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Poets, authors, writers and playwrights will discuss the way forward for women in literature in Africa, among them award-winning artists.
FEMALE writers from across Africa will gather at Windybrow Theatre in Hillbrow to discuss ways to strengthen their role in literary art.
Women writers will discuss their role in literary art
According to the spokesperson from the Department of Arts and Culture, Lisa Combrinck, the literary symposium is aimed at bringing together African women writers to engage in a dialogue on African women's writing.
"The symposium will also encourage the emergence of a pan-African women's voice and continent-wide projects to strengthen women's role in the literary arts," she said.
The theme is "Women's words: African worlds", and the symposium is hosted by the department and Windybrow. It is part of Women's Month celebrations, held each year to pay tribute to the legacy of the thousands of women who marched to parliament against apartheid laws in 1956.
"We thought it appropriate to host this gathering at a time when our nation pays tribute to the contribution of women in society, particularly in honour of the 20 000 women from all walks of life who marched on 9 August 1956 against the pass laws."
Topics that will be covered include fiction, nonfiction writing and journalism. "We believe that in bringing great literary minds together, we can make a contribution in taking forward the struggle for women," Combrinck added.
Writers who will take part include Lauretta Ngcobo from South Africa, Tsitsi Dangarembga from Zimbabwe, Lola Shoneyin from Nigeria, Shailja Patel from Kenya and Samira Negrouche from Algeria.
Ngcobo is a well-known feminist writer whose books focus on the struggle and complexities faced by women in society. She wrote And they Didn't Die, about a rural community of black women in 1913, who fought for their children, land and cattle while their husbands were working in the mines and cities.
Dangarembga is the author of Nervous Conditions, the first novel to be published in English by a black woman in Zimbabwe. It is a semi-autobiographical coming of age story about a young woman in modern Africa, and it won the African award of the Commonwealth Writers' Prize.
She has also written and staged three plays - She no Longer Weeps, The Lost of the Soil and The Third One.
Shoneyin has written three books of poems. Her latest work is The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives, a hilarious tale about the four wives of a Nigerian patriarch.
Patel is an award-winning Kenyan poet, playwright and dramatist. Her works have been translated into several languages and are used in high schools, colleges and workshops all over the world. She is the author of Dreaming in Gujurati and Shilling Love.
Negrouche is French-speaking Algerian poet and author living in Algiers. She is the author of several poetry collections, including À l'ombre de Grenade, Iridienne and Cabinet Secret.
The symposium is open to the public and entrance is free. To book, contact Roshnie Moonsammy on
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or 011 726 6916, or Zodwa Shongwe on
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or 011 720 7009/082 610 6274.
Windybrow Theatre is on the corner of Nugget and Pietersen streets, number 161 Joubert Park. A free shuttle bus will run from the Market Theatre parking lot to Windybrow. For more details about the programme, visit the Department of Arts and Culture website.
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