possesses and the quantity of writers that Nigeria has. Okediran stated, “For this reason, I felt it was appropriate to hold that conference in Nigeria.”
Okediran, a well-known novelist, founder of the Ebedi Writers Residency in Ibadan, and a former member of the House of Representatives, assumed leadership of PAWA in 2020 following the passing of Atukwei Okai, the organization’s Secretary General for 28 years.
The 52 national writers’ associations on the African continent are members of PAWA, an umbrella group for all African Writers Associations. It was founded in 1989 by the old Organization of African Union (now African Union) as an organ that tends to African literature and culture. Ghana is home to its main office.