The recent outbreak of COVID-19 disrupted part of the Toyota US Woordfees programme when guest speaker, author Christy Lefteri, withdrew her attendance as part of the Writer’s Festival, this week.
Lefteri, who wrote The Beekeeper of Aleppo, was scheduled to speak at two Woordfees events, A Woman’s War and To Lose Everything: Three International Authors.
Jonathan Ball Publishers announced via their Facebook page that Lefteri would not be attending the festival due to fears surrounding the virus, on March 7.
“We are saddened to announce that due to the increasing concerns about current travelling and health conditions, Christy Lefteri will no longer be travelling to South Africa,” they said.
The host of To Lose Everything: Three International Authors, Azille Coetzee, also announced to the crowd that Lefteri would not be joining the discussion.
“We would also have had Christy Lefteri but she did not come because of the virus so it will only be the three of us [at the talk],” said Coetzee.
Azille Coetzee explained that author Christy Lefteri would not be attending the Woordfees event amid COVID-19 fears. PHOTO: Sarah Hoek
According to Danie Marais, Woordfees publicity and film festival coordinator, no other festival participants have canceled due to COVID-19.
“The festival attendance has not been affected in any way,” Marais told MatieMedia.
The two remaining authors who did attend, To Lose Everything: Three International Authors, were Suketu Mehta, author of This Land Is Our Land: An Immigrant’s Manifesto and Mira Feticu, author of Al Mijn Vaders.
Authors Suketu Mehta and Mira Feticu read excerpts from their novels. PHOTO: Sarah Hoek
The talk focused on issues around global mass migration. Mehta used the opportunity to comment on how the response to COVID-19 affects migration and views of migrants.
“Right now the world is menaced by this virus and all these countries now are drawing borders even more tightly around themselves,” he said. What was missing though, was a global, coordinated response to the virus, according to Mehta. “What the world desperately needs is the global coordinated response to these crises. We’re going to perish if we continue along this path,” said Mehta.
LISTEN: Suketu Mehta speaks on COVID-19 and its effects on borders at the Woordfees event To Lose Everything: Three International Authors, on March 12.