Africa’s literature is one of the world’s oldest, transcending from stories told around the fire at night to the finest of the written word. With the world’s youngest population and their outstanding exploits over the decades, it was imperative to have a dedicated platform to showcase and celebrate these talented youths. And so, in 2019, our founder, Bronwyn Bowles-King, birthed the idea of the Journal of African Youth Literature (JAY Lit) and we have not looked back ever since.

JAY Lit publishes literature written by, about, and/or for born-in-Africa youths. Our definition of ‘African’ is not related to colour, race or ethnicity, but rather place of origin and heritage. The youth age category is from 15 to 35 years. We publish literature written by Africans in this age category and by other older individuals who are writing with African youths in mind, whether the writers are resident on the continent or in the diaspora.

We have a multilingual approach, publishing work written in any of our countless traditional tongues or in the colonial English, French, or Portuguese. We are proud to be at the forefront of championing the young ones who are staking their claims at literary superstardom, as well as celebrating an older generation that has inspired today’s youth.

The Journal is a non-profit project run mostly by volunteers for the love of African youth expressions and creative energy. We use the hashtag #AfricanStoriesMatter, and our motto is Preserving African Youth Identities, which we do through publishing artistic expressions by youths.

One of our primary aims is to promote Pan-Africanism among a new generation of African peoples who want to make a decisive break from the often-painful histories of Africa. We mourn the past, learning from the mistakes, but, most importantly, we move on and join together to create a better future for the children of Africa everywhere.

JAY Lit is open access under the Creative Commons License: Attribution – Non Commercial – No Derivs (CC BY-NC-ND). If you are interested in the work of any of our authors, please contact us at enquiries@jaylit.com. Alternatively, if the author has shared their contact details in the Journal, you may contact them directly.

We remain dedicated to publishing work in indigenous African languages and in a varied number of art forms, but that is not all we want to do. We are all about inspiring young Africans to be more, so we are also happy to showcase exemplary Africans and beautiful African sceneries through our “Africa in Pictures” page, as a means of inspiration and motivation. As well, we are dedicated to sharing opportunities that young Africans can take advantage of, while doing our best to reward excellence in our own little way!

You can support our work by clicking the donate button on the top right of the page.

Come along with us. Let’s go inspire a generation together!