ZimRights yesterday published their daily bulletin evoking the political temperature towards a Zimbabwean ‘Election’.  In their bulletin, ZimRights had this to say: “Recent reports have revealed that ZANU PF said that it is prepared to go for an uncontested election even if other political parties refuse to participate in elections – a repetition of the 2008 June run off.” This concurs with The Herald’s headline of today where President Mugabe speaks on elections and says ‘No to polls delays’.

ZimRights asks: “Is Zimbabwe ready for an election in 2011?’ Have we recovered from the trauma o post 2008 elections?’ “Who can guarantee Zimbabweans a free and fair election?’

The annual ZIBF for 2011 has been set for the 28th to the 30th of July in the Harare Gardens. Running under the theme “Books for Africa’s Development”, the fair hopes to regain its rank of being the best in Africa. A two-day Young Person’s Indaba on the 25th and 26th of July will pave way for the Book Fair. Read more form the Herald website.

This event promotes the love of books, reading and writing. It is a well-known fact that when there were no televisions or computers, reading was the principal leisure activity. Thus Africans possess a strong traditional orientation to oral and cultural forms of education, communication and entertainment. Information transmitted through song, dance and storytelling is more widely embraced.

Book Fairs across Africa aim to encourage cross-border trade in books and create a reading culture in the region. They do so by bringing together the book chain functions; authorship, publishing, distribution and readