A spirited parade of poets and writers illuminated Grahamstown's High Street early on Monday 7 July as part of Wordfest, South Africa’s multilingual festival of languages and literatures. Red posters bearing slogans such as “tickle your language lobes” and “sahk’u mzantsi Afrika ngosiba” waved around as songs and laughter filled the street.
A spirited parade of poets and writers illuminated Grahamstown's High Street early on Monday 7 July as part of Wordfest, South Africa’s multilingual festival of languages and literatures. Red posters bearing slogans such as “tickle your language lobes” and “sahk’u mzantsi Afrika ngosiba” waved around as songs and laughter filled the street.
As South Africa is a country with 11 official languages, Wordfest encourages a culture where writers from all over the country receive recognition through writing in their language of choice.
“With Wordfest we bring together languages and validate everyone’s mother tongue as equal,” said Reldo Donaldson, who has been a part of the literature festival for nine years.
During Wordfest week, writers from all over the Eastern Cape attend hour-long events including book launches of African writers, debates and creative writing programmes. There are also live performances from singer-songwriters in indigenous languages.
Vuyokazi Landa, a young writer from Durban, was thrilled to meet Sihle Khumalo, the author of Almost Sleeping My Way to Timbuktu.
“We all speak one language, the language of writing,” she said.
Honorary Professor of Poetry at Rhodes, Chris Mann, Wordfest co-ordinator, joined the march.
He said some of the local writers had been interviewed by local radio stations to give them “profiles that they have never had before”.
Mann says there is a lack of emphasis on reading and writing in South Africa, with too much weight given to sport and other recreational activities.
“There can be no democracy in South Africa without encouraging the skills of reading and writing,” he said.
The march came to a halt at Eden Grove on the Rhodes University campus, where writers and poets, language activists and educationalists from all parts of the Eastern Cape carefully placed their manuscripts on the isivivane cairn of remembrance. The isivivane concept exists in cultures all over Africa, where passers-by throw rocks on to a pile as a sign of good luck or in commemoration.
A basket of manuscripts collected at the cairn will be sent to the Department of Sport, Recreation, Arts and Culture (DSRAC), in the hope that the work of those artists will gain recognition.
