Nonfiction will burn brightly at Franschhoek’s literary festival

From autobiography and memoir to politics and philosophy, the Franschhoek Literary Festival 2024 programme showcases an impressive nonfiction range themed around interesting topics and including many as-yet unheralded writers.

Nearing the May 29 elections at what seems like a crossroads for the country, on all South Africans’ minds, and the title of a new book by Roy Havemann, is How to Fix (Unf*ck) a Country. Freedom fighter turned lawyer and businessman Oyama Mabandla also offers meaningful solutions in his absorbing memoir-cum-sociopolitical analysis Soul of a Nation: A Quest for the Rebirth of South Africa’s True Values.

Neither Havemann nor Mabandla will be at the festival, but luminaries, including former public protector Thuli Madonsela, former DA leader Tony Leon, and political commentator and author Justice Malala, will discuss these and related issues.

“The political sessions, as part of our overall commitment to promote smart nonfiction, have always been a hallmark of the event,” says festival programme director Jennifer Ball.

One particularly notable forum is headlined “Citizen Can”, in which Malala will exchange ideas with Ninety One chief sustainability officer Nazmeera Moola; Michelle le Roux SC, the author of Lawfare: Judging Politics in South Africa; and Bronwyn Williams, author of Rescuing Our Republic, as to how ordinary citizens can help safeguard SA’s democracy and build its future.

Zooming out way beyond SA to an even more critical horizon, the superpower space race has ramped up. There are enormous consequences for all of humankind. China has just launched the Chang’e-6 lunar mission, the first exploration of the far side of the moon. Tim Marshall’s series of books are themed around the concept of geography as driver of geopolitics and power. His latest, The Future of Geography, summarises the history of the space race before dissecting where it could lead, and warning about the future paradigm of war. In discussion with Leon, his views will be both intriguing and sobering.

Light relief is required from these weighty matters, and the festival has multiple options. The sharpest humour may emanate from legendary cartoonist Zapiro reviewing his decades-long career satirising the country’s long line of dubious, scandalous and moribund leaders, as well as his latest compilation, RamApocalypse Now. Political cartoonist, illustrator and writer Carlos Amato is the perfect choice to interview him. The title of the session, “Lines of Attack”, is clever.

The nonfiction genres of business and economics, science, nature and philosophy interconnect in three programme items that should prove fascinating and provocative. Can humankind continue to drive production and profits — and population — growth? The devastating effect of unsustainable strategies are becoming clearer and, though scientists now disagree about whether to call our epoch the Anthropocene, we need to better manage Earth’s resources and protect the natural world.

South African environmental writer and filmmaker Adam Welz is a discussant in all three sessions. The title of his new book, The End of Eden, is self-explanatory. He may have a fiery debate in particular with Shamil Ismail, author of The Age of Decay, who posits that future generations will pay a heavy price if growth is not maintained.

Sports lovers are also catered for. SA’s greatest track-and-field Olympian will be in Franschhoek. Caster Semenya’s autobiography, The Race to be Myself, was one of 2023’s best sports books. “For those who are born different and feel they don’t belong in this world, it is because you were brought here to help create a new one,” is her book’s epigraph. The session is sure to be inspirational.

The true crime category has exploded in popularity, and fans of the genre are well catered for. Forensic pathologist Dr Hestelle van Staden, author of Blood Has a Voice: Tales From the Autopsy Table, appears in two sessions to discuss the skills — and the art — of her profession.

Unlike the morbid curiosity of true crime, medical crises make for enthralling reading because the pathos elicits empathy, and we feel grateful to be alive. Cape Town-based palliative paediatric doctor Alastair McAlpine has just released his memoir, Prescription Ice Cream — also the title of the session — a reference to how simple pleasures have eased the pain of his patients. His stories and perspectives will almost certainly be bittersweet and profoundly moving.

Whether classified as fiction or nonfiction, poetry is an underappreciated literary form. Realistically, musicians are now the poets of our times, their lyrics in music’s modern forms, from alternative to pop, punk to rap, having the critical-mass reach that conventional poets can only dream of.

Koleka Putuma is the closest the country has to a popular people’s poet. Her new work, We Have Everything We Need to Start Again, is being heavily promoted by the publisher and retailers. “Press both feet to the ground. Place your hand on your heart. You are brave and capable. It will always be your time,” is the collection’s promotional extract and the punt for one of her two appearances at Franschhoek. Broadly, her style falls into the Insta-poetry genre: anthemic, self-affirming, motivational but also deeply challenging.

Entertaining formats

Indeed, perhaps taking a leaf from musicians, poetry is no longer simply read, but is now performed. Besides Putuma, a more conventional but nevertheless intriguing poetry session is the collaboration between poet-novelist Finuala Dowling and radio personality and thespian John Maytham. Titled “The Ties That Bind”, Dowling’s script incorporates extracts from 32 works themed around family, friendship and belonging — and gratitude, as in Dowling’s own poem, Riches:

“I have no money in the bank, /no immediate prospect of work. /I am driving home on the coastal road, /the most beautiful road in the world. /Almost everyone I love /lives in the blue clefts ahead.../I am embarrassed to be so rich.”

Novelist and essayist Ivan Vladislavić, with Hedley Twidle, lecturer in Southern African postcolonial literature studies at the University of Cape Town (UCT), will explore the idea of how cities and edifices — Johannesburg? A nation’s coherence and soul? — fall apart before they resurrect, hopefully for the better. In Twidle’s new collection, one essay, To Spite his Face, veers between a humorous account of the start of the Rhodes Must Fall movement at UCT in 2015, when the subject’s nose was severed from his statue, to a damning commentary on why Rhodes, the ugly face of brutal colonialism, remains prevalently honoured in Cape Town’s landmarks and street names.

It will be interesting to connect Twidle’s essay with the discussion between former UCT vice-chancellor Max Price and SA’s distinguished educational authority, Prof Jonathan Jansen. Both have recently written accounts of the turmoil at our universities. Price’s book, Statues and Storms: Leading through Change, has an optimistic title, but the dysfunction in the country’s higher education system seems ongoing.

Madonsela is now also in academia, acting as Law Trust Research chair in social justice at Stellenbosch University. She appears on two panels, one of which focuses on how to protect our constitution. Facilitated by social justice and constitutional lawyer Geoff Budlender SC, interesting discussion angles should emanate from journalist and author Mark Gevisser, whose co-edited book, The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated, was an eye-opening, worldwide window into appalling human rights abuses. The book’s main point was that to successfully forge lasting social justice, litigation must be augmented with sociopolitical empowerment through activism and groundswell popular movements. What engenders this? Gevisser makes a strong case for the power of storytelling to rouse people to action.

The power of literature?

This is the precise topic for a panel debate chaired by Batya Bricker, GM for books and brand at Exclusives Books, towards the end of the programme. Though it is framed around whether fiction can still, among today’s digital generation, “shape culture and shift history”, the question applies equally to nonfiction. The panel will probably be speaking to the converted. But in a propagandised world hyped by social media, the reality may not be what literature lovers believe.

Ticket sales have, according to Ball, been excellent and indicate strong attendance numbers, but it will be interesting to gauge the proportion of younger generations at Franschhoek.

Regardless, the festival promises to amplify new voices, liberate ideas and enrich through diverse and engaging nonfiction content.