The inaugural Puku Story Festival took place in September 2013 followed by a festival in February 2014, both in partnership with the National Arts Festival, Rhodes University and a host of literacy and education organisations. The festivals successfully created a platform for parents, teachers, librarians and young people to network amongst themselves and with writers, storytellers and language and literacy practitioners.
These festivals were made possible through sponsorship from SASOL, South Africa Partners, REDISA (Recycling and Development Initiative of South Africa), the Mzansi Golden Economy Fund of the Department of Arts and Culture, Business and Arts South Africa (BASA), National Arts Council (NAC), Convergence Partners, AGE Group, Sakhumzi Restaurant and the Grahamstown Business Community.
Since then, Puku has continued to host an annual festival in Grahamstown during February, coinciding with International Mother Language Day.
In 2016, Puku launched the Puku Afri-kids Festival which is designed to appeal to children, teenagers, parents and grandparents, caregivers and educators, writers and cultural activists through a combination of live performance, conversation, exhibition and book launches throughout the day.
Puku is committed to growing a reading nation in South Africa through supporting the development of African Language resources.
