WHITE RIVER – As in the past the annual Lowveld Book Festival at Casterbridge, scheduled for the weekend of Augustus 18 and 19, will cater well for the history and heritage enthusiast.

The Lowveld book festival returns to entertain

It will include various talks and launches of publications of historic interest, as well as the annual Mpumalanga Heritage Awards for historians that excelled in documenting the region’s past.

Festivalgoers can look forward to the long-awaited launch of the book Forgotten Tracks and Trails of the Escarpment and the Lowveld with a presentation by the author, Dr Gerrit Haarhoff.

Join the author on a journey through time and meet the people who shaped the tracks and roads of the region all those years ago. It takes place from 16:00 to 16:45 at The Barnyard. Entrance is R50.

Lowveld Book Festival 2018: Save the date!

This will immediately be followed by the Heritage Awards, this year going to three recipients, including Dr Salmon Joubert for his work in three volumes, History of Kruger National Park. This is the authoritative history of the park up until 1994, including politics, animal, plan and geological information and tourism developments, published in 2008.
Another recipient is Haarhoff, who over the past three years, worked tirelessly to complete his 400-page volume which is regarded by critics as the last word about many a myth and uncertainty regarding the old wagon roads of the Lowveld. This is to a large extent due to the thorough and large amount of fieldwork that was done to verify exact places of significance.
The third recipient is the prolific writer of books on the various historic aspects of Chrissiesmeer and its surrounds, Ton Sanders. Unfortunately he will not be present and the award will be handed over at a later stage.

Other highlights on the programme include:
• Contested rights to land: Prof Peter Delius will deal with a number of key questions in the heated debate about land reform. Saturday at 11:15 at The Barnyard.
• Bravery and battle lines: Alison Lowry leads a discussion with Fred Khumalo (Dancing the Death Drill) and MK veteran Ronnie Kasrils (A Simple Man). Whose war is it anyway? They will discuss the different kinds of bravery and battle lines in which writers, including journalists, participate, whether investigating corruption within a state structure or covering conflict areas around the world. Also at The Barnyard at 12:00.
• Adam Cruise in conversation with Richard Steyn about his book Churchill and Smuts: The Friendship which tells of the remarkable, and often touching friendship between Winston Churchill and Jan Smuts. It takes place at 14:45.
• The Kruger National Park, a presentation by Joubert takes place on Sunday at 11:15.
A variety of books on the history of the Lowveld as well as some collectors’ items will also be on sale at a special table hosted by members of Mpumalanga Heritage in the books tent. All new publications will be signed copies, with some of the authors present at times.

Also read: Day in the life of a Kruger National Park Section Ranger