I’ve just returned from Cape Town’s Open Book literary festival where I was a guest speaker. It was a stimulating week of discussions about politics, South Africa’s post 1994 reality, apartheid, Palestine, writing, Africa and much in between. I was warmly welcomed and often provoked by the conversations.
One of my sessions was on disaster capitalism and my recent book, Profits of Doom. Here’s a write-up of the event and live-tweeting:
Disaster Capitalism
Another session was on the state of the global media and why it’s so important to maintain an independent voice. Here’s a write-up and live-tweeting:
State of the Media
Another event was on the responsibility of a writer:
Writer’s Responsibilities
Finally, I screened a teaser of my documentary in progress with Thor Neureiter on “Disaster Capitalism”.
Overall, I found South Africa a fascinating, challenging, tough, beautiful and insightful country (my photos are here). One Open Book session featured black African writers explaining how their work is often patronised and ignored. Many others covered everything from fiction – it was surreal seeing local writer Wilbur Smith as I read his colonial-tinged work when I was a teenager and not since – to deep corruption in the South African state.
Thoughts and insights from Cape Town's Open Book literary festival
