The Time of the Writer Hosts John Pilger

by Sharlene on Apr 3rd, 2008

If “truth” was one of major themes of this year’s Time of the Writer – it was treated in nearly every discussion, from the “Literature and Truth” session to the “South African Fictions” panel – then the festival closed on the most appropriate note possible, by hosting journalist John Pilger, one of the best-known advocates for speaking truth to power in the world.

The event, which saw Pilger responding to questions from two august panellists – author Patrick Bond and editor Ferial Haffajee – was a Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture in association with the Centre for Civil Society, and was streamed live on johnpilger.ukzn.ac.za. The entire video remains available at that address: click the link to watch the 2008 Time of the Writer finale with John Pilger.

The evening was sold out, and large-screen televisions were set up outside the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre, for those who weren’t able to get a seat inside. After festival director Peter Rorvik thanked audience members for attending – and thanked the eighteen main participants in the 2008 TOW, all seated in the front row, for making this year’s festival such a success – the lights darkened and a 10-minute montage of several of Pilger’s films played, underscoring the gravity of the issues he tackles, from Latin America to Africa to the Middle and Far East.

Poet-activist Dennis Brutus then introduced Pilger, Bond and Haffajee, and Piljger took the stage. He began by mentioning that he had cut his journalistic teeth in South Africa in the late 1960s, and still keeps a photograph from that era – of a black woman standing between two hippos shaking her fist in defiance – above his desk. (He had the full story of the shot from the photographer: he and the woman were lying in a ditch together; she produced a bottle and took a swig of hard alcohol; then rushed from the cover to confront apartheid’s war machines.)

Pilger then noted that the number of civil society protests in South Africa had doubled in frequency to 10 000 over the past two years – and welcomed the development, encouraged by the fact that “resistance remains a presence here”. He also mentioned his 1998 film, Apartheid Didn’t Die (which can be watched in full on Google Video), received with great controversy here when it was screened on the SABC a few years ago, and which wouldn’t, Pilger believed, be shown today.

The mention of Apartheid Didn’t Die proved a perfect segue into the main part of evening’s discussion, which consisted first of questions to Pilger from Bond and Haffajee, and then of questions and comments from the audience. These were as diverse as the settings of Pilgers films, traversing the United States’ African Command base in Addis Ababa (the
new US armed forces deployment for the continent – Pilger believes its presence augurs the grim threat of proxy war between the US and China over Africa’s material resources); the clash between world governing elites and proponents of a more “Rousseauian” approach to democracy, as seen in Venezuela; the media-restriction laws proposed by Ronnie Kasrils; Palestine; Zimbabwe; and much else besides.

View the complete John Pilger panel discussion via streamed video

The problem facing those who fight for truth, said Pilger, is that “we often don’t know what to do with the knowledge”. But he reminded everyone that change for the better must start with truth: “Our greatest weapon is knowledge, truth… when people can debullshit BS… that consciousness is something that can be used” for the greater good.