Opening Week van de Afrikaanse Roman

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Writers Unlimited opened Friday 20 September the fourth Week van de Afrikaanse roman (Week of the Afrikaans novel) with a festive evening about contemporary Afrikaans literature, language, arts and music. In Studio B of the Centrale Bibliotheek in The Hague we welcomed our audience to conversations with and performances by no less then seven authors and musicians from South Africa. Writer Abdelkader Benali spoke with them to cast light on several aspects of the Afrikaans literature. 

With musicians Frazer en Deniel Barry (Tribal Echo, Krotoa), journalist and writer of literary thrillers  Karin Brynard (Plaasmoord, Onse vaders), poet and translator Pieter Odendaal (Asof geen berge ooit hier gewoon het nie), authors Eben Venter (Foxtrot van die vleiseters, Ek stamel, ek sterwe) and Riana Scheepers (Stormkind), and journalist, poet and writer Valda Jansen (Monitor, Hy kom met die skoenlappers)! Multi-language  programme: English, Afrikaans and Dutch.

This programme was curated by Writers Unlimited in collaboration with the Week of the  Afrikaans novel. The Week's fourth edition took place from Friday 20 up to and including Sunday 29 September 2019 in The Netherlands and Flanders, promoting Afrikaans literature in Dutch translation. Find the full programme on the website of the Week van de Afrikaanse roman.

Venue: Centrale Bibliotheek - Studio B, Spui 68 Den Haag.
On site books sale by De Vries Van Stockum Boekverkopers.

Information

Date and time Friday 20 September 2019 from 20:30 to 22:00 hrs
Location Podium B - Centrale Bibliotheek Den Haag, Spui 68, 5e etage

Line-up

Eben Venter

is a several times awarded author of seven novels, two short story collections and a column collection, among which Foxtrot van die vleiseters, Ek stamel, ek sterwe en Wolf, Wolf.. The digestion of the past, the migrant experience, homosexuality and environmental protection are important thematic strands in his body of works. Venter emigrated in 1986 from South Africa to Australia and has since lived in among other countries, Japan and The Netherlands. His most recent novel, Groen soos die hemel daarbo, was published in 2018.
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Deniel Barry

is a percussionst who, together with her husband Frazer Barry, performs poetry by South African writer and poet Adam Small (1936-2016), one of the first Kaapse voices in the Afrikaans literature.
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Valda Jansen

was born in Aliwal-Noord, but grew up in coastal town Strand. She studied German language at the university of West-Kaapland and worked as German language teacher in Mitchels Plain and Paarl, and was an editor for a TV news show. Her poems were published in several poetry collections; she also was a columnist at Die Burger en Beeld. In her debut novel Hy kom met die skoenlappers, published in 2016, the main character is torn between her black community in South Africa and the white world of her German lover. In both countries, the past is an important element of the present.
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Karin Brynard

is a journalist who earned her spurs in the burning Soweto streets during the Struggle years. She witnessed the liberation of Nelson Mandela and the birth of a new South Africa as political correspondent of a national daily newspaper. Brynard wrote three literary thriller novels – Plaasmoord, Onse vaders and Tuisland – that are both exciting and humoristic. Plaasmoord was published in Dutch as Moord op Huilwater and in English as Weeping Waters.
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Riana Scheepers

was born in Vryheid in KwaZulu-Natal and learned to speak Zulu at a young age. Scheepers studied Afrikaans and Dutch languages at the University of die Vrystaat in Bloemfontein and, among others, was a teacher at the Zululand and Cape Town universities. In her novels and short stories, Scheepers uses themes and motives from native oral storytelling traditions. Her work has a feminist character. Her most recent novel Stormkind (2018) is a poetic and sensorial story about a farm girl who is adopted into the culture of the San, the region's native inhabitants.
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Pieter Odendaal

is a poet, translator, publisher, producer and director of InZync Poetry, an organisation committed to the expansion of multi-language poetry platforms in Stellenbosch and Cape Town. He is working at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane on a thesis about spoken word as a way to promote tolerance in socio-ecological systems. His debut poetry collection Asof geen berge ooit hier gewoon het nie (2018) has been awarded with the prestigious Ingrid Jonker Prize 2019. This yearly South African prize is awarded alternatively to an Afrikaans or English poet who has published a first volume in the previous two years.
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Frazer Barry

vocalist, kletsrymer and multi-instrumentalist, is front man of the klipkoprock band Tribal Echo. Barry plays several traditional or self designed instruments such the blikkitaar, tea spoons or seebamboes. He extensively researched the language and culture of his Khoi ancestry. Together with his wife, percussionist Deniel Barry, performs poetry by South African writer and poet Adam Small (1936-2016), one of the first Kaapse voices in the Afrikaans literature.
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Abdelkader Benali

(Morocco, 1975) is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright and curator. His 1996 debut, Bruiloft aan zee (Wedding By the Sea), was an immediate success. His second novel, De langverwachte (The Long-awaited) won him the prestigious 2003 Libris Literature Award. Benali's subjects vary, but sports and the migrant who never really feels at home are recurring themes. He has written novels about his great passion of running, about his travels, and about migrants' cultural identity (Bad Boy). His work has been published internationally. Recent books include the novel Paradijsvogel boven Hoge Woerd (Bird of Paradise over Hoge Woerd, 2022) and Het andere verhaal (The Other Story, 2022), an essay about his research into 75 years of modern Moroccan art.
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