These are remarks by MOLAOLI WA SEKAKE
, acting President of the National Writers Association of South Africa at the MOU signing ceremony between NWASA and UNEAC, 05 May 2026, Cuban Embassy, City of Tshwane, South Africa…
Greetings to the Cuban Embassy and its delegation to this important event marking an important milestone not only between SA writers and Cuban writers but the revolutionary cause itself.
We also extend our warmest greetings to the delegation from the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) with us here,
As part of my delegation from NWASA we have the administrative engine of the organisation Dr. Lance Nawa and the Council of Elders comprising of, in absentia, Ntate Dr. Mongane Wally Serote – our National Poet Laurette, Ntate Mothobi Mutloatse and Prof Kwesi Lwazi Prah. NWASA is accompanied by officials from DIRCO, namely Mr. B. Thamaga, the Director: Mexico, Central America and Cuba, and Ms. L. Sekhasimbe, Senior Foreign Service Officer.
NWASA expresses its sincere appreciation to DIRCO for its steadfast support and facilitation of this historic engagement. This collaboration affirms DIRCO’s recognition of cultural diplomacy as a vital instrument within South Africa’s foreign policy toolkit – one that harnesses the power of literature, arts, heritage and intellectual exchange to build bridges between nations. Through its partnership with NWASA, DIRCO demonstrates a clear commitment to advancing South Africa’s soft power by elevating the voices of writers as ambassadors of culture, dialogue and mutual understanding on the global stage.
Comrades, poets, and architects of the written word, we stand here today not merely to press ink onto paper, but to weave together two shorelines.
This Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is more than a legal bridge or technical affair; it is a testament to the fact that while the oceans may separate our landmasses, the same currents of resistance and renewal flow through our pens.
In South Africa, our literature was forged in the fires of the struggle against apartheid. Our words were bullets when we had no guns, and bandages when we were wounded.
In Cuba, we recognise a kindred spirit—a nation that understands that a book is as vital as bread, and that literacy is the first step toward true sovereignty and true emancipation. We remember that when the world turned away, Cuba stood with us. Who can forget the battle of Cuito Cuanavalle in Angola against the regimes of terror in pursuit of freedom?
Today, the National Writers Association of South Africa reaffirms that ancient bond for a brighter, fairer and just future. We sign this agreement to ensure that the stories of our townships and the verses of Havana’s streets are shared, translated, celebrated and become the bulwarks of a just and fair world.
Today’s historic event is the culmination of a deliberate and steadily evolving relationship between NWASA and Cuban literary institutions, dating back to early engagements in South Africa.
On 21 June 2023, NWASA leadership held a foundational meeting with Lauren Luis Acosta, former Diplomatic Attaché for Press and Cultural Affairs at the Cuban Embassy in Pretoria. This engagement was aimed at fostering relations with Cuban writers and followed NWASA’s principled public stance in defence of Afro-Cuban poet Nancy Morejón against the unceremonious exclusion a month earlier from France’s poetry festival, le Marché de la Poésie, otherwise also known as the Poetry Market,
The meeting between NWASA and the Cuban Embassy laid the groundwork for formal cooperation, with both parties expressing commitment to institutionalising relations between organised writers in Cuba and South Africa, including prospects for joint literary projects and exchanges.
This early diplomatic-cultural interface was followed by a landmark engagement in Havana, Cuba, on 22 February 2025, where I, Molaoli wa Sekake, in my capacity as NWASA Acting President, met with UNEAC President Mairely Ramón Delgado (Dazra Novak) at UNEAC headquarters.
Held on the sidelines of the 33rd Havana International Book Fair – where South Africa was the guest of honour and over 40 countries were represented – the meeting advanced concrete areas of collaboration, including translation of literary works, exchange programmes, and sustained intellectual engagement between writers of both nations.
These engagements are rooted in a deeper historical and political solidarity between South Africa and Cuba, extending between the late 1980s and early 1990s into literary formations such as NWASA’s predecessor, the Congress of South African Writers (COSAW), and expressed through ongoing acts of mutual support within global cultural platforms.
Politics may define our borders, but literature defines our soul. Let this partnership be a shield against the erasure of our histories – histories of love and loss, of living and resistance, of memory and violence.
As we write against the silence of global indifference, may our collective voice defiantly remind the world that the Global South is not a place of tragedy, but a powerhouse of triumph and creativity. Through this MOU, we commit to a future where our writers are the ambassadors of a new humanity. And we should always remember as it has come to be known that any war that requires the suspension of reason as a precondition is a bad war and we must not be part of it hence the need for labour of love in the form of literature or the written word to name the problem, clarify contradictions and usher a better world.
Amandla! Matla ¡Venceremos!