In Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, where decorated scholar, poet and exiled corruption whistle-blower Athol Williams was raised, a literary movement is quietly mounting.
Williams, alongside fellow literacy activists and family members, Taryn Lock, and Roscoe Williams founded the NGO Read to Rise and the Cape Flats Book Festival.
The fourth Cape Flats Book Festival took place at West End Primary School, in Lentegeur, Mitchells Plain over the weekend. The festival saw an impressive line-up of around 100 authors, poets, journalists, educationists, activists, among other esteemed professionals, converging for two days filled with rich conversations and an indulgence of books of all genres and for every audience.
The festival has been taking place at the school since its inception.
Williams was a state witness who testified in the Zondo Commission, implicating 39 individuals and companies in state capture during former president Jacob Zuma’s tenure.
Due to the unwillingness of the state to secure the safety of whistleblowers and fears over his safety, he fled the country and is currently living in exile.
Since its establishment, the Cape Flats Book Festival has grown exponentially. This year, the festival saw over 100 speakers and over 50 sessions over the two-days.
Sessions included panel discussions, workshops, and interactive performances tailored for children and youth, and a large exhibitors area for booksellers and publishers.
Programme director, Roscoe Williams, said Read to Rise started in 2013. The organisation promotes youth literacy, targeting underserved communities.
“Our main focus is Mitchells Plain, we work in the 47 primary schools in Mitchells but we work in the broader Cape Flats community also. We even work as far as other provinces,” Williams said.
“Mitchells Plain is our main focus and we work in the primary school foundation phase where we go into the schools, encouraging children to read, giving them access to brand new books which is theirs to keep and the series of Oaky the Acorn, that’s the series that we use.”
The Oaky children’s book series, written by Athol Williams and illustrated by Lock, is centred on the character Oaky, with specially designed programmes to be taught in classrooms by facilitators.
“In 2019, we had this vision of bringing this elite book festival to the Mitchells Plain area. As you know, this always happens in the elite areas and we tried out in 2019 and our first festival, we had about 1000 people that came over that weekend… And over time, the number of authors has grown, the number of speakers, and also the quality of all this have also improved,” Williams said.
While many festivals were inaccessible due to locations and/or costs, the festival brought prestigious speakers to the community’s “front step” and is fast placing Mitchells Plain on the literary events calendar.
“Some of the people from our community will never be able to attend there because of the cost implication and that is why, to address our literacy issue, we need to expose our people to these types of events, and that is why we thought we are not going to charge people.”
Prior to the start of the festival, a number of authors, writers, poets, and musicians visited various schools during a schools roadshow, to encourage learners and the broader school community to visit the free-to-attend festival.
For journalist, author and activist, Zubeida Jaffer, it was a thrilling return to the festival.
“I come because I believe this is where the growth should be. That we should be developing all these little nodes of reading and writing.”
Dr Eleanor Denise Damon, retired teacher and author, shared South African educational stories during her first participation in the festival.
“It’s a very sad story for me, and same with Atlantis. These are two apartheid areas that were set up for failure but when I hear these pockets of brilliance, the musicality, this book, I look at the programme, it’s so big. It’s making a very big impact.”
Attendee Lansdowne resident Theresa Graner, 71, said: “I got information from a friend of mine and I was just very interested and also the writers, and was especially interested in the issue of gender-based violence because I was exposed to that. I think the festival is very well-organised, I think the writers, journalists, and everyone that has been here has been insightful for me.”
Picture: Shakirah Thebus