OBF2025: Inherited Systems

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.
In this event, Rebecca Gore, Adekeye Adebajo and Edgar Pieterse speak to Alexandra Dodd about colonial structures—legal, spatial, cultural—that we are born into and that we either uphold, resist, or remake. These authors explore how systems define the parameters of justice, survival, and hope—and what it might take to transform them.
The festival was made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

OBF2025: Unsettled Accounts | The Interpeters

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.

In this event, Alexandra Dodd, Bongani Kona and Antjie Krog discuss memoir and personal nonfiction as ways of grappling with memory, complicity, silence, and shame—both in private lives and in the shared fictions that shape them. This conversation, hosted by Hedley Twidle, explores the risks and rewards of writing into uncertainty.

The festival was made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust

OBF2025: Conversations with Mohale | Are We Tired Yet?

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.
In this event, Pumla Dineo Gqola, Goretti Kyomuhendo and Zulaikha Patel speak to Mohale Mashigo about emotional exhaustion and crisis fatigue.
The festival was made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

OBF2025: Director’s Choice | Literary Spaces and Belonging

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.

In this event, Festival Director Mervyn Sloman talks to Mohale Mashigo, Lesedi Molefi and Mbali Sikakana about the ways in which Black writers are expected to perform once they have published, how many of these performances involve negotiating white spaces, what needs to change and why we have been having the same conversation for years.

The festival was made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust

OBF2025: Traumatised Cities

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.

In this event, David Cornwell, Caryn Dolley and Nthato Mokgata speak to Edgar Pieterse about the structured violence and alienation of the urban, both past and present.

This event is brought to you by the African Literary Cities Project.

The festival was made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust

OBF2025: Created in Africa

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.

In this event, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, James Murua and Rémy Ngamije speak to Mervyn Sloman about their efforts to spotlight African writing.

This event is brought to you by the African Literary Cities Project.

The festival was made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust

OBF2025: The Body Keeps the Score

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.

In this event, Popina Khumanda, Malika Ndlovu and Jeffrey Rakabe speak to Firdose Moonda about the scars of trauma and the personal revolution to get to the other side.

The festival was made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

OBF2025: The Republic

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.

In this event, Wale Lawal, editor at The Republic is in conversation with Will Shoki, the editor of Africa is a Country. The conversation is preceded by a preview of a video podcast.

The festival was made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust

OBF2025: Queering Intimacy

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.

In this event, Azille Coetzee, Alistair Mackay and Kopano Maroga speak to Céline Tshika about sex and desire outside of heteronormative expectations.

The festival was made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust.

OBF2025: Out of this World and into the Next

This is a recording of a live event that took place at the September 2025 edition of the Open Book Festival.
In this event, renowned theoretical physicist, Adriana Marais, speaks to Jacinta Delhaize and Daniel Cunnama from The Cosmic Savannah podcast about the scientific and technical possibilities of extraplanetary settlement, and where our ethical responsibilities lie.
The festival was made possible by the support of the City of Cape Town, the Heinrich Boell Foundation and the Wheatfield Estate Foundation Trust