Arja Salafranca for Independent Newspapers - 

At best, what you’re left with after attending this dynamic yet intimate writers’ festival is an overwhelming swirl of words, sensations and stimulation enough to take you through the next few weeks. Plus, of course, an oversized suitcase weighted with the number of books you’ve bought after having listened to the various authors.

You also leave, perhaps, with a sense of loss and sadness. The charms of Franschhoek are beguiling – the village set within a valley offers an intimacy to the fest not provided when a writers’ fest takes place in a bigger city. You ditch the car, if you even hired one, and walk everywhere, day or night – it’s small enough for that.

The festival is packed with book events – that’s part of the dilemma and sadness. For every one session, you miss four others. And if you find yourself in one of the rare dud sessions, you’re stuck. You can’t go winging it off to another venue. Doors close, the sessions begins, no late-comers.

No matter. Your festival will take on the flavour of the interests you’ve ticked off while booking. Sometimes you’ll go to a whole host of fiction talks, other times you’ll be leaning towards trends and non-fiction topics.

And that was the frame of mind I was in when I booked my selection of tickets for this year’s events. I wanted to know more about e-books, and I couldn’t miss the session on Twitter. But I also have an interest in niche writing – and attended a session of gay writing and Muslim writers in conver-sation, as well as one on conscious walking.

The big interest was in tweeting – and the school hall was packed for the session. BookSA Live and its representatives had been tweeting from hour one – using the hashtag #flf12 so all could follow.

Of course, a number of writers and journos attending were also tweeting – so if, like Zakes Mda, you couldn’t make the fest, you could still follow vicariously. Mda tweeted: “Thanks to twitter I’m following the proceedings of #flf12”.

Jenny Crwys-Williams chaired the lively session, which often erupted into laughter, which had master tweeters in the hot seat: Gareth Cliff with his 200 000 followers, Gus Silber and Professor Jonathan Jansen about their views.

All weighed in on the benefits of using this micro service, with Silber beginning with the statement: “It’s like a direct line to people’s minds – it’s one of the reasons I love Twitter.” As others added, you can tweet a politician or a supermarket store and receive an answer.

“I think Helen Zille is the best politician on Twitter,” said Silber, “while the ANC’s Derek Hanekom has fisticuffs with people on Twitter.” Cliff offered advice such as, “You have to be brave on Twitter” and “Don’t tweet too much, like every 15 minutes”.

Jansen smiled: “You have to be irreverent on Twitter, you have to be on the edge of an argument, to push the boundaries.” Cliff: “It would be silly for people not to embrace Twitter, with Twitter the power is back in your hands.”

How to integrate it into your life, asked an audience member. Silber said that once you integrate it into your life, the integration is seam-less, use it while waiting in queues for instance. My two cents worth – ditch the old dumbphone, get a smartphone and tweet during those dead times in your day.

Technology formed the bone of another talk I attended, “The Technology Tsunami” with Arthur Goldstuck and Simon Dingle, a presenter, about the advent of e-books and self-publishing on that platform. I first attended a talk on this subject at the London Book Fair in 2010, and then it seemed as though mostly textbook publishers were embracing the format.

But Kindle has taken off, numerous online sites exist to help you take your book from concep-tualisation to cover to Kindle. Goldstuck and Dingle shared their sometimes downright blundering experiences with the medium, leaving us with the sense that this route certainly opens a way past traditional publishing.

Meanwhile, in an earlier session, “The In-between ’80s”, columnist Ndumiso Ngcobo reminisced about that turbulent decade with journos Denis Beckett, and Azad Essa and film-maker and novelist Elaine Proctor. Have we moved on? Beckett posed the less than rhetorical question: “How many people have not moved on, for example the kid living in a squatter camp?”

Ngcobo reminisced: “One day we went to bed with an orange sky and the next we woke up to a blue sky. But was it that magical?” Clearly not, and Proctor and Beckett spoke about their time and activism during the dark 1980s.

Essa, celebrating his 30th birth-day, mused on how his generation could write about this period, those who were children in the 1990s.

But fundamental change hasn’t really happened in some way seemed to be the conclusion, “although we’ve overcome huge gulfs between then and now”, Beckett said. Loved Beckett’s firm and wise assertion that “I hate the thought of thinking with our genes. I’d like to think that I had your complexion” turning to Ngcobo, “I’d think the same. Hate the thought that if I’m black I think one way and if I am white I think another.”

