By Maeder Osler
By any measure, the historic Franschhoek Valley is a bastion of established South African agriculture. For this reason, it was quite brave of this year’s Franschhoek Literary Festival to host a discussion of a provocative book aimed at stirring agricultural stakeholders out of a perceived state of inertia.
Titled The Uncomfortable Truth about South Africa’s Agriculture, it’s the combined work of two leading agricultural economists — Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, and Johann Kirsten, Director of the Bureau for Economic Research of Stellenbosch University.
As its title suggests, the book doesn’t pull any punches about the problems besetting the agricultural sector, or the steps needed to pull it out of its present downward spiral.
According to the backtext, Sihlobo and Kirsten chose to write it in a ‘candid, direct and unfiltered tone, not out of disregard, but with the hope of stirring South African agricultural stakeholders from the inertia that may have taken hold over time’.
While politicians and farmer representatives stage endless policy discussions, ‘farmers suffer, the unemployed languish, and small towns crumble. Poor roads and rising costs choke market access, while collapsing municipalities pile pressure on agribusinesses.’
More hopefully, they say that things don’t have to be this way, and the agricultural sector has ‘great potential to grow, increase employment, and revitalise the rural economy’.
Thus the book is aimed at empowering readers with a clearer understanding of the present constraints on the agricultural sector and how they could be overcome.
Harking back to the title, they conclude: ‘While the contents may be uncomfortable for some, this book is intended to ignite an urgent call for decisive policy and programme implementation and to demand stronger collaboration among social partners.’
This ground-breaking book and its discussion reflected the degree to which the festival organisers have worked to broaden the festival’s scope and appeal beyond a narrow (and largely white) literary elite.
The Franschhoek Literary Festival seems a worthwhile model, notably due to its steady reach beyond literary elites, and its reimagined recognition of its historic surroundings, including the impressively refashioned Huguenot memorial.
Indeed, it has brought to mind varied experiences at other, similar events, such as the Olive Schreiner festival, Ettienne Van Heerden soirees and food festivals at Nxuba (Cradock), the Richmond Book Town gatherings, the Bay of Books festival at Simonstown, and the erratic Williston Mall stofdans festival. And many others that could be compared and explored.
While currently dormant, my roots in Colesberg’s Nuwe Hantam area also swam into view. Is there scope for a Nuwe Hantam festival, I wondered, centred on the town’s travel and tourism industry, beyond a one-dimensional, unimaginative and therefore once-off Sheep Festival?
We will look at Sihlobo’s and Kirsten’s book in greater detail in a forthcoming post. In the meantime, the Franschhoek Festival programmers deserve to be congratulated for their recognition that literary feasts and festivals remain rooted in the material realities of agricultural production and the stewardship of land.
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