Award winning author and publisher Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho recently hosted the inaugural Rine Book Festival in his home village of Madombidzha in Limpopo. The event was the first of its kind in this sprawling village on the outskirts of the historic town of Louis Trichardt.
The festival almost didn’t happen after an earlier postponement due to administrative glitches on the side of the partner and funder, the national Department of Sport, Arts Culture.
In this frank interview Mukwevho tells Makgatla Thepa Lephale about his unyielding drive to see the festival grow despite the mounting challenges that come with organising an event of this magnitude.
Makgatla Thepa Lephale: We are here for the Rine Book Festival in Madombidzha. Now the first question that I would like to ask you, is what motivated you to start this book festival?
Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho: The motivation came from research that I conducted, that people hardly make time to be together and encourage each other to buy and read books. I feel that people need to buy and read books.
Thepa Lephale: Okay, and why Madombidzha? It is very rare to find book festivals happening in deep rural areas. So why did you choose Madombidzha? You could have chosen to do the festival in the inner city, in Makhado or anywhere else, but then why Madombidzha?
Mukwevho: This is an area where people seldom have access to books.There is a library that opened at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. But I only learned about the library some three weeks ago. I never knew that. So I think that the more we host book festivals like this, we conscientise people about the availability of books within their villages or within their reach, from our offices or the book shops and then they get to buy books from our stalls and read those books.
Thepa Lephale: Organising an event like this requires a lots of logistics and I am sure you have met some challenges with regards to organising it. What are some of the challenges you have come across in preparation for this event?
Mukwevho: The biggest challenge was when I got confirmation that the event could not be on the date that we had agreed on, it was myself and the partial funders who are the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture in Pretoria, only to find out I had to postpone the event because they had not effected payment. Even though we tried to have a meeting and resolve that issue, I was not happy with it because it seems like the people who are within the offices do not understand the hard work we put in to events like this, the preparations…so it breaks our hearts, it’s like we have chosen the wrong careers of publishing, writing books and even promoting those books. So you feel like quitting but you know you can’t quit because you love what you are doing, because if you quit publishing and writing those books who is going to write books? Who is going to publish those books? So the institutions particularly government institutions, whenever they promise us something they should abide by those promises or else we are doomed to always be at war with them which is a very bad thing.
Thepa Lephale: I’ve seen the book stall, so many books that are published under your publishing company Vhakololo Press, basically how many books have you published so far?
Mukwevho: So far we have got over 130 books that we have published ranging from poetry, short stories, novels, memoirs, autobiographical writing as well. We have many books and we are proud of that.
Thepa Lephale: I’ve seen that the event has attracted people who have been in literary space for quite some time. How did you attract these big names in the literacy space more especially that you are… you have done this in rural areas?
Mukwevho: Those people and others who are here prominent names as we may call them, they have witnessed my rise as a writer from the early 2000s and they were motivating me to write even more books and when I started publishing they were so happy that WOW! this writer is now turned publisher, this is something great because he is not just a publisher, he has got experience as a writer so he understands better the needs of a writer. And so I am happy even though I decided to do this festival, I invited them they accepted the invite because they have got my CV in their minds.
Thepa Lephale: Tshifhiwa (Mukwevho) you operate within municipalities. I understand you fall within the Makhado Local Municipality under the Vhembe District Municipality. Have you tried to engage the municipality? Because where I am standing I think the municipality could have taken the advantage of this event and either collaborate with you or fund you because you know, running an event like this, especially when you have taken it to the people because this is where it matters most. So have you tried to engage them in terms of requesting support from them or even collaboration?
Mukwevho: I have tried many times throughout the years, not only for this festival even for other publishing initiatives or publications even to get them to buy even five books to put them on the library shelves. But that has never happened. Anyway for this festival we invited the Makhado Local Municipality mayor and they said no, the mayor wouldn’t come but they would send a delegate. The councillor came and said no we have been sent by the mayor and the mayor is saying that whatever you need as Vhakolokolo Press we are there to support you, just get in touch with us and we will support you in full force or hundred percent. Well I believed him. That would be something new and refreshing, something that I have never been promised before even though we requested so many times from the previous mayors. There is nobody who doesn’t know me within the municipality so let’s hope they will assist this time around.
Thepa Lephale: Let’s hope so and pray so, so going towards the conclusion what are the lesson learned from this event going forward because I believe this is going to be an annual event. I believe that you want it to grow and even next year you are still going to, by God’s grace you still going to have the second instalment of the event. What are the lesson learned from this event also noting the success that it has registered if there are any?
Mukwevho: I am happy that people who are here they are happy after participating in all the sessions that were taking place but then I was expecting a more turnout of people here, particularly learners from schools around the Sinthumule and Kutama area, but then for schools I can say I invited six schools initially and I hoped they would confirm invitations and they would come here. I invited them on time but they didn’t confirm any invitations. When I called some of the schools they would say no, send it [the invitation] to the circuit office then I would say no, I think it is not for me to send the invitation maybe requesting five learners and a guardian from the school who might be a teacher to come to the festival. It should be for you as the school to alert the circuit that we have got this invitation from Vhakololo Press for the Rine festival for learners to participate there. So look, one school responded, the Sinugane Secondary School. The learners are happy, they presented poetry, they read the books, we gifted them with some reading material.
The learners are happy, they will go back to the school happy, they will get back to their homes happy and tell their parents, siblings and friends that we were at the festival, we met writers, we never met writers in our lives but we met writers today, we met publishers. So local schools should learn to respond or to consider our invitations. We are not doing this for fame, we are doing this to empower the learners. If the principal however feels like maybe they do not need us even they do not know about us because we are not known they should consider that they are doing it for the learners and not for themselves, that’s my take.
Thepa Lephale: So can we safely say that we are coming back for the second instalment [of the Rine Book Festival]? So you are not giving up on this irrespective of the challenges that you’ve come across?
Mukwevho: Hopefully I am not giving up on this Rine Book Festival. Vhakololo Press, we are looking forward to shifting the festival from September because between September and October here in South Africa is like the literal festive season. So we need to spread the festival throughout the year so we will move the Rine Book Festival from September to end of February and March, and make it run for at least three days and with funding or no funding, Vhakololo now has the financially stability to host this festival. We will go all out to make it happen. Because if they do not want to fund us, there is nothing we can do.
Thepa Lephale: Now that is the spirit. Thank you. – news@mukurukuru.co.za
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