South African Literary Awards – The winners are…

Twenty-eight South African authors were shortlisted for 2017 South African Literary Awards (SALA). Announced in early November, authors, poets, writers other and literary practitioners whose works are continuously contributing to the enrichment of South Africa’s literary landscape were celebrated in an auspicious ceremony. The SALA Awards have honoured over a hundred individuals in the past 12 years.
2017 marked the highest milestone of the awards, as the shortlist included, for the first time, the !Xam and !Kun languages. A Posthumous Literary Award was bestowed upon |A!kunta, !Kabbo, ≠Kasin, Dia!kwain and |Han≠kass’o (!Xam and !Kun). These legendary contributors were drawn from Wilhelm Bleek and Lucy Lloyd collection of !Xam and !Kun narratives, verses, songs, chants, drawings and other materials consisting of over 150 notebooks running in some 13 000 pages which is considered a unique cultural and literary collection which has been recognised by United Nations Education, Science and Cultural Council (UNESCO) and entered into the memory of the World Register.
The materials deal with the land, the rain, the history of the first people, the origin of the moon and stars, animals, cosmology, beliefs, ceremonies, art and information of the individual lives of the informants who had come to Cape Town as prisoners of the British Crown and were released into Bleek’s custody at his residence in Mowbray for linguistic and cultural research.
Literary Translators Award winners were Bridget Theron-Bushell for The Thirstland Trek: 1874—1881 (Afrikaans—English); Jeff Opland, Wandile Kuse and Pamela Maseko for William Wellington Gqoba: Isizwe Esinembali: Xhosa Histories and Poetry (1873—1888) (isiXhosa—English) and Jeff Opland and Pamela Maseko for DLP Yali-Manisi: Iimbali Zamanyange: Historical Poems (isiXhosa—English).
Lifetime Achievement Literary Awards went to Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa (English), Aletta Matshedisð Motimele (Sepedi) and Etienne van Heerden (Afrikaans).
A Lifetime Achievement Literary Award was bestowed upon South Africa’s legendary Credo Vusamazulu Mutwa, who is largely respected for his predictions of world events, including the destruction of New York’s World Trade Centre in 2001, the 1976 June 16 Uprising, HIV, Chris Hani’s assassination, load shedding and the ousting of President Thabo Mbeki. Mutwa shares the accolades with other literary stalwarts, Aletta Matshedisð Motimele, who is revered for her Sepedi works and Etienne van Heerden, an academic and prolific Afrikaans author.
‘Indeed, as its main aim, SALA continues to strive to become the most prestigious and respected literary accolades in South African literature,’ says Sindiswa Seakhoa, director at wRite Associates, founders of SALA, in partnership with the Department of Arts and Culture in 2005.
The First-time Published Author Award went to Moses Shimo Seletisha for Tšhutšhumakgala (Sepedi), while the K Sello Duiker Memorial Literary Award went to Nthikeng Mohlele for Pleasure (English). The Poetry Award went to Helen Moffett for Prunings (English) and Simphiwe Ali Nolutshungu for Iingcango Zentliziyo (isiXhosa), while the Nadine Gordimer Short story Award went to Roela Hattingh for Kamee (Afrikaans).

The creative Non-fiction Award went to Dikgang Moseneke for My Own Liberator (English), while the Literary Journalism Award went to Don Makatile and Phakama Mbonambi. The Chairmans award went to Themba Christian Msimang.
Since its inception in 2005, to date, SALA has honoured 160 authors in 11 categories in all official South African languages. SALA also boasts legacy programmes including:
• The National Poet Laureate Programme and the Keorapetse Kgositsile Lecture, in honour of the Poet Laureate Professor Keorapetse Kgositsile.
• The Miriam Tlali Reading and Book Club, in honour of the late Miriam Tlali.
• Band of Troubadours, a publication comprising the work of the SALA recipients
• Africa Century International African Writers Conference and International African Writers Day Lecture, established in 2012.
Both the 2017 South African Literary Awards ceremony and Conference took place on 7 November at Kgorong Building, Unisa. This is a partnership by the wRite Associates, the Department of Arts and Culture and the Department of Afrikaans and Theory of Literature, Unisa.
The conference is set to become a Mecca of who is who of the African literati, the Diaspora and the entire globe where the celebration of African letters occupies centre stage.
This historical gathering of literary intellectuals and authors from across the world, is, as the then-OAU’s Conference of African Ministers of Education and Culture (meeting in Coutonou, Benin, in 1991) resolved, ‘… to afford the African people a moment of pause within which to reflect on the contribution of African Writers to the development of the Continent’.
The theme for the conference this year was ‘The Writer as a Drum Major of Conscience, Restoration & Transformation’, with the sub-theme being ‘The Establishment of the South African Writers Organisation’.
Professor Zodwa Motsa, a Fulbright Scholar, a Researcher, Writer and Social Engineer, who has served as Head of the Department: English Studies (Unisa) from 2006—2011 and is currently serving as the Country Director at Unisa’s Ethiopia Centre for Graduate Studies in Addis Ababa, since 2012, delivered the sixth International African Writers Day Lecture and Professor Nhlanhla Maake, an academician, novelist, dramatist, literary critic, and language activist delivered the response. Professor Andries Oliphant, author, poet, literary scholar and cultural policy advisor, led a seminar on the establishment of South Africa’s Writers’ Organisation.