I also attended a talk on gay writing, chaired by Robin Malan, of Junkets publishers, with Mark Behr, Richard Krummeck, who has just released two gay novellas through Junkets, and Richard de Nooy, the straight writer of The Big Stick, a portrayal of the gay world that is said to be authentic.

The question, “How comfortable are you with the label of gay writing?” brought several interesting responses, but, said Behr: “It’s a dangerous and exclusionary label. I’m more comfortable with the word ‘queer’ than gay. Queer is a more inclusive category.”

Krummeck added that “the word gay can become quite weighted, and tends to be equated with sexuality, whereas (being gay) is also linked with the emotional and spiritual.” Maybe, he said, the label should be left out. “What about homo-spiritual?”

But moving on from labels and terms, the discussion segued in to a discussion on how “gay” can still sometimes be used in a pejorative sense. Behr said he was not writing for a gay audience. “I am interested in how ordinary people become oppressors. I also think you do need to have an overtly homosexual character to engage with homo-sexuality.”

The discussion ranged across popular representations of gay people in TV shows, for example, with a reference to US President Barack Obama’s finally coming out on gay marriage.

In the critics on critics session, Michiel Heyns engaged in a debate with Sean O’Toole and Brent Meersman on the state of literary criticism in this country. Too academic, not academic enough, and too few pages for reviews? The best advice came from Meersman, who said: “I’d say find a book you like, and tell us why you like it.”

Muslim writers in conversation got off to a wobbly start with writers Imraan Coovadia, Shaida Ali Khan and Essa in conversation with Sunday Times books editor Tymon Smith. I’d recently read Khan’s Lessons in Husbandry and wanted to find out more about the author and the book, but the discussion was more wide-ranging, and narrower in a sense.

Khan summed up it up: “No one writes about us (Muslims), it’s important to see ourselves mirrored in literature.” Coovadia agreed that there was a small shelf of books devoted to the Muslim experience. But Khan said: “The exotic idea of Muslim writing will fall away when there are more Muslim writers.”

This is a but a small snapshot of the fest. And at the end of the day, you meet friends and fellow writers and publishers at the various restaurants, talking, nattering, comparing experiences in the writing world, what you thought of each session, before strolling home, mind buzzing, stimulated, just about ready for more.

• Arja Salafranca is the author of the collection of short stories The Thin Line, edits Sunday Life in The Sunday Independent and has published volumes of poetry and fiction anthologies.

Artslink.co.za-

Andra le Roux-Kemp: As we ran towards the Franschhoek Congregational Church, we almost bumped into the man we were all so eager to meet: Deon Meyer.

At the Franschhoek Literary Festival (FLF) it is indeed guaranteed that you will, literally, run into some famous and infamous personalities.

If you wanted to give the editor of the Sunday Times a piece of your mind, for example, you merely had to venture in the direction of the restaurant French Connection. If cooking is your forte you were sure to be in good company with Reuben Riffel, Marita van der Vyver and sisters Zuretha Roos and Annalie Nel at the church hall. Media hotshots, artists and authors were roaming the streets, and judges and politicians (current and ex) were sipping wine in a variety of popular local spots.

The primary aim of the Franschhoek Literary Festival is to promote South African writing and reading. And in this it certainly succeeded, together with its generous sponsors The Sunday Times and Porcupine Ridge wines from Boekenhoutskloof winery in Franschhoek.

Almost each and every event and session of the three-day programme was sold out even before the festival commenced. And the Franschhoek Autumn Music Weekend with which it coincided offered a series of delightful concerts under the auspices of Christopher Duigan, adding an additional level of flair to an already jam-packed weekend.

First on my programme was the FLF Fourth Annual South Africa Wine Writer’s Prize announcement at the quaint Essence Restaurant and Coffee Bar. The winner, Norman McFarlane, was selected by wine-writing connoisseurs John Platter, Matthew Dukes and Bruce Jack. McFarlane received a R25 000 cash prize as well as an artwork donated by the well-known South African artist Deny Meyer. MacFarlane’s achievement is particularly exceptional seeing that there are very limited publications available for wine writing and the competition is so fierce.

