Anfasa promotes author’s role within the cultural lobby
Authors from all-over joined in on the Academic and Non-fiction Authors’ Association of South Africa (Anfasa) Conference hosted at the Birchwood Hotel from March 13 to 15.
During this three-day event, Anfasa celebrated its 10th by reflecting on the issues facing writers today.
“We thought our 10-year milestone would be an opportune moment to pause and reflect on the meaning of authors’ rights, and how these can be protected and promoted,” said Anfasa’s director, Kundayi Masanzu.
According to Masanzu, authors need to be acknowledged for the role they play in knowledge creation, as well as for the relevance of their contributions to the national discourse about readership and learning.
He also said that authors need incentives to produce more works.
A number of high-powered local and international speakers from the world of non-fiction and academic publishing, communicated insightful information on their specialised field.
This was the organisation’s first annual conference, as well as its annual general meeting.
Thee conference provided the ideal opportunity for members and delegates to celebrate the country’s 20 years of democracy by examining the opportunities and challenges facing non-fiction and academic writing in post-Apartheid South Africa.
A variety of hot topics were discussed at the conference such as the protection of author’s intellectual property; the policies and practices relating to indigenous languages in education in the 20 years since democracy; open access systems; and the Clout of the creative industries.
With the latter topic, Prof Andries Oliphant presided over a session looking at how the creative industries, including authors, can pull together as a cultural lobby and influence government policies.
Paolo Lanteri from World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo), Barbara Hays from International Authors Forum, UK, and Andrè le Roux from Arterial Network South Africa, discussed this topic by giving an in-depth description of what their particular organisation does to promote the authors’ role within the cultural lobby.
During this session, Lanteri said that Wipo is the global forum for intellectual property services, policy, information and cooperation.
“Our mission is to lead the development of a balanced and effective international intellectual property system that enables innovation and creativity for the benefit of all,” said Lanteri.
IAF representative Hays mentioned that the IAF tries to influence Wipo delegates and authors organisations in emerging countries.
The IAF organises events, publications and discussions for authors to meet and complement each other’s work.
In his presentation, Le Roux also mentioned workshops the Arterial Network offers authors to assemble.
In a January 2014 survey for authors and author’s organisations, results showed that IAF members would like the IAF to, among others, address digital rights and privacy, copyright education and awareness and maintain a truly international focus.
The conference assisted in defining the meaning of authors’ rights and the role authors can play within the creative industries.
