PEN South Africa, in partnership with the Institute for Creative Arts, has organised Day of the Imprisoned Writer event on Friday, the 15th of November 2018 - to commemorate writers who are serving sentences and awaiting trails for their works at the Hiddingh Hall in Hiddingh Campus of the University of Cape Town. It is the annual event, and they always have an empty seat that represents the imprisoned writers.
The writers who were commemorated this year were Wael Abbas, Dawit Isaak, Miroslava Breach Velducea, Shahidul Alam and Oleg Sentsov. The readings were presented by Rustum Kozain, Desiree Lewis, Yewande Omotoso, Wamuwi Mbao and Nick Mulgrew.
To read about the arrests and sentences of the commemorated jailed writers, kindly visit PEN South Africa webpage: http://pensouthafrica.co.za
Source: http://pensouthafrica.co.za
It is me, as it has always been me, pushing the pen as it regurgitate ink on the paper – like a vulture regurgitating rotten meat in the mouth of its chick. Writing is therapeutic; but most importantly, the art of writing facilitate to store information, ideals and formative thoughts that surfaces from the caverns of the brain. Writing helps to spark debates that generate indispensable remedies. The art of writing should be perennially encouraged. I just cannot rest my pen.
I am back after eighteen (18) months of recess from blogging. The blog is no longer dormant. I have decided to halt for a little while to avoid monotony in the tone of my writing – which is largely influenced by my frustrations and acute depression. I had been nursing wounds from life brutal blows; however, even though the wounds are not completely healed, I am currently in the better position psychologically to endure the agony.
The past 18 months had been filled with positive and negative events that have filled me with great ambivalence in my reflection. I will not reveal much, just one event which is of great interest, and so glorious - a human achievement. I have completed a BA Communication Science degree at the University of South Africa (Unisa) in June, and it was conferred to me in the spring graduation ceremony – held on the 19th of October 2018 in Friend of God Church, GOODWOOD. It was my debut participation in the graduation ceremony; I could not participate in the autumn graduation ceremony at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) - about a decade ago (in 2008), due to administrative incompetency at the exam office.
I came across tremendous odds in my journey; I won’t dwell on them to avoid scratching on dreadful memories. I can happily say that I have covered the milestone; the challenge now is to secure pertinent employment. I am planning to study further up until my forties, for as long as I am able to study.
Kindly view some of my graduation images that random people took with my Tablet PC Smartphone below:
