Encompassing AI predictions, art and literature appreciation workshops, poetry and political powwows, this year’s Franschhoek Literary Festival programme features an array of nonfiction voices and discussions.
One of the early sessions is titled “What is Jewishness in 2025?” The discussion venue, the NG Church, is appropriately symbolic of the complexities of being Jewish in a multi-ethnic, multicultural society. Today this is heightened by polarising global political tension, specifically the war in Gaza. Manifestations include a disturbing trend of rising anti-Semitism. Arguably, the SA Jewish diaspora has no influence on Israel, though being Jewish requires engaging with troubling new questions. Law professor and retired judge Dennis Davis will look for answers with fellow academics Steven Friedman, author of Good Jew, Bad Jew, and Milton Shain, the historian of anti-Semitism and SA Jewry.
Weighty matters
The only certainty in life is death, so it weighs on all of us. How heavily, depends on whether we choose to even think about it, but the title of a discussion about dying, grief and bereavement, “The Stone in Your Pocket”, rings true.
Poet and playwright Malika Lueen Ndlovu, author of Griefseed, will unravel some of the conundrums and mysteries with well-known SA trend forecaster and co-author of The Future, Dion Chang, who is also a death doula — though he prefers the term “end-of-life companion doula”, which he believes better captures the idea of death as a transition. Ndlovu echoes this, adding that thinking about one’s own death is “enmeshed with our relational bonds”, which may be one reason for “the pervasive avoidance of speaking about death and dying as natural, continuous and even regenerative”.
Both agree with the idea that mortality makes our lives important. “The energy released when embracing death as part of life is certainly motivating,” says Ndlovu. Chang’s philosophy “is that if you are mindful of death, you learn how to live”. The question then becomes, “What do you do with the time you have at the moment? We all think we have time — but we don’t”, he says.
In his more obvious area of expertise, Chang is also a participant in a panel pondering AI. He and Mark Nasila, FNB’s chief data officer and author of African Artificial Intelligence, will focus on AI’s impacts, now and in the future, on SA. Scheduled for one hour, their discussion will probably only scratch the surface of important issues.
Ndlovu also has a second appearance, in what should be a treat for poetry lovers. Themed rather vaguely around “explorations of land, the elements, space, and transition”, she is in conversation with two of SA’s greatest living poets, Antjie Krog and Ingrid de Kok, and Siphokazi Jonas, whose collection When Weeping Becomes a River is an enthralling fusion of poems, narrative and traditional Xhosa folk tales.
History, power and politics
Tony Leon and Business Day contributor Adekeye Adebajo are participating in multiple debates or discussions. Leon, formerly the DA chief and leader of the opposition in parliament, will be on familiar ground in two sessions assessing the government of national unity. A third, in which Davis will unpack Leon’s new memoir, Being There, will hopefully not get stuck on the same theme, but shift into some of the book’s global analyses and stories of charismatic, controversial politicians including Yasser Arafat, Boris Johnson and Ariel Sharon.
Adebajo is involved in the festival’s opening event, titled “Is Africa Trumped?” Indeed, the turmoil unleashed by the US president’s second term is a topic or underlying theme for many discussions at Franschhoek.
The argument in favour of compensation for centuries of slavery and colonialism may be morally irrefutable, but with the widening divide between the Global North and South, and progressive societal trends and political issues overwhelmed by neoconservative, right-wing movements, Adebajo concurs that the reparations cause has suffered a significant setback. “But,” he insists, “this should not stop activists and scholars in the Global South pushing for reparations and making the historical case, so that efforts by governments like Trump’s to erase or deny history do not become entrenched.”
Patric Tariq Mellet’s autobiography Cleaner’s Boy was a cri de coeur for equity, respect and recognition involving people of mixed-race ancestry. “Reparations speaks to holistically restoring the interplay of destroyed social memory and social justice,” he says. The Cape’s history of slavery is “obliterated in the national consciousness”, but Mellet witnesses in his community work that this is changing.
An unusual lens on the history of the world is David McWilliams’ recent book Money: A Story of Humanity. The Irish economist is involved in four discussions at Franschhoek, the most interesting of which promises to be an exchange, with Adebajo, of predictions for the future and titled “New World (Dis)order”.
Personal questions
Three standout memoirists are at Franschhoek to discuss their recent books. James Whyle’s We Two From Heaven necessitates a second reading to grasp the nuanced insights on how war and combat shatters the lives of ordinary people.
“Heaven Can Wait” is an appropriate title for the session featuring emergency room doctor Anne Biccard, whose latest work, One Call Away, is the third in her series of poignant stories about saving lives at a Johannesburg hospital.
World-renowned Zimbabwean-born international war correspondent and journalist Peter Godwin’s Exit Wounds was one of last year’s outstanding books in any genre. His virtual appearance is themed around feelings about his identity and the pull of Africa.
The festival also covers less weighty nonfiction. A newly released visual arts reference book, African Art: The ARAK Collection, will probably be the focus of discussion in “A Room Full of Power”, conveying some of the history of African art and artists.
Another potential gem in the programme features Ryan Sandes, one of SA’s greatest extreme athletes, whose latest book, Run. Risk. Reward, updates his stories of ultra-distance running in the harshest environs and remotest corners of the world. Why do some people push their bodies and minds to extremes? If the discussant probes well, he may elucidate the reasons — and the rewards — more clearly than he does in the book.
And a near certain hit will be the appearance of one of SA’s most recognisable thespians, Ian Roberts. In his autobiography Nomad Heart, Roberts unveiled himself, too, as a skilful raconteur of both highly amusing and heartwarming tales. Is he the epitome of SA wit, grit and cool, as the programme blurb describes him? If he chats about his 1990 Camel Man audition, the audience may be convinced.
• The Franschhoek Literary Festival runs from May 16-18.
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