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The 26th edition of the Time of the Writer festival presented by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal closed last week. The 6-day event presented more than 100 wordsmiths in a hybrid festival packed with both live and online events. In March 2020 the Time of the Writer festival was the first South African cultural event to venture into the online space to sustain its brand and programming during the Covid national lockdowns.
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During the almost two-and-a-half-year shutdown live events in the cultural sector and the livelihoods of artists were severely affected by a complete lack of visionary support from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. Funds from the President’s Emergency Support Programme (PESP) were maladministered.
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During the almost two-and-a-half-year shutdown live events in the cultural sector and the livelihoods of artists were severely affected by a complete lack of visionary support from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. Funds from the President’s Emergency Support Programme (PESP) were maladministered. A 60-day occupation of the offices of the National Arts Council by artists was led by opera singer Sibongile Mngoma. The cultural and creative sector in South Africa breathed a huge sigh of relief when Nathi Mthethwa was eventually removed as the minister of sport, arts and culture during Cyril Ramaphosa’s much awaited cabinet reshuffle.
At the Time of the Writer festival Mthethwa was referenced as “Mr Flag” – an ill-fated name that will probably mark his failed legacy and the national outcry that arose when he announced plans to erect a 100 m flag that would have cost R22 million and which he intended to keep lit 24 hours a day. Obviously Mthethwa hadn’t been reading the news to have known about the Eskom debacle and neither had he been reading the increasingly growing angry mood of a nation that had become gatvol of government’s vanity projects.
The Time of the Writer festival tried to make sense of the political, economic and leadership crises in South Africa as well read the mood of the nation. Political commentator Ebrahim Fakir was in conversation with Kyle Cowen, author of Sabotage: Eskom under siege, which is based on exclusive interviews with De Ruyter, Oberholzer and other key figures who are newsmakers in the story of conspiracy and fraud at South Africa’s ailing power utility.
Fakir also moderated a discussion with Sihle Khumalo about his latest book, Milk the beloved country. Khumalo’s reflections on the past and his pondering about the future of South Africa as a captivating yet complex country were both entertaining and insightful. His book delves into the history of the names given to our towns and cities (from Graaff-Reinet to Schweizer-Reneke to Zastron) and in the process raises issues we might yet have to interrogate.
Fakir’s colleague from the Awwal Socio-Economic Research Institute (ASRI), Angelo Fick, moderated discussions with authors Ziyanda Stuurman, Zikhona Valela and Christopher McMichael in a session that unpacked the complex and fraught history of policing, courts and prisons in South Africa as well as the complex politics of security, crime and social control in South Africa. Fick also moderated a discussion with authors Luvano Ntuli, Abby May and Zen Mathe about their book The unaccountables, which skilfully profiles the large corporations and private individuals implicated in economic crime but who have never been held accountable.
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The festival was curated by four young graduates who are on an Emerging Arts Managers internship at the Centre for Creative Arts – Sibahle Khwela (DUT), Nolwazi Nene (UCT), Nomthandazo Shandu (DUT) and Scout Fynn (Market Theatre Laboratory) – members of a born-free generation of arts curators. Their artistic vision loudly amplified the fact that South African youth are deeply concerned about the 1994 Rainbow Nation dream that has been both corrupted and deferred.
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The festival was curated by four young graduates who are on an Emerging Arts Managers internship at the Centre for Creative Arts – Sibahle Khwela (DUT), Nolwazi Nene (UCT), Nomthandazo Shandu (DUT) and Scout Fynn (Market Theatre Laboratory) – members of a born-free generation of arts curators. Their artistic vision loudly amplified the fact that South African youth are deeply concerned about the 1994 Rainbow Nation dream that has been both corrupted and deferred.
A discussion about how cultural memory can be reimagined was tackled in an online and live-streamed conversation facilitated by Hombakazi Mercy Nqandeka with Sipho Sithole, the author of Maye! Maye! The history and heritage of Kwa Mai Mai Market. Sithole told the story of a culture of Johannesburg’s inner-city traders who left their rural villages to let themselves lose themselves in the concrete jungle that knows no mercy.
In a session dealing with books on sport and politics, academic Goolam Vahed engaged in discussion with Buntu Siwisa and Saleem Badat. Siwisa’s book is on Daniel Dumile Qeqe (1929–2005), “Baas Dan”, or “DDQ”, and titled Rugby, resistance and politics: how Dan Qeqe helped shape the history of Port Elizabeth; Badat’s book is titled Tennis, apartheid and social justice: the first non-racial international tennis tour, 1971. The duo offered engaging insights on how sport can influence diplomatic, social and political relations.
Writing through grief came under the spotlight with authors Kumi Naidoo, Yewande Omotoso, Henry Blumberg and Bruce J Little. Naidoo’s mother committed suicide when he was only 15 years old, and he penned his story in his memoirs. Omotoso released a profound and beautiful story about a mother losing her daughter. In a gripping memoir about his son’s suicide, Blumberg searches, not only in the clues his son left behind, but also further back and further beyond – in South Africa, where his own childhood was scarred by apartheid and shadowed by mental illness, and in Latvia, where his family was massacred. Little wrote a book that is guiding young children in how to deal with grief. The authors’ exchanges were empathetically and skilfully moderated by journalist Tracey Saunders.
A session that could have continued all night long was one on the South African contemporary dating scene which featured authors Dudu Busani Dube, Lebohang Masango and Thabile Shange in discussion facilitated by Sue Nyathi. The expert authors have all released books which explore romance and dating. They share their perspectives on how to navigate the modern dating scene in South Africa today. There was no shortage of active engagements with the packed audience.
The successful festival opened with the 2023 Featured Author, Dr Sindiwe Magona. The octogenarian will be celebrated in April in the USA when Georgia University hosts a conference in her honour. Magona has a remarkable ability to connect with audiences young and old. She is forthright and unusually entertaining. The festival also featured an excellent webinar on Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison, convened by Wits University’s Centre for the Study of the US. The webinar was followed by a staged reading of some of Morrison’s writings directed by Nondumiso Masimanga. Fred Khumalo, Niq Mhlongo, Zukiswa Wanner and Siphiwo Mahala were among several of the festival favourites captured on social media signing autographed books for young readers.
If there was one thing that Time of the Writer did absolutely spot on this year it was to engage a generation of born-frees to curate the programme and to pull in over a thousand other born-frees to read books, buy books and critically engage with South African literature, and also to give them a voice at the festival. On Tuesday, 21 March –South Africa’s Human Rights Day and Unesco’s International Poetry Day – the festival ended on a high note with an open mic spoken word poetry session.
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If Eskom and corruption seem to take up the headspace of most adults in South Africa there’s a lot more that takes up the headspaces of born-free South Africans. This year’s festival, with its theme Placemaking: influence, roots, expression & imagination, was a dynamic platform for critical reflection and engagement.
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If Eskom and corruption seem to take up the headspace of most adults in South Africa there’s a lot more that takes up the headspaces of born-free South Africans. This year’s festival, with its theme Placemaking: influence, roots, expression & imagination, was a dynamic platform for critical reflection and engagement.
The 27th edition of the Time of the Writer festival will take place from 14 to 21 March 2024. The theme will be Narrative power: re-ignited, revitalised & re-imagined. It’s absolutely clear that the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal believes that leadership and direction for South Africa’s political, economic, cultural and social future will be made far safer and engagingly more vigilant and optimistic if it was left to a generation of born-frees to curate it!
Also read:
Persverklaring: Solidariteit met die sitstaking van kunstenaars in die NAC-kantore