Poems from Poetry Africa 2003

My account of the Poetry Africa festival 2003 was only an introduction, necessarily to be followed by some of the poems I heard there, to give you a taste of the experience of Poetry Africa:

• from “Iremoje: Ritual Poetry for Ken Saro-Wiwa,” a verse play by Akeem Lasisi (Nigeria)
  
  
• “Mother Teresa’s Wish,” by Timothy Wangusa (Uganda)
  
  
• from “Crab Attack/Intro to the Master,” Lesego Rampolokeng (South Africa)
  
  
• “Sisters,” by Lebogang Mashile (South Africa)
  
  
• from “Black Candles,” by Abdallah Zrika (Morocco)

Non-South-African Africans have a whole other story, and I hope to write about the astonishing work of Nigerian Akeem Lasisi, with his sensuous blend of dance/poetry... the wry, hilarious turns of Ugandan intellect Timothy Wangusa... the constantly surprising mbira-to-flute aesthetics of Zimbabwean Musaemura Zimunya... and the prickly surrealism of Moroccan Abdullah Zrika – another time. But what’s similar is that the oral traditions of South Africa are a resource that cannot be exploited or colonized. When the spirit of history, individuality, respect and love that is the essence of African poetics is harnessed by book or digitalization, it will be the revolutionary force that can stop corporate capitalism in its cold gold steps. For further explication, check Ryszard Kapuscinski’s brilliant collection of journalistic snapshots, The Shadow of the Sun (Knopf, 2001, compare prices), especially the final musing on orality, “In the Shade of a Tree, in Africa.”