Book Fair dates set

Auxilia Katongomara Entertainment Reporter
THE Bulawayo Book Fair will run from March 28-29 at the National Gallery in Bulawayo. Unveiling the Zimbabwe International Book Fair (ZIBF)’s full programme of activities for this year, Musaemura Zimunya, ZIBF Chairperson and Executive Board member said: “This year’s annual literary exhibition will run under the theme: ‘Indigenous Languages, Literature, Art and Knowledge Systems of Africa’.”
He said this year’s theme was influenced by an increase in the need for fluency in African languages.

“In arriving at this theme, ZIBF is guided by a few factors, among which are the overwhelming submissions on the subject of African languages, literatures, heritages and knowledge systems, a majority of which were unfortunate to be turned down for lack of space,” said Zimunya.

From the ZIBF 2013 Writers Workshop there were compelling indications regarding the urgency to recognise African languages, literatures and art forms as creative media and repositories of knowledge systems deserving as much attention as languages and literatures conveyed in English and other Western languages,” he said.

The Bulawayo Book Fair programming will run along the usual exhibition incorporating the children’s reading tent, live literature centre, book fair exhibitions, the writers, publishers, librarians and booksellers workshop.

Exhibitions will take place at the Large City Hall while workshops will be conducted at the Small City Hall.
Zimunya said the book fair workshops are open to all players in the book industry who are invited to share their expertise in the field.
“Given the limited scope of the regional book fair workshops, we are constrained to limit the number of topics that may be addressed in the one-day writers, publishers, booksellers and librarians workshop.

“Our workshop intends to bring together stakeholders of the book industry, the writers, publishers, booksellers, librarians, and academics to address and discuss issues that have been identified as beneficial to the book sector in order to exploit the common synergies that help to grow the industry.”

Some of the topics to be discussed during the workshops are Writing and Publishing in Indigenous languages, Folk tales, riddles and proverbs as Indicators of social values, African dances, Traditional arts as intellectual property, Current trends in Ndebele writing.

Zimunya said following the success of the 2013 Bulawayo Literary Evening, they had organised yet another evening for authors to celebrate their art as well as to mix and mingle with their fraternity.
He called on parents and schools to afford pupils a chance to visit the Book Fair.

“We therefore, would like to extend our invitation to parents and schools in the Matebeleland region to afford pupils this very unique opportunity to visit the Book Fair Exhibitions to sample books for educational advancement, professional development and individual intellectual growth.

In particular, we also wish to extend a warm welcome to teachers and members of the general public to visit The Bulawayo Book Fair to discover the opportunities that lie in books for further learning and knowledge acquisition,” said Zimunya.
Last year, ZIBF celebrated 30 years in existence.

The book fairs are held in Masvingo and Chiredzi with the main book fair held in Harare in August.