South African Festival of Children’s Literature: an interview with Darryl David

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Darryl David (photo provided)

Darryl David talks to Naomi Meyer about the SA Festival of Children’s Literature, taking place on 2–4 July 2021.

Link to the festival here.

Darryl, why did you organise a festival for the writers of youth literature?

With this festival, I wanted to honour the unloved writers. For writers of children’s literature are, in a sense, the unloved ones. They never get the credit they deserve.

.......

We have maybe 50 book festivals in South Africa, and this, the SA Festival of Children’s Literature, will be the first stand-alone festival for children’s literature. For writers of youth literature. They never get to win the Nobel Prize. They never get to win the richest literary prizes.

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We have maybe 50 book festivals in South Africa, and this, the SA Festival of Children’s Literature, will be the first stand-alone festival for children’s literature. For writers of youth literature. They never get to win the Nobel Prize. They never get to win the richest literary prizes.

Even at university, the genre of children’s literature is the poor stepsister of the literature studied in English and Afrikaans in the humanities. But, with the first SA Festival of Children’s Literature, the Cinderellas of the literary establishment are going to the ball.

I will say this with absolute confidence: this will be the most talked about book festival of 2021. Nothing else will come close.

And, with this festival, maybe my university, the Cinderella University, among the other two more famous sister Cape universities, will also get a chance to turn heads at the ball. For with this festival, the Faculty of Education at UWC hope to become leaders in the field of children’s literature.

My summation of the landscape is that we are all masters at teaching literature for grades 10 to 12. We all know how to teach Shakespeare. We all know how to teach To kill a mockingbird. But go lower down, and we all try to camouflage our ignorance with words like decolonialism, postcolonialism, gender, identity – words that are light years away from the vocabulary of a 10-year-old.

We are uneasy with what it means to teach literature in the foundation phase. We can’t speak with authority on teaching literature in the intermediate phase. We might know the prescribed texts, but beyond that, our libraries are barren. Maybe I should speak for myself. Maybe only I feel this way. Whatever the case, I plan to place children’s literature centre stage at UWC. And the engine room for this renaissance will be the SA Festival of Children’s Literature.

Do you also have a message for somebody else, other than the writers of children’s books?

And to the illustrators. Through this festival, we plan to teach children, and the children trapped in adult bodies – to love you, the unloved. We will create a platform just for you. We will foreground the authors who write books that teach children how to colour. How to hold a crayon. How to hold a pencil. We want all of you in this genre to know that you are loved.

You have organised a youth literature festival before, haven’t you? Is there a special memory which you would like to share?

One day, at the KZN Children’s Book Festival, while primary school children were waiting to enter the hall to listen to their favourite authors, a young boy, no taller than my leg, could not contain his excitement any longer. He caught hold of my leg, hugged me and said, “Dankie, Oom, vir wat jy vir ons doen.” Out of all the memories I have from my book festival years, that has to rank as the most special memory. I always wonder what happened to that beautiful soul. He must be close to matric now. I can only hope that he has never lost his love of books.

For whom did you organise this festival, in the end?

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With this festival, I know we can make a difference in the lives of children.

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With this festival, I know we can make a difference in the lives of children. To all the authors and illustrators of children’s literature: may a child one day grab hold of your leg because you changed their life with your words and illustrations, with your imagination. And if you have ever felt unloved in this industry, may you think back to the quote: “May we teach our children to love the unloved.” And take sustenance in the fact that you live in the palaces of students’ memories.

But there is a pandemic going on, Darryl! What is the programme of this festival, and where is it taking place?

Clarendon Primary School will be presented with the inaugural Story Book Schools Award on 2 July at approximately 9:15 am via Zoom. Schools can “attend” the festival on 2–4 July online. And it is absolutely free. For further details, please contact Darryl David on ddavid@uwc.ac.za or visit their Facebook page in the name of the festival.

Would you please provide more details on practicalities?

Naomi. It costs absolutely nothing. All you have to do is click on the link for the day’s programme. And enjoy the ride.

However, we would like to encourage people please to donate to Heartlands Baby Sanctuary. The festival was conceived to raise funds for Heartlands, voted the number one childcare facility in South Africa in 2020. It is sad that COVID rained on our parade. We had organised the perfect festival. Now, no candy floss for me.

Spookasem. What a beautiful Afrikaans word for candy floss.

Lastly, I want to announce the best kept secret. At the festival, we are going to announce a brand new award: the SA Children’s Laureate Award. This is an award for lifelong contribution to children’s literature. The recipients of the inaugural award, in no particular order, are:

  1. Niki Daly
  2. Sindiwe Magona 
  3. Philip de Vos
  4. Gcina Mhlophe

Here is the link to the programme, as provided by Darryl David. Click here to download the programme in PDF format.

Forever BookBedonnerd

Darryl David

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Kommentaar

  • Helene Pretorius

    As 'n ouer persoon, het hierdie zoom-aanbieding my in staat gestel om 'n ongelooflik inspirerende, leersame fees by te woon, wat ek nie andersinds sou kon bywoon nie. Dankie daarvoor!
    Al is ons weer eendag vry om te beweeg soos ons wou, sal ek so 'n fees NOG MINDER as tans kan bywoon!
    Asb hou aan met zoomuitsending.... stadig maar seker sal dit tegnologies al gladder en vlotter verloop...
    Moenie ons ouer persone uitskakel nie.... ZOOOOM!

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