Literary gravitas happens when Women writers take centre stage

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

I recently attended the second instalment of Women Writers’ Festival at the Johannesburg Business School, organised by author and former diplomat Barbara Masekala and her associates, in collaboration with the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study, where Maskela is a writing fellow currently.
I was struck by the number of women writers the country has produced in the last few years.

It appeared as if any women in attendance there was either a published writer or an aspiring writer, and there are many actually. If anything, women writers in this country have been prolific in the past few years, producing books in different genres, from biographies, those touching on financial advisory issues, to fiction. It would appear that women writers have been more productive than their male counterparts.

The event was quite a huge success in that the different panels, which were well attended touched on various themes that were well handled by well informed writers. These panels dealt with subjects affecting women writers in the creative and publishing sector. Us, the few men that attended the event were given deep insight into issues affecting female writers, and issues that are in fact not issues affecting fellow male writers.

It was great that the guest of honour at this year’s festival was none other than British based Ghanaian writer Margaret Busby. I went to the event on the last day on a Sunday, and I was disappointed with myself that I missed the reception for the author that was held on Saturday, having somehow not read the invite to the event in my inbox.

I would have loved to hear her reception speech. However as it were, I was able to do a catch up when last week on Thursday, Busby had an engagement at Book Circle Capital book shop at 27 Boxes in Melville where I was invited and happily honoured the invitation. Busby had an interesting discussion with book shop owner Sewela Langeni, who handled the discussion with much professionalism. Langeni has the distinction of being the only female of colour in the book trade who owns a book shop, and the regular book launches that take place there are always inspiring.

This event was no different, and the fact that some of the writers who contributed to Busby’s updated book series New Daughters of Africa added literary gravitas to the event. Among the contributors were poet Phillipa de Villiers, fiction writer Zukiswa Wanner, the South African writer who is now based in Nairobi, Kenya, and poet Vangile Gantsho, who were in discussion with Langeni after Busby’s presentation.

They spoke about their journeys in contributing pieces of writing to the book, in fact the three contributors are among an impressive pool of more than 200 contributors of African descent scattered all over the world. This big volume book is a valuable literary resource where one will find rich stories told by different generations of women over centuries.
Showcasing the work of more than 200 women writers of African descent, this major international collection celebrates their contributions to literature and international culture. 

This one is an updated edition to the original book. Twenty-five years ago, Margaret Busby’s groundbreaking anthology Daughters of Africa illuminated the “silent, forgotten, underrated voices of black women”  (Washington Post). Published to international acclaim, it was hailed as “an extraordinary body of achievement… a vital document of lost history” (Sunday Times).

the New Daughters of Africa book therefore continues that mission for a new generation, bringing together a selection of overlooked artists of the past with fresh and vibrant voices that have emerged from across the globe in the past two decades.
them. Each of the pieces in this remarkable collection demonstrates an uplifting sense of sisterhood, honours the strong links that endure from generation to generation, and addresses the common obstacles women writers of colour face as they negotiate issues of race, gender and class, and confront vital matters of independence, freedom and oppression.

Custom, tradition, friendships, sisterhood, romance, sexuality, intersectional feminism, the politics of gender, race, and identity— all and more are explored in this glorious collection of work from over 200 writers.
 
New Daughters of Africa spans a wealth of genres—autobiography, memoir, oral history, letters, diaries, short stories, novels, poetry, drama, humour, politics, journalism, essays and speeches—to demonstrate the diversity and remarkable literary achievements of black women.
Who is Margaret Busby?
She is a major cultural figure around the world. She was born in Ghana and educated in the UK and was Britain’s youngest and first black woman publisher when she co-founded Allison & Busby in the late 1960s.
An editor, broadcaster and literary critic, she has also written drama for BBC radio and the stage. 
She has judged numerous national and international literary competitions, and served on the boards of such organisations as the Royal Literary Fund, Wasafiri magazine and The Africa Centre. She lives in London.