The conversation between Jenny Crwys-Williams and Deon Meyer was one of the highlights of the Saturday programme. Meyer spoke about his journey from writing his first novel in 1992 to becoming the world-renowned author that he is today. He described his process of writing as an organic and instinctive process where he actually writes a story for the reader inside himself; writing something that he would like to read. Meyer enlightened the audience on his creative process in constructing complex characters like Bennie Griessel and also gave his fans a few clues of what we can look forward to in future.

Equally thought-provoking was the conversation between poet and sociology professor Ari Sitas and satirist and Al-Jazeera journalist Azad Essa. Essa, author of the books Zuma’s Bastard and The Moslems are Coming, is truly a fearless personality and one unscrupulous in articulating his views on politics, racism and Islamophobia. He discussed in fascinating detail his work as an Al-Jazeera journalist and his personal experiences of how different generations deal with political developments, stereotypes and prejudice.

I concluded my day in the church hall with Tim Butcher, Andrew Feinstein (author of The Shadow World), Raenette Taljaard (author of Up in Arms) and security specialist Antony Altbeker (author of Fruit of a Poisoned Tree). In the packed hall, with audience members standing and sitting wherever they could find a spot, we attempted to unravel the sinister world of corruption and arms deals, not only in South Africa but the world over. We pondered the suspicious odour of our democracy and speculated about succession politics, corruption and war.

As I looked around at the capable ladies responsible for the organisation and management of the Franschhoek Literary Festival I wondered why we have not considered asking them to sort out the tangled mess of politics as well. Even if just once a year.

Tanya Ghosh for CNN-IBN Live - 

Smart, sassy and funny, ‘The Moslems are Coming’, is a well written book which emerged from Essa’s award-winning blog on Thought Leader. An insightful take on global politics, he tackles race and religion, bigotry from anti-Semitism to opposition to blacks, gives a fresh perspective on the Israel-Palestine conflict and casts new light on old stereotypes. He also presents the existing views about a particular issue which is talked about in the chapter, in the postscript. The title itself gives an idea as to what’s to come inside. His voice is engaging both questioning and is a delight to read.

An accidental academic and an incidental journalist, he belongs to a generation with none of the old identities or fractured loyalties and tackles stereotypes with elan. The anecdotes from his own life from encountering racism in Turkey to his visit to JNU are presented in both an intuitive and hilarious manner with healthy doses of his own opinion on various matters from the book- ‘Tales from one thousand and one Nights’ to Indo-Pak conflicts.

I particularly enjoyed the chapter ‘Muslim fashion du jour’ ,a satirical piece, which talks about abolishing the burqa in France and Belgium…”the biggest movement since the French Revolution” according to fashion insiders. It contains comical quotes which indirectly ridicule the hype behind the ban of burqa from ending political aspirations to astronomical changes in the job market to promoting the idea of being a sex symbol. Essa’s words are profound especially when it comes to racial profiling which he witnesses at the Dubai’s International Airport to the concept of Islamophobia.

From the liberation of Tibet to regressive politics, the book addresses various ideas which remain prevalent in this century. At the same time, he paints himself as a cartoon in a world of contradictions who has seen India better and Pakistan than many and has a satirical opinion of the conflict – and a solution. Essa describes Kashmiri aspirations as being “stuck between Western diplomacy and Indian ascendancy”. Kashmir is described as a “blind spot” for India’s liberal elite who continue to downsize the number of missing persons reported every year. His poignant view of the changes in India have been beautifully written.

Sharp and witty, this is a book through which the reader travels the world with the author while having a bird’s eye view on world politics. Thoroughly enjoyable, this book is not only a must-read but is an essential element on the reader’s rack.

‘The Moslems are coming’ published by HarperCollins India, 2012 is an adaptation of Zuma’s Bastard from Two Dogs Books in South Africa. ‘The Moslems are coming’ is improved, revised, updated and will confidently take the piss into South Asia.

The Moslems Are Coming tracks a changing world, tackles race and religion head-on, gives fresh insight into the Israel-Palestine conflict, vents the frustrations and fears of the next generation – and ultimately offers us all hope for the future.

