Aminatta Forna Speaker Series

From human rights in Africa, to the importance of education for girls and boys, hear from one of contemporary Africa’s most important and perceptive chroniclers as she joins us to discuss her newest novel, The Memory of Love. Set in post-colonial Sierra Leone a few years after the civil war, The Memory of Love is a breathtaking view of modern Africa through the eyes of both insiders and outsiders who struggle to cope with the aftermath of a war waged against and among civilians. Forna’s novel depicts a deeply hopeful and universal story about love and human resilience. Aminatta Forna was raised in Sierra Leone and the United Kingdom and now divides her time between London and Sierra Leone. She is the author of a novel, Ancestor Stones, a memoir, The Devil that Danced on the Water and her newest novel, The Memory of Love. The tortuous events of Sierra Leone's history have dominated Forna's writing. She is the daughter of a former Sierra Leonean cabinet minister and dissident, murdered by the state in 1975. Forna has produced and presented several televison documentaries, most recently The Lost Libraries of Timbuktu for the BBC and her journalism has appeared in The Sunday Times, The Observer, Granta and Vogue, among others. In 2003, Forna helped build a primary school in her family's village of Rogbonko, where she is also working to establish a cashew plantation named Kholifa Estates after the fictional plantation in Ancestor Stones. Forna is a trustee of the Royal Literary Fund, sits on the advisory committee of the Caine Prize for African Writing and is a member of the International Museum of Women's Global Council.