By Khaya Thonjeni
Siyavuya Mfabe attended his last Scifest in 2004, as a university student. This year he came back as a teacher with a bus-load of learners. Their common interest in science made them decide to attend the week long Scifest Africa 2009 on 25-31 March.
Mfabe’s youngsters were some of the 10 000 attendants recorded this year. Festival Manager Magaret Wolf says, “it is going to take a little more time to see the greater impact of Scifest but more and more learners are getting ‘switched on’.”
Wolf believes the regional Scifest Africa in Mthatha in 2008, as well as this year’s marketing helped reach out more first-time festival.
As usual, a number of Journalism & Media Studies students lent their writing, editing, and documentary making skills on such projects as Scicue, Sciblog and SciTV.
Scicue was staffed by design, photography and postgraduate writing students who went out every day to capture pictures, positions and headlines for the daily 4-8page festival tabloid.
A handpicked editorial team under Brian Garmans (Editor and Designer), Paul Greenway (Photography) and Gill Rennie (Writing) polished the students’ copy and ensured the publication came out on time.
Scicue interacted with its readers through a drawing competition. Four to five pairs of eyes were randomly printed on a blank paper for learners to draw any two-eyed living thing. Cath Walters, the festival media officer says the competition was very successful as it received more than 300 entries. Some Scicue staff (Writer Thandeka Mapi, Designer Filipa de Oliveira and Photographer Sophie Marcus) walked away with some cool prizes for being first among equals.