The write associates, in partnership with the Department of Arts and Culture and the SABC will host a media conference to announce the 8th South African Literary Awards nominees and release the programme of the 2nd Africa Century International African Writers Conference, 8 October 2013, SABC Auditorium, Cnr. Artillery and Henley Roads, Auckland Park.
The Africa Century International African Writers Conference, a SALA legacy programme, will take place from 7 to 9 November 2013 at Museum Africa, Newtown Cultural Precinct, Newtown, Johannesburg. This three-day conference will culminate in the SALA 2013 Awards ceremony where winners will be honoured on 9 November 2013.
“We are delighted at the growth of these prestigious South African Literary Awards, as they have now spread their wings to incorporate the Africa Century International African Writers Conference and open up to the Continent and Diaspora’s writers,” said Raks Morakabe Seakhoa, Managing Director of the write associates and Project Director of the South African Literary Awards/Africa Century International African Writers Conference.
The conference has attracted tremendous interest from authors, literary scholars and historians as well as the public, who will share the stage in different aspects of the programme, including delivering keynote addresses, presentation of papers, poetry, book discussions, writing workshops, schools programme and exhibitions.
This prospective historical gathering of authors and literary scholars and historians will, as the then-OAU’s Conference of African Ministers of Education and Culture (meeting in Coutonou, Benin, in 1991) resolved, “…afford the African people a moment of pause within which to reflect on the contribution of African Writers to the development of the Continent”.
“This event will also mark the 22nd anniversary of the then-OAU (now-AU) declared International African Writers’ Day (i.e. 7 November). Theme of the 2nd Annual Africa Century International African Writers Conference: Dispossessed. Repossessed: Land Matters in African Letters.
The theme is a deliberate play on the interesting dialectic: centenaries of the formalisation or statutory colonial land dispossession on the African Continent (1913 Native Land Act), the first women’s anti-pass march in South Africa and the 50th anniversary of the formal establishment of the Continental organisation (OAU in 1963) to wage and support liberation struggles and movements against colonialist oppression, for political liberation and social emancipation,” continued Seakhoa.
Other highlights of this exhilarating three-day programme include:
- International African Writers Day Lecture
- An evening with the National Poet Laureate: Poetry Reading by Prof Keorapetse Kgositsile
- Creative Writing Skills Development Programme
- Tsebo-Lethabo Primary and High Schools Programme
- Books, art & crafts and clothing exhibitions
The patrons of the Africa Century International African Writers Conference include; Prof. Kgositsile Keorapetse, Dr. Nadine Gordimer, Dr. Wangui wa Goro and Dr. Hugh Masekela.
For confirmation of attendance of the launch and more information, please email info@writeassociates.co.za or call 011 791 3585.
