The National Writers Association of South Africa (NWASA) recognises the importance of literary craft for sustaining livelihood, building legacies and nurturing national cohesion.
The founding members of this initiative and those who gathered at the inaugural meeting on 25 May 2018 in Midrand noted that, historically, South African writers have made an immense contribution on the national, continental and global stage to the struggle for cultural, social, political, economic, environmental and gender justice, as commentators, narrators, expositors, thinkers, interpreters and interrogators of social reality and as voices of the personal and collective experiences of our people.
Organisations such as the erstwhile African Writers Association (AWA), Congress of South African Writers (COSAW), and several others, have played a pivotal role in the liberation movement and beyond. Through the power of their words, they have built a framework for moulding our freedom. The democracy we enjoy today is a direct result of their creative energies.
NWASA is thus born out of a need for a national writers’ movement that will advocate for literature, advance and defend the rights and interests of writers and work towards the development of the quality of writing, readership, publishing and distribution of literature.
It thus takes its rightful place in South Africa’s dynamic arts and cultural landscape and the broader landscape of organisation and institutions striving towards an egalitarian African society within a free, inclusive world.
Historical documents
The reports, meetings, and presentations below were instrumental in conceptualising and forming the National Writers Association of South Africa.