Cecile Kyenge Kashetu, Italian Member of Parliament born in Congo and former Minister for Integration who has just published her first book entitled I dreamed of a road. Rights for all, will be interv...
Kossi Komla-Ebri
Born in Togo, Kossi Amékowoyoa Komla-Ebri is a medical surgeon and author who has lived in Italy since 1974. He has published several books and short story collections, including Neyla (the first African-Italian novel to be translated into English and published in the United States) and Imbarazzismi. He has also published short stories in several anthologies in Italy and France. His essays have appeared in several magazines. With the physician Aldo Lo Curto and Brazilian designer Ubiratan Porto, he is the author of African Illustrated Health Book which is distributed for free in many African villages for the spread of health care education among the local populations.
He has won several literary awards including first prize for creative prose at the third annual Eks&Tra competition, in 1997, with the short story Quando attraverserò il fiume (When I’ll cross the river) based on African oral tradition. He received the Graphein award in 2009 by the Society of Pedagogy and Teaching of Writing. He currently attends as a speaker to conferences in Italy and abroad and as a lecturer to specialized courses on African issues, integration, inter-culture and literature of migration.
He is one of the founders and member of the editorial board of El Ghibli, an online magazine on migrant literature. He is also the founder and current president of REDANI (Rete della Diaspora Africana Nera in Italia or Network of Black African Diaspora in Italy).