A team of Science Fiction fans have announced their attention to bring Worldcon, the world’s longest running international Science Fiction Convention, to Uganda, Africa. Kampcon is a bid to bring the reknowned convention to Kampala, Uganda’s capital city. Worldcon has been around since 1939 and is known for arranging The Hugo Awards, a high-profile award for good science fiction, voted for by extremely dedicated fans.

If successful, it may be the first time in the convention has ever been to the continent of Africa. The bid chair is Kabunga Micheal, an author, industrial artist and science-fiction fan. Other members of the bid committee includes the film director Anita Nannozi Sseruwagi.

The aim of the bid is to empower local artists and increase international awareness of Uganda’s contribution to world science fiction. The bid has not announced an exact location as yet, as it is very early days. Kampala has a plethora of possible sites.

As the name suggests, Worldcon travels the world. This year’s Worldcon will be in Chicago for the eighth time, and it is coming to China for the first time in 2023, specifically Chengdu. This convention has been dominated by North American fans since it’s inception, though that is finally starting to change as the international appeal of Science Fiction becomes increasingly more pronounced.

Worldcon bids can take very long time to realise, and this is only the very start of Uganda’s journey. At the time of writing, the bid is unopposed, but this will likely change over time as most bids for Worldcon are a race. Other currently unopposed Worldcon bids include Tel Aviv – Israel in 2027, Dublin – Ireland in 2029 and Texas, USA in 2031.

Another African bid does exist: PharaohCon is a Worldcon bid for 2026, and is for a Worldcon in Cairo, Egypt. This is a modified bid; the original bid was to host in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The team behind the Jeddah bid have re-named and relocated the planned event. If succesful, it will be the first African Worldcon.

A previous version of this news article erroneously identified a prominent Worldcon Bid veteran as someone involved with Kampcon as a committee / board member. We have since been informed this is incorrect, and while they were initially happy to offer advice they have since ceased to be involved with Kampcon in any capacity.

More information can be found on the Kampcon bid website.