The 14th Time of Writer festival recently hosted by UKZN’s Centre for Creative Arts at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre saw twenty one award winning writers engaging in literary discussion over a period of a week. The festival theme for this year was Freedom of Expression. The festival featured a series of events for writers to partake in such as visiting schools and workshops to encourage the youth to write and read books. The star studded line-up for this year featured writers such as Njabulo Ndebele(South Africa), Sarah Nuttall(South Africa), Boubacar Boris Diop(Senegal), Raj Patel(United Kingdom), Torsten Schulz(Germany) and many more from across the globe.
The festival lived up to its reputation: the theme, Freedom of Expression, was a burning discussion point as writers and the audience engaged in stimulating topics during the course of the festival. The festival encourages the youth from Durban and surrounds to write and read books, especially school children. To this end, each year an award for best Short Story is presented by the Time of Writer organisers and sponsors to foster creative capacity in this genre. This year’s Time of the Writer Short Story Award went to Noxolo Malimba for her short story “Muti Noir”. The young writer was delighted to receive the award.
The festival also allows writers to launch their books. Well known Durban based cartoonist for Isolezwe newspaper, Qaps Mngadi, officially launched his debut book Impilo eMzansi: Life in South Africa during the week.
The 14th edition of the festival came to an end on a cool Saturday night with two thought provoking sessions entitled ‘The Pen as a Weapon Against War’ and ‘Re-Inventing Memory Through Literature’. The closing night began with the Durban based Maskandi musician, Nkashnkash Ngcobo, who entertained the audience with his unique skills in playing a guitar. The first panel of writers on closing night comprised Torsten Schulz(Germany) and Boubacar Boris Diop(Senegal), with discussion facilitated by Professor Lindy Stiebel of KZN Literary Tourism. The two writers talked about using a pen as a tool to fight wars in the world. They also compared the pen with visual communication in terms of effectiveness. The writers shared some of their personal experiences which informed their writing and how wars have changed their lives. The two writers both agree that visual media is gaining ground as a tool to fight wars, together with the impact of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube which recently kept people informed as to what was happening in the Egypt uprising.
The closing panel of South African writers comprised of Ettiene van Heerden and the outspoken Chris van Wyk. The session was facilitated by Njabulo Ndebele. They spoke on a light yet serious topic, Re-Inventing Memory Through Literature. The two writers emphasized the importance of writing about their personal history and culture and thus in making sure they preserve it.
The Time of the Writer 2011 was made possible by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (principal funder), the Department of Arts and Culture, City of Durban, the French Institute of South Africa, Humanist Institute for Development Cooperation(HIVOS), National Arts Council, Adams Campus Books, Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