‘The book is not only seamlessly written, it is also chutzpadik, refreshing  and – at its core – deeply humanistic’

- Jewish Report

‘The man is abrasive, engaged, uncowed’

- Kevin Bloom, author of Ways of Staying’

Al-Jazeera- 

Al-Jazeera -

Dakar, Senegal – The open gutters of this city’s Colobane market may be interpreted by some as testament to the broken promises of a 21st century African Renaissance.

Pedestrians pick at the hems of their trousers and amble through a tunnel of hawkers selling fresh vegetables and fake designer jeans on mobile wooden carts wedged between the mud and grime.

Far from the celebrated pan-African ideals of the New Partnership for African Development (Nepad) advanced by South Africa’s former president Thabo Mbeki and Abodulaye Wade, Senegal’s outgoing president, the bustling market squeezed between the narrow lanes is a somewhat representative of the daily struggle of ordinary Africans across the continent battling their leaders’ bitter rhetoric.

But many Senegalese voters are today more upbeat, ecstatic with the ousting of Wade in Sunday’s runoff, and say those days are long gone.

According to local newspapers, Macky Sall secured 67 per cent of the vote to Abdoulaye Wade’s 33 per cent, ending Wade’s 12-year rule of the West African country.

‘Just a breeze’

“Wade said that all the violence before the election was ‘just a breeze from the sea’,” Gora Ndiaye, a 54-year-old artist, told Al Jazeera. ”But what he called ‘a breeze’ swept him out of power. And he should have known that, like in Libya, Ivory Coast and Egypt, all it would take was a small breeze, from small people, to get rid of all these leaders who refused to go.”

The Colobane suburb, smaller than the Pikine, Thiaroye and Parcelles districts, is home to thousands of informal traders, mechanics, artisans and painters. Its densely populated streets make it highly influential, politically.It is on these streets that Wade is said to have lost the hearts and minds of voters, through the insistence on grand scale infrastructure projects and attempts to manipulate the constitution to his own benefit. While Wade was reported to be planning what many referred to as a “presidential dynasty” with his son, unemployment continued to hover around 48 per cent mark, while, according to the IMF [PDF], more than 63 per cent the rural population lives under the poverty line.

 Wade concedes election defeat

Dissatisfaction with Wade came to a head on June 23, 2011, when a loose band of civil society, activists and politicians formed the M23 movement that successfully prevented Wade from altering the constitution in his personal favour. Analysts say this is when the Senegalese public realised how collective power could institute real change.

‘Clean sweep’

“I think that it has been the true beginning of a long process of changing Senegal’s destiny,” said Aminata Diaw. “So June 23 came to add another heap of motivations for people’s desire to take charge of their own destiny,” added Diaw, the senior program officer at the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (Codesria).

But Diaw also said that this new empowerment would demand Sall starts to deliver on his promises – fast.

“[The] newly elected president is going to have to hurry up and be efficient, because I don’t think the Senegalese people are going to be patient,” she concluded.

Within hours of polls closing on Sunday night, tens of thousands emerged on to the streets of Dakar’s suburbs, chanting, beating drums, and waving Senegalese flags, as suggestions of a clean sweep for Macky Sall started filtering through over the radio. People paraded spontaneously, up one alley, down another, often repeating the same routes, as if trying to spread word of the historic victory. By 2130GMT, when it was announced that Wade had called Sall to concede defeat, the streets of Medina, one of the oldest suburbs of Dakar, was engulfed with celebrations.

Outside Youssour N’dour’s party headquarters, supporters gathered to celebrate with party officials and waited for the famed musician to make an appearance. N’dour, despite being banned from participating in the election, had backed Sall in the runoff, along with all twelve opposition candidates in a coalition named Benno Bokk Yakaar.

Outside Macky Sall’s headquarters, supporters danced, lit fireworks, climbed trees and sat on car rooftops, as thousands came to pay homage to their new hero. It was a far cry from the emptiness around Wade’s PDS headquarters a few streets away.

Artist Gara Ndiaye says Sall must avoid ‘making promises he cannot keep – like Wade did’

‘Zero tolerance’

“I am dreaming of a bright future, not just for myself, but also for everyone,” Cheik Wagnane, a 56-year-old mechanic, told Al Jazeera. “Things are going to change and I am sure of that.”

