Human Rights Day Colloquium
Date: 21 March, 2009
Venue: BAT Centre, Durban
This Human Rights Day colloquium will assess writing by women principally in South Africa. The dialogue is essentially among women of letters in South Africa and their counterparts mainly in the region.
As we celebrate Human Rights Day there are glaring areas of our national life that remain inadequately addressed – among them, the status of women in South african society since independence. A barometer by which to gauge whether there has been significant progress in promoting women’s rights is the extent to which there has been significant progress in writing by women. Writing by women indicates whether society is succeeding in “breaking the silence” and freeing spaces – the older writers are a particularly useful yardstick in this regard – and thus giving voice to womanist issues. What is the state of contemporary women writing in South Africa? What are their concerns and how well do writers reflect these concerns?
Related to giving voice to women writers continentally, a major project got underway in the early 1990s under the auspices of the Feminist Press. Titled “Women Writing Africa”, it sought to unveil African women writers since antiquity. The project leaned more towards literary history, however, than towards contemporary literary production (both criticism and creativity). What it did not address were strategies to influence the canon in educational establishments and to promote emerging women writers. What is the state of contemporary women writing in Southern Africa? What changes if any have occured in the canon? What strategies need to be engaged to effect desired changes?
Co-Convenors:
Centre for African Literary Studies (CALS)
BAT Centre Trust
Encylopaedia of South African Arts, Culture and Heritage (ESAACH)
Draft Programme
08:30 – 09:15 Registration and tea with performances
09:15 – 09:30 Welcome and Background
9:30 – 10:30 Opening Address with Q & A
Nozizwe Madlala-Rutledge, Deputy Speaker, National Assembly
Facilitator: Nise Malange (BAT Centre)
10:30 – 11:00 Tea Break
11:00 – 12:00 Keynote Address with Q & A
Dr. Wangui wa Goro (Kenya)
Facilitator: Prof. Mbulelo Mzamane (CALS- UKZN)
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 14:00 Session 1
Women Writing Southern Africa
Prof. Pumla Gqola (SA), Dr. Joyce Sukumane (DAC), Dr. Leloba
Molema (Bostwana)
Facilitator: Prof . Lindy Stiebel (SA)
Tea Break
14:30 – 16:00 Session 2
Breaking the Silence
Dr. Sikose Mjali (SA), Mrs. Lauretta Ngcobo (SA), Mrs
Evelyn Lebona (Lesotho)
Facilitator: Mrs. Kay Raseroka (Botswana)
16:00 – 16:30 Way forward
Facilitator: Prof Mbulelo Mzamane
16:30 – 17:30 Exhibition opening with light snacks
