South Africa' s link to India' s Ghazipur Literature Festival and its focus on indentured labourers
Poet Laureate of South Africa and Cultural Advisor to President Cyril Ramaphosa, HRH Zolani Mkiva, said that he is looking forward to the Ghazipur Literature Festival (GLF) 2025, which will be held on 8 to 9 November 2025 in Ghazipur, Uttar Pradesh, India.
GLF 2025, organised by Bharat Dialogues, is a landmark cultural and intellectual celebration, and will be marked in the very heartland from where thousands of indentured labourers, or Girmitiyas, began their journey to faraway lands, including South Africa, Fiji, Mauritius, Suriname, and Trinidad.
This year’s festival theme, “Going Back to Roots – The Girmitiya Identity and the Future of Indigenous Culture”, shines a special spotlight on the Girmitiya experience. This includes the stories of resilience, identity, and heritage that bind India with its global diaspora communities.
GLF 2025 is a tribute to those enduring cultural links, emphasising how literature, music, theatre, and folk traditions continue to preserve shared memories and values across generations.
The festival will feature exclusive sessions on the Girmitiya narrative, bringing together scholars, writers, and cultural figures from around the world, with special participation from South Africa’s eminent dignitaries:
- H.E. Prof. Anil Sooklal, Ambassador-at-Large for Asia and BRICS, Republic of South Africa, whose ancestors migrated from Ghazipur to Durban in 1893.
- HRH Zolani Mkiva, Poet Laureate of South Africa and Cultural Advisor to President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Both dignitaries will address the festival audience, reflecting on the spiritual and cultural continuum between India and Africa, and how shared histories of struggle and solidarity continue to inspire future generations.
Mkiva said that he was looking forward to the festival as it presents an opportunity for a live cultural exchange “where we give each other our cultural outlook, yet at the same time, we foster the diversity of the universe”.
“Civilisation is about the appreciation of each other’s cultural ways and cultural rights, and approach to life, values, norms, and at the same time, mainstream commonality in our existence.
“We are chasing on each other’s freedom for posterity, but also for prosperity, but at the same time, those cultural links are very important because we are connecting with each other even though we are divided by oceans geographically.
“We are trying to say literature has no borders, and culture has no territory. People can converse, communicate, and link up, irrespective of the fact that we are located in different spaces,” Mkiva said.
“We are able to connect with each other, especially now, where we live in universal forms connection, which includes the latest models of communication. We are able to maintain these links virtually, but at some point, we need to come and interact physically.
“This festival is a physical interaction, which begins to cement conversation that are happening, even on a daily basis, virtually. I agree with that theme of linking all of these methods, and translate them into what we will doing there physically,” Mkiva said.
Co-founder and Managing Director of Bharat Dialogues, Pooja Priyamvada, said: “GLF 2025 is not just a literary event—it’s a homecoming for the Girmitiya soul. For us, Poorvanchal is not merely a geographical area; it’s the emotional epicentre of a large human migration. We want the descendants of those who left to feel that their stories still live here.”
Co-founder and CEO of Bharat Dialogues, Vivek Satya Mitram, added that the Girmitiya identity is one of strength, memory, and cultural continuity.
“Through literature, music, and dialogues, we’re reconnecting continents — from Ghazipur to Johannesburg, from Bhojpuri songs to African drums. This festival is about celebrating our shared humanity.”
The festival will also feature a Girmitiya Heritage Pavilion, curated in partnership with the Global Girmitiya Centre, showcasing archival photographs, oral histories, and creative expressions from diaspora communities.
The festival has collaborated with the Red Mango Festival as Global Festival Partner, symbolising cross-continental collaboration in preserving indigenous and folk art traditions.
The two-day celebration will bring together more than 200 writers, thinkers, and artists from India and abroad. The inaugural session will be graced by Hon’ble Manoj Sinha, Lt. Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, followed by international sessions exploring Bhojpuri heritage, diaspora literature, and cross-cultural linkages.
With South Africa’s Girmitiya community forming one of the strongest cultural bridges to India, GLF 2025 aims to deepen people-to-people connections and strengthen cultural diplomacy through art, literature, and dialogue.
theolin.tembo@inl.co.za