Seliou Gueye, a 59-year-old shoe trader, agreed: “I am optimistic because Sall even came here [to the market] and spoke to us. I am hopeful that he is going to change the organisation of these stalls because it is a real mess.”

The infectious optimism for Sall and the all-night party on Sunday notwithstanding, it was back to business in Dakar on Monday morning.

Traders in the city say they are well aware that a lot of hard work lies ahead, and voting Wade out was merely the first step towards improving the country.

“I am glad that we have showed our political maturity once again … it is an example for all of Africa,” said mechanic Wagnane. “It’s not because we have a strong constitution or great leaders, it is because of the Senegalese people’s maturity – and so even if Macky Sall does not do well, the people here have enough intelligence to push him out.”

The experts agree.

“I think and believe that that it will be zero tolerance for Sall,” said Ibrahima Thioub, a historian from Cheik Anta Diop University in Dakar.

“The question now is how is he going to tackle things – even if we concede that he needs much more time to rearrange things.

“I do think Sall is aware of what is waiting for him.”

Back at the Colobane market, traders remain buoyant at the prospect of a new leader taking over. Even Moustapha Gueye, a 38-year-old Wade supporter, acknowledged the shift of the city’s mood and said that, despite the struggle for power, “we all part of the same family”.

Euphoria aside, traders here are quick to offer some advice to President-elect Sall.

“He must try to stop himself from making promises he can’t keep – like Wade did. He should just remain honest to the people,” Ndiaye, the artist, said.

“[And] he should know that the Senegalese have shown that they capable of making their own decisions by using the ballot … This election also showed that you can fool people from time to time with bribes – but people know their responsibilities and they will act when the time comes.”

Al-Jazeera - 

Dakar, Senegal - Tense and edgy merely weeks ago, the mood has since changed in Senegal, as the country stands on the precipice of another democratic achievement.

The capital, Dakar, taut from the pre-election violence that resulted in at least six deaths in clashes between opposition supporters and security forces, now breathes a little easier in anticipation of a peaceful and successful runoff on Sunday.

But by no means is the result of the presidential runoff here a cakewalk; pockets of tension continue in districts of Dakar, as a society gears itself for the possibility of a seismic power shift in the country’s body politic.

The metamorphosis, however, from “critical” to “stable” has so far disproved the animated conjecture of overzealous journalists who speculated that the violence would intensify and spill into other restive countries in the regional neighbourhood.

Senegal had the makings of a success story in a region often characterised by volatility, disappointment and paranoia. The talk in Senegal this week has been cautiously optimistic; peace is considered the default, the earlier violence a mere aberration from the norm.

And then came Mali.

On Tuesday, half a million Malians living in Senegal woke up to news that, some 1,400km away, their country’s army had overthrown Amadou Toumani Toure, the Malian president, seized the radio and television networks and were engaged in an old-school coup in the capital, Bamako; guns, fatigues and hand written notes read out to a nation.

Expats react

Malians in Dakar, tens of thousands of them, many who have lived in this city for the past fifty years, and known for selling boiled meat and textiles in markets, and mocked by Senegalese for “wearing dirty trousers”, are distraught at the latest events in their home country.

They say that the coup has the potential to set the country’s democratic ambitions back by two decades.

But they also say the story is far more complex than media junkies are making out.

Seydou Baba Traore said the coup was ‘putting the country back’ [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

“We are very affected about what has happened at home,” said Seydou Baba Traore, a 45-year-old Malian textile vendor.

“I am really worried and totally disagree with the military coup. This is putting the country back … but I must admit that the army is right in so far as their claim that the Taureg [rebellion] has not been managed properly.

“This is a very awkward situation, and in some ways, it is good that there will be new hands dealing with this situation,” Traore told Al Jazeera.

Traore, who travels frequently home to bring his wares into Senegal, says he has been personally affected by the Taureg rebellion. His elder brother was one of soldiers killed in a massacre of an estimated 82 Malian soldiers on January 24 in Aguelhok in northern Mali, said to be the work of the Mouvement National de Liberation de l’Azawad (MNLA) and al-Qaeda’s north Africa branch. The incident, documented in photographs and disseminated across the internet, set off the alarm bells in Mali over the under-resourced and vulnerable army.

