The line-up for the Time of the Writer Festival 2018, running from March 12-17, has been announced and it includes Alain Mabanckou, Ayobami Adebayo, and many other writers.
The 21st Time of the Writer will take place at various venues around eThekwini, and at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. 15 writers from across Africa and the world will visit Durban for the festival this year, under the theme ‘Changing the Narrative’. The festival is organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (CCA).
Time of the Writer consists of a day programme and an evening programme. The daytime events will be hosted in four community libraries, art centres and schools around eThekwini, where workshops will take place. In the evenings, panel discussions will be held at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Howard College.
Acting Director of the CCA Chipo Zhou says: ‘Nelson Mandela once said: “The education I received was a British education, in which British ideas, British culture, British institutions, were automatically assumed to be superior. There was no such thing as African culture.” A very sad statement which to a great extent, even now, speaks the reality that is our education system in Africa.
‘A new generation of scholars is on the rise, demanding recognition of the African intellect and its contribution to literature, an “African Renaissance” if you will. We cannot rewrite history, but we can question and maybe alter it. And most definitely, we will write the future.
The full Time of the Writer 2018 lineup includes;
- Award winning author Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, from Nigeria
- Experimental author Jennipher M Zulu, from Zambia
- Dynamic author Kafula Mwila, from Zambia
- Poet, performance master and author of 12 books Lesego Rampolokeng, from Johannesburg
- Gritty and intense author Luka Mwango, from Zambia
- Author, award-winning filmmaker, recording artist, and distinguished professor MK Asante, from the USA
- Bestselling author Refiloe Moahloli, from Mthatha
- Outspoken political commentator, scholar and musician Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, from Johannesburg
- isiZulu, short story and children’s author Themba Qwabe from Durban
- Unathi Slasha, who reimagines and subverts Nguni folklore to write the unlanguaged world that is South Africa today, from Port Elizabeth
- Award winning novelist and short story writer Yewande Omotoso, born in Barbados, raised in Nigeria and based in Johannesburg
- Novelist, journalist, poet and academic Alain Mabanckou, born in Congo, based in France
- Professor of political economy Patrick Bond, from Johannesburg, South Africa, born in Belfast, Northern Ireland
- Author, politician, diplomat, poet, academic, journalist, and cultural activist Lindiwe Mabuza from Newcastle, South Africa
- Author of the UJ Prize-winning novel The Yearning Mohale Mashigo, from Soweto
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