The Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal is preparing to host a series of powerful events that focus on human rights and social justice at this year’s 28th edition of the Time of the Writer Festival.

The festival, which takes place from March 18 to 23, will celebrate “literature as a formidable medium to promote social justice and equality”. Festival curator Shafinaaz Hassim said, “The role of literature as an agent for change and an archive of revolution is one of the tenets that underlie the ethos of this festival.”

The festival will be a platform to discuss the vice chancellor’s book project titled, The SA Handbook of Agency, Freedom and Justice – Citizens in Conversation. Discussants include Chancellor Professor Reuel Khoza, Professor Salim Abdool Karim, and Dr Mogale. “Aside from this event several books birthed in academia will be discussed and many of their writers will be in attendance at the festival,” said Hassim.

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To highlight the importance of literature in social activism, writers Bruce Little, Fiona Budd, and Nathi Ngubane, who have penned works with the intent to create change, will also share their inspirations and the impact they hope to achieve. The festival will also pay tribute to Professor Vishnu Padayachee, a key member of the ANC’s macro-economic research group, who died in 2021. His contributions to economic transformation and development will be honoured through a collection of essays by Professors Rajend Mesthrie, Robert van Niekerk, and Imraan Valodia.

Expanding the discourse to global conflicts, best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein will discuss his book The Palestine Laboratory, which investigates the Israeli military-techno complex. Azad Essa, with his book Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel, will examine India’s evolving stance on Palestine. On local issues, Dariusz Dziewanski’s book Gang Entry and Exit in Cape Town: Getting Beyond the Streets in Africa’s Deadliest City provides a qualitative account of gang culture in Cape Town. He will join David Africa, author of Lives on the Line, to discuss urban terrorism and conflict.

The festival coincides with World Social Justice Day, celebrated on February 20, as a reminder of the need to address inequalities. Ismail Mahomed, director of the Centre for Creative Arts, said, “At a time when narratives carried by the mainstream media are often clouded, it is more necessary than ever to examine the roots of conflict and violence closely.”

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