The Mpala Artists and Writers Residency is fully funded through a gift from Tracy Higgins ’86 P25, Professor of Law at Fordham University, and James Leitner S’86.
By Adedamola Jones Adedayo
The Africa World Initiative (AWI) at Princeton University has announced the inaugural fellows of the 2026 Mpala Artists and Writers Residency, selecting Kenyan writer and poet, Frank Njugi, as its first Writer Fellow and Ugandan visual artist, Elizabeth Kobusinge, as its inaugural Visual Artist Fellow.
The residency, established to create space for East African artists and writers whose practices engage with the region’s histories, cultures, environments, and lived experiences, will bring Njugi and Kobusinge into a multidisciplinary creative and intellectual environment at the Mpala Research Centre in Kenya.
Based in Nairobi, Njugi is a writer, poet, cultural journalist, critic, and editor. His work has appeared across literary and cultural publications in Africa and internationally. His writing frequently explores youth, memory, urban experience, and social transformation, with a particular interest in the ways contemporary East African experiences intersect with questions of identity and place.
A Pushcart Prize nominee and recipient of several emerging writer distinctions, he until recently served as the East African Correspondent for Afrocritik. His chapbook, Ujana, has also received praise for its exploration of youth, place, and selfhood in contemporary East Africa.
Kobusinge, meanwhile, is a Kampala-based visual artist whose multidisciplinary practice examines the materiality of memory and the rituals through which it is preserved. Working with handmade paper, natural dyes, installation, video, and printmaking, she has developed an artistic language rooted in rituals of remembrance. Her work has been exhibited in Africa and Europe, with her artistic practice taking her through residencies and collaborative projects in Uganda, South Africa, Colombia, and elsewhere.
The Mpala Artists and Writers Residency was established by the Africa World Initiative in partnership with Princeton University’s Office of the Vice Provost for International Affairs and the Mpala Research Centre in Kenya. The programme is also supported by partnerships with the GoDown Arts Centre and the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI), two leading Kenyan cultural institutions. Through these collaborations, the residency will provide opportunities for public engagement, exhibitions, readings, and intellectual exchange, positioning artistic and literary practice alongside scientific and scholarly inquiry.
“Mpala has long been an extraordinary place for scientific discovery, and we also want it to be a place where different disciplines and ways of understanding the world come together,” said Aly Kassam-Remtula, Vice Provost for International Affairs, Princeton University. “Science helps us understand how landscapes and ecosystems function; art and literature can help us to see those same landscapes through the lenses of history, culture, memory, and lived experience. This residency advances our larger goal of broadening the intellectual community at Mpala while creating meaningful opportunities for East African scientists, scholars, writers, and artists to shape the questions we ask and the knowledge we produce.”
“The Mpala Residency, for which we are grateful to our donors and Kenyan partners, exemplifies our commitment to innovative approaches that foster direct and meaningful engagement with knowledge production on the African continent,” said Chika Okeke-Agulu, Director of the Africa World Initiative at Princeton University.
The inaugural fellows were selected by two committees comprising writers, scholars, artists, and cultural practitioners from Africa and beyond.
The Writer Selection Committee had Wendy Laura Belcher, Professor and Chair of Princeton University’s Department of Comparative Literature; acclaimed Kenyan novelist and writer Yvonne Adhiambo Owuor; Lancaster University writer Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi; and Akin Adesokan, writer and Professor of Comparative Studies and Media Studies at Indiana University Bloomington.
The Visual Artist Selection Committee comprised artist and Addis Fine Art founder Robel Temesgen; artist and Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute founder Michael Armitage; Anna Arabindan-Kesson, Associate Professor of Art History at Princeton University; and Portia Malatjie, Senior Lecturer at the Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town and former curator at Johannesburg Art Gallery.
The residency is fully funded through a gift from Tracy Higgins ’86 P25, Professor of Law at Fordham University, and James Leitner S’86. Their support established the fellowship and is intended to create new opportunities for creative and intellectual exchange between Princeton University, East Africa, and the wider global community.