The conflicting feelings over the events of the past few days and weeks is shared across the board.

“The events have abruptly stopped the democratic process that started in Mali back in 1991 … it is shocking.” Musa Camara, a 32-year-old Malian student in Dakar, told Al Jazeera.

“The Taureg issue has been around for decades and it is not just President Toure’s problem, but to be fair, the rebellion has never affected the population as it has done recently … and I can concede that I can understand the army’s position and interpretation of the situation,” Camara added.

Likewise, Kaibou Samake, the president of the Malian students’ league of Senegal, agrees the community is “ashamed, sad and frustrated” and has a great deal of “mixed feelings” over the latest developments in his home country.

“We are angry that this has happened, yet there is some relief that the situation in the north is being taken seriously at last,” Samake said candidly.

Others, however, are not shy to support the coup.

Lassine Camara, a trader living in Dakar for the past six years, says that the president and the ministry of defence were totally to blame for the situation in Mali – and something drastic had to happen.

Lassine Camara said Mali’s president and ministry of defence were to blame for the coup [Azad Essa/Al Jazeera]

“We were losing our soldiers, and they [the government] did not want to give the army weapons to fight, or give them the resources to buy the weapons. The coup is justified,” said 31-year-old Camara.

While the army has promised to resolve the situation by organising elections, the coup has elicited a damning response from the AU, regional bloc ECOWAS - as well as from the US, France, South Africa and Nigeria.

Camara says international condemnation need not to be taken too seriously.

“There is a lot of trouble in Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in other places, and the international community only responds to crises around the world based on their own interests.

“We, as Malians, know what is going on. Our president does not seem to be taken the issue seriously and the army needs to be helped. How [else] can it fight against the rebellion?”

“I admit that this is a coup, but there hasn’t been any serious violence; no one has been killed and there hasn’t been a total breakdown in law and order. This [coup] only happened because the army is asking the government for more means to tackle a serious problem in the north,” Lassine Camara said.

‘Mali is not Senegal’

But not all Malians in Senegal are convinced that that a military coup, despite the complexities of the story, was the right course of action. Mali’s democratic culture may not be as well developed as their neighbours in Senegal, and “the spontaneous nature” of the coup revealed, “how different the mentalities are between the two countries”.

“Our democracy was developing … no one thought the [Malian] army would cross the red line,” said Dakar University student Musa Camara.

Even then, comparing the developments in Mali with Senegal is not helpful, despite the various historical connections, he added.

Mali, formerly French Sudan, and Senegal were briefly one country in 1958 under the guise of the Mali Federation – but disbanded to make way for Senegal and Mali to become independent states in 1960. Except for sharing similarities in physical geography, language and ethnicity, Senegal and Mali’s post-independence histories have little in common.

Senegal has long been considered stable, and has the distinction for being the only country in West Africa not to have experienced a coup. In comparison, the coup on Tuesday was Mali’s third in fifty years.

There is a fundamental difference between how the society is structured and how ordinary people are respected, student league president Samake said.

“For Mali to be like Senegal, it won’t be easy. It is a question of mentality. Senegalese are better behaved as compared to Malians … even in terms of how the administration treats its people.

“Despite the problems in Senegal, people need to be able to negotiate and to resolve a situation … look at Senegal, despite the trouble, the Senegalese have been successful in organising everything in such a way that all the predicted trouble didn’t take place.”

Despite the differences of opinion on whether there was any justification for the coup, there is no disagreement that the situation had to be resolved, as a matter of urgency. Malians here in Dakar say that the army needs to find a solution to the Tuareg issue and build a civilian structure that builds towards general elections.

That the army could be trusted with relinquishing power and paving the way for free elections is now the big question, though in Mali, it has been done before.

President Toure took over the country in a military coup in 1991 and set up multiparty elections within a year, culminating in Alpha Oumar Konaré’s election into office. Toure himself retired from the military and became president in 2002, and 2007 and was due to step down this year, after elections scheduled for April 29.

The past two decades has largely been seen as a consolidation of democratic values in Mali, the fragility of which the current impasse appears to have only proven.

Student Musa Camara concluded that the ballot box should have been the instrument of change. “The coup is untimely,” he said. “Even if there are some problems in the north, allowing the democratic process to play itself out would have been the best way forward.”