It was a
privilege to attend the Alan Paton Literary Festival. The line-up of speakers
included David Attwell and Ashwin Desai, both of whom are authors and
academics, Richard Conyngham, also an author,
Michael Deeb, a Dominican priest, and Darryl Earl David, author and academic, as
well as curator and master of ceremonies (MC) of this festival. There were
other speakers but I attended the first half of the event only.
David
Attwell presented the keynote address entitled The dialogic Paton: Cry, the
beloved country before 1948. Paton’s famous book is one of my best reads
and Attwell’s narration of excerpts of the book reminded me again of how deeply
I felt for Stephen Khumalo, the main character in this book.
Ashwin Desai
is such a dynamic and outspoken speaker. When he talks, one is forced to listen,
and it feels as if the whole room reverberates with his magnetic personality. The
MC described him as an academic with a literary heart. His talk was entitled Does
Alan Paton still speak to SA in 2024? And his answer was in the affirmative.
Richard Conyngham is the author of All rise: resistance, rebellion and revolt in South Africa. His talk focused on his book and the
reason for using such graphic illustrations to depict the narratives in it.
Richard is the son of John Conyngham who was a one-time editor of the Witness,
and who currently resides in Mexico.
Michael Deeb
spoke about the book Reluctant prophet, of which he is one of the
contributing editors. The book is a collection of essays in honour of
theologian and political activist Albert Nolan.
Darryl Earl
David, a former UKZN academic is so passionate about everything literary. And
this came across clearly in his talk Writers houses of Pietermaritzburg. He
went around photographing the houses of famous authors such as Alan Paton,
David Attwell, Colin Gardner and Kobus Moolman. David mentioned that Paton’s
home is now in such a dilapidated state that he was ashamed to whip out his
camera and take a photo of it. David also made mention of two relatively
unknown writers from Edendale, namely H.I.E.C. Dhlomo, who was the first African
creative writer in English and his younger brother R. R. R. Dhlomo, who was the
first African to write an English fiction novella. Unfortunately, David
couldn’t locate their house, but luckily a member of the audience was willing
to assist. It goes to show that literary festivals are not only about the
written word but also of connecting and networking.
As academic
librarians, we get so detached from the literary world. It’s all about the
statistics and the information retrieval figures. Maybe we should also try to inculcate
in students the joys and wonders of reading.
I left the festival feeling enriched, and thinking that this certainly wouldn’t be the last one I will be attending.
The posh Council Chamber was the venue for the festival
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