PRESS RELEASE
Date: 12 October 2023
Title: Nozincwadi Storytelling and Book Festival 2023
Mama Gcina Mhlophe, a loving mother, to more children than she bore. An active champion of literature, arts, culture and heritage. She is a source of light, a well-narrated tale remembered with fond nostalgia. Our childhood memories have stored treasured archives of her stories and the cosy warmth they made us feel. Lessons of our environment, life and nature, channelled through imaginative oral depictions. Instilling values, broadening our horizon and sharpening our creative wit. Enabling the envisioning of endless possibilities.
Encouraging us to explore literature, inspiring self-believe and feeding our minds with the idea of our wildest dreams being somewhat within reach.
It has become customary for GCINAMASIKO Arts and Heritage Trust to host the annual International Nozincwadi Storytelling Festival in the month of October and this year is no different. The 15th edition of celebrating the rich heritage of our oral traditions is underway.
The theme for the festival this year is: Stories straight from the heart – like a flowing River of Ancestral Wisdom. Every storyteller will share with us the journey of their place of origin and the richness of what the rivers we drink from have meant to us as Africans, reaffirming our identity and sense of belonging. This speaks to the very soul of all sons and daughters of
Africa and the diaspora.
The festival will be hosted in Durban, the proud UNESCO City of Literature, from the 19th to the 24th of October 2023. The official Launch will be on Thursday 19th of October 2023 at the ICC. Friday 20th October, at Mkhumbane Hall with school audiences, we will focus on environmental themes – “The Power of the flowing River”, “Healing Herbs”, the timeless respect our ancestors instilled in us and how we should treat water and its spirituality
through oral history. Saturday 21st October 2023, the festival performances will continue at the Mkhumbane Hall with adult and family audiences. The evening of Saturday 21st we will
host an International Hybrid Seminar (Zoom and in-person) at The Playhouse. Having come full circle as the very first festival was hosted at the Playhouse. It will be streamed live on the Gcinamasiko Heritage Facebook page for our sister organisations and fellow storytellers in Africa and abroad to join in.
Reinforcing the universality and power of storytelling through this year’s theme.
On Monday 23rd of October, the NOZINCWADI Festival will be co-hosted with the Msunduzi Library Services at the City Hall in Pietermaritzburg. This partnership has seen growing audiences every year. The last day, Tuesday 24th of October, we are excited to celebrate, once more, our National Storytelling Day.
Marking Dr Gcina Mhlophe’s birthday, under the Storytelling Tree, at the Bluff Showgrounds, Durban with stories accompanied by special drummers and other indigenous musicians.
Gcina Mhlophe is a versatile and multi-talented artist who has left an indelible mark on the literary and performance arts in South Africa and beyond. An award-winning author, poet, playwright, director and performer, showcasing her talent on some of the world’s most
prestigious stages. Mhlophe’s stories meld folklore, information, current affairs, song and
idiom.
Storytelling is a deeply traditional activity in South Africa and Mhlophe does her work through charismatic performances, working to preserve storytelling as a means of keeping history alive and encouraging South African children to read.
She won the 2023 DStv Content Creator Awards: Podcast Special Mention, presented by Spotify: African Story Magic with Gcina Mhlophe and the APVA Awards Best Fiction Podcast for 2023 for “African Story Magic with Gcina Mhlophe” podcast on East Coast Radio. Dr Gcina Mhlophe innovatively turned her storytelling book into a sign-language video
recently and converted her storytelling book into braille in 2021.
This year’s festival will feature the following visual artists, authors and storytellers (including sign language storytellers); Aviwe Jemane, JHB (SA), Dimakatso Motimele (SA), Mpumelelo Ndlovu, Umlazi (SA), Syabonga Ndlela, Molweni( SA), Hlobisile Mkhize, Inanda
(SA), Patricia Kayendenka “Zoey the Storyteller” Uganda, Bevin Magama, United Kingdom, Johnetta Tinker, USA, Susan Thompson, USA, Reatile Mohapeloa, Lesotho, Madoda Ndlakuse, Gqeberha (SA), Nompucuko Zakaza, East London (SA), Busiwe Matshezi the Poet, Cape Town (SA), Bongiswa Kota- Ramushwana Pretoria (SA), Mahudu Lucky Tshimbudzi, Venda (SA), Phumlani Nyanga, Eastern Cape (SA) and international storyteller Nomakhwezi Becker, Durban (SA) with environmentalist Scelo Mbatha KZN (SA) as the keynote speaker.
Nozincwadi Storytelling Festival is brought to you by GCINAMASIKO Arts & Heritage Trust in partnership with eThekwini Library Services, Department of Sports, Arts & Culture,
Msunduzi Library, and Hot Toffee Communications. The is inspired by renowned storyteller, Dr Gcina Mhlophe’s grandmother who collected books and filled them in a suitcase even, though she couldn’t read. Her name was Nozincwadi, Mother of Books.
Like our facebook page: Gcinamasiko Heritage
Instagram: Gcinamaskio Arts Heritage
Contact Dr Gcina Mhlophe: 031 470 2006
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Notes:
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