When you have books, you are never alone: news from the Toyota us Woordfees

The Toyota US Woordfees kicks off in full force on 7 October 2023 in Stellenbosch. Here are a few highlights to look forward to…

The Woordfees started as a book festival, and the EasyEquities Writers’ Festival still lies at the heart of the programme. This year, there is a choice of 54 book discussions in which more than 90 esteemed writers and various other opinion-makers will participate.

New books by, among others, Barbara Masekela, Bibi Slippers, Eben Venter, Etienne van Heerden, Johann Rossouw, Jonny Steinberg, Marita van der Vyver, Pieter Odendaal, P.P. Fourie, Rudie van Rensburg, Sihle Khumalo, and SJ Naudé come under scrutiny, and we raise a glass to the beloved West Coast writer Sussie Kotzé on her 90th birthday.

Click here to download a pamphlet with all the presentations on the Writers’ Festival programme on one page in PDF format.

Classically Contemporary

“One of the biggest Woordfees surprises for me is the performance of Kader Abdolah, the Dutch writer who has ingeniously and imaginatively reworked Scheherazade’s One Thousand and One Nights for the modern reader,” writes seasoned reviewer and former publisher Kerneels Breytenbach this morning on Facebook.

Kerneels adds, “If you have any interest in the old traditions of storytelling and how they remain relevant today through a wordsmith like Kader Abdolah, you will never forgive yourself if you miss this programme. (Abdolah’s book is also available in Afrikaans in an absolutely first-class translation by Wium van Zyl.)”

Abdolah (photo top right) will perform on Wednesday, October 11th, in the Hofmeyr Hall on Kerk Street at 18:15 in the programme Boekklub: 1001 Nagte in magiese Persië.

Anastasia de Vries will discuss with Kader and Wium, while Radio 786’s Fatima Allie and Suidooster’s Irshaad Ally, will read from the sensual stories.

Click here for tickets.

Books that illuminate the path ahead and behind us

The following three book discussions promise to provide food for thought and new perspectives. (Click on the links for tickets.)

In Trama kasie vir Arabies, Yusuf Daniels, Shamiega Chaudhari, Hein Willemse, and Mogamat Alexander discuss the rich heritage of Afrikaans from the Cape Muslim communities. Hein wrote the foreword for the reissue of the late Achmat Davids’ The Afrikaans of the Cape Muslims (now The Arabic Afrikaans Writing Tradition), while Mogamat compiled and published the Dictionary of Loanwords in the Cape Muslim Vernacular.

In The Power of Us, Roelf Meyer talks with Songezo Zibi (Manifesto), former editor of Business Day and one of a new generation of young politicians taking on the ANC, and labor law attorney Frans Rautenbach (Help Yourself South Africa) about what practical reform of our democracy now requires.

Peter Bruce and Greg Mills, head of the Brenthurst Foundation, examine in their discussion Rich State, Poor State why some states flourish, their economies grow, and people thrive while others with similar challenges fail. The light at the end of the tunnel is this: when things are fixed, the impact is dramatic.

Joni – tougher than life

Joni Mitchell pushed the boundaries of folk, jazz, and pop, and in this tribute (Reckless Daughter: Joni Mitchell), Kerneels Breytenbach, Danie Marais, and Desmond Painter discuss her life, music, and words, colored with interpretations of her iconic songs by Lise Swart, Andries Bezuidenhout, Schalk Joubert, and Riku and Jackie Lätti. In the 60s and 70s, Mitchell had a long list of famous lovers, battled the chauvinistic music industry, and survived a brain aneurysm in 2015. Since then, she has had to relearn to speak, walk, and play the guitar, but this year she turns 80, after triumphantly returning to the Newport Folk Festival in 2022.

Schalk Joubert not only honours Joni with his performance but also his great bass guitar hero, Jaco Pastorius, who toured with her on albums like “Hejira” and “Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter.” He will make his bass guitar cry for both Jaco and Joni.

This blog was adapted from a newsletter distributed by the Woordfees organisers and translated into English (quite well, we think!) by ChatGPT.