The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in the Northern Cape will be hosting the 8th Annual Writers Festival from the 18th – 21st October 2016. The aim of the Writers Festival is to provide a platform to showcase African writings as well as local published authors and promote the material to the broader public.

The festival will, therefore, not only add impetus to our drive to inculcate the culture of reading but is also set to encourage the culture of writing. Throughout this festival, a synergy of aspiring writers, published writers and publishing houses will be forged.

This year Northern Cape authors and poets will once again converge to share their writing skills and expertise during the 8th Northern Cape Provincial Writer's Festival in Kimberley under the theme “Our Roots in Words, Stories that speak to the South Africa Soul”.

A number of acclaimed writers and academics in the country will make presentations and participate in panel discussions on how to promote the culture of reading and writing and the current challenges faced by local writers and authors throughout the duration of the festival. Among the authors associated with the festival this year are Dr Brian Willan (UK), Professor Thapelo Otlogetswe (University of Botswana), Professor Gertrude Fester, Sabata Mpho Mokae, Rickey Groenewald, Mark Kotze, June Mokoka and many others.

The writers’ festival will start with the annual Sol Plaatje Lecture which will be delivered by Dr. Brian Willan from the United Kingdom on Tuesday 18 October 2016 at the University of Sol Plaatje Lecture Hall at 18h00.

The official opening ceremony will be held at the Northern Cape Theatre on Wednesday, 19 October 2016 at 9h00 where the MEC for Sport, Arts and Culture  Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba will deliver the keynote address.

One of key and milestone events at the 2016 Writers festival will be the launch of the re-print of Sol Plaatje’s book titled Native Life – Hundred years later at the Sol Plaatje Museum at 17h00 on the 19th October 2016.

Native Life in SA was written as a result of Plaatje’s voyage across different provinces, where he consulted different communities in the Orange Free State, the Cape and the Transvaal about the impact of the Native Land Act of 1913 on their lives.

In his reflection of the plight of Africans in South Africa, Plaatje wrote: “Awakening on Friday morning, June 20, 1913, the South African Native Found himself, not actually a slave, but a pariah in the land of his birth.”

The festival will also feature book launches, round table discussions, creative writing workshops and children’s festival amongst others. Professor Thapelo Otlogetswe from University of Botswana will also collect host a session to collect vocabulary for a new Setswana Dictionary.

Annual Lecture, Round Table Discussions, Creative Writing Workshops, Book Launches as well as Children's Festival amongst othersThe media is hereby cordially invited to all the writers’ festival programmes and more specifically to the Sol Plaatje Annual Lecture on the 18 October and the official opening of the Annual Writers Festival of the 19th October and the launch of the reprint of Sol Plaatje Book Native Life is South Africa.

Enquiries:
Conrad Fortune
Media Liaison Officer: Office of the MEC of Sport, Arts and Culture
Tel: 053 831 4152
Cell: 079 873 0679