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22 November 2022 | Story Gerda-Marié van Rooyen
Antjie Krog at UFS
The award-winning writer, Antjie Krog, will be the keynote speaker at the International Hybrid Conference from 24 to 26 November 2022. This conference is a joint venture of the University of the Free State (UFS) Centre for Gender and Africa Studies and the War Museum.

The award-winning writer, Antjie Krog, will be the keynote speaker later this week at an International Hybrid Conference titled, The Unsung Heroines and Youth of South Africa: Violent Histories and Experiences of South African Women and Children during Wars, Conflicts and Pandemics. This conference – a joint project of the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS) and the War Museum – starts on Thursday 24 November and will be hosted at the War Museum in Bloemfontein and broadcast online. The three-day conference overlaps with the global 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence and aims to assemble historians, academics, and other scholars researching the violent histories of not only women and children in the South African War but in other wars, conflicts, and pandemics as well.

Prof Krog, an Extraordinary Professor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of the Western Cape, poet, and author of Country of my Skull (among other books), is an alumna of the UFS, where she completed a BA degree with Afrikaans, Philosophy, and English. She will deliver her keynote address, Survival, Complicity, and Race: (Im)possibilities of Narrating and Interpreting Rape in Havenga Affidavits, on the first day of the conference.

Prof Heidi Hudson, Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities at the UFS, will deliver her keynote address on Friday (25 November 2022). Prof Hudson is considered a specialist in feminist security studies. Her keynote address is titled Disciplinary and other stories: From women’s peace movements to the Women, Peace and Security ecosystem.

Several historians, academics, and scholars will either present their research or attend the conference. The conference aims to gather various stakeholders who are researching the violent histories of not only the women and children in the South African War, but other wars, conflicts, and pandemics in South African history dating from precolonial times to the World Wars, Apartheid, to the present. Each of the eight sessions over the first two days will conclude with time set aside for discussion.

The conference programme includes a visit to the art exhibition Unsung Heroes at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum on Friday after the last session. On Saturday, conference attendees can look forward to a tour of Bloemfontein. Click here for more information or send an email to vicky@anglo-boer.co.za.

News Archive

Africa and her diaspora grace the Africa Century International Writers’ Conference
2012-10-30

30 October 2012

Programme (Pdf format)

The Africa Century International African Writers’ Conference, organised by the wRite associates, in partnership with the Department of Arts and Culture, the University of the Free State (UFS) and the SABC, will take place on the Bloemfontein Campus of the UFS from 7 to 10 November 2012.This four-day conference will culminate in the 2012 South African Literary Awards ceremony where winners will be honoured.

The conference is dedicated to the memory and contribution of its special advisor and inspiration, Zwelakhe Sisulu, who passed away in October 2012.

The conference has attracted an array of scholars and artists from around the continent. The African diaspora will be one of the main features of the programme. Keynote addresses, the presentation of papers, dance, visual art, comedy, disc jockeying will all feature the Diaspora.
 
“This event will also mark the 21st anniversary of the then-OAU (now-AU) declared International African Writers’ Day (i.e. 7th November). The theme of this is: From Resistance to Creative Mediation: Celebrating a Century of Writing and Literary Intellectuals’ Influence On The Liberation Struggles & Political Impact on Literary Discourse and Development”, said Raks Morakabe Seakhoa, Managing Director of the wRite associates and Project Director of the South African Literary Awards and the Africa Century International African Writers Conference.
 
The patrons of the Africa Century International African Writers’ Conference include; Prof. Kgositsile Keorapetse, Prof. Chinua Achebe, Dr Nadine Gordimer, DrWanguiwaGoro and Dr Hugh Masekela.

“This prospective historical gathering of authors, literary scholars and historians will, as the then-OAU’s Conference of African Ministers of Education and Culture (meeting in Coutonou, Benin, in 1991) resolved, ‘…afford the African people a moment of pause within which to reflect on the contribution of African Writers to the development of the Continent’ ”,Seakhoa added.
 
He said, “We are delighted at the growth of the prestigious South African Literary Awards, as they are now spreading their wings to inaugurate the Africa Century International African Writers’ Conference and opening up to the continent and Diaspora’s writers.”
 
Other highlights of this four-day programme include:

  • An evening with the National Poet Laureate: poetry reading by Prof. Keorapetse Kgositsile and guest poets
  • Nobel Laureate, Nadine Gordimer discusses her latest work, ‘No Time Like The Present’
  • Poetry, comedy and performances
  • Creative writing skills development programme, facilitated by: Prof.KeorapetseKgositsile, Mr Walter Chakela and Dr Oswald Mtshali
  • Tsebo-Lethabo Primary and High Schools programme
  • Books, art & crafts and clothing exhibitions and more 

For more information,visit www.africacenturyconference.org or www.sala.org.za
 

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