short bio

Dzekashu MacViban is a Cameroonian writer, curator, editor and publisher based in Berlin. He is the founder of Bakwa, an organisation that supports African creatives through publishing, audio and translation projects. His curatorial practice takes Indigenous epistemologies, linguistic disobedience and Afro-diasporic discourse as points of departure, exploring the politics of identity, spatiality and individual and collective histories. He is currently curator of Literature and Oralture Practices at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin.

Long bio

Dzekashu MacViban is a Cameroonian writer, editor, curator and publisher based in Berlin. He is the founder of Bakwa, an organisation that empowers African creatives through multimedia publishing, audio and translation projects through Bakwa Books and Bakwa Magazine. He is the editor of Of Passion and Ink: New Voices from Cameroon and co-editor of Limbe to Lagos: Nonfiction from Cameroon and Nigeria and Your Feet Will Lead You Where Your Heart Is.

Taking Indigenous epistemologies, linguistic disobedience and Afro-diasporic discourse as points of departure, his curatorial practice investigates the politics of identity and spatiality, and how these are linked to individual and collective histories. His practice moves between contemporary art, literature, publishing and research, often using interdisciplinary formats to bring different forms of knowledge and cultural production into conversation.

Among others, he has curated Contexts 2026, the 12th Festival of Ephemeral Art in Sokołowsko, alongside Marta Czyż; Kokende Liboso Eza Kokomate: On Contiguous Narratives and Poetic Cosmologies at the Académie des Beaux-Arts and Institut Français in Kinshasa (2025); co-curated Surreal Continuum: Revisiting, Remapping, Reimagining Surrealism at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2025); co-curated Almost Blind: Chile 1973–2023at HKW (2023); curated Pitch Poetics: Football Commentary as Oralture within Ballet of the Masses: On Football and Catharsis at HKW (2024); co-curated Middle Ground: Interactions, Transactions, and Reciprocities at HKW (2023, 2024, 2025); and curated You Have A Fullness You Need To Bring Out at Akademie Schloss Solitude (2021). He is also co-curator of the forthcoming exhibition Those Who Move Through Matter at Bardo Projektraum, Berlin (2026).

His essays and nonfiction have appeared in The Ann Arbor Review of Books, The Africa Report, OkayAfrica and IDG Connect, among others, while his short stories have appeared in Wasafiri, Kwani? and Jungle Jim. His work has been translated into German, French, Japanese and Spanish. He is a recipient of fellowships from Akademie Schloss Solitude and the Valie Export Centre, and is currently curator of Literature and Oralture Practices at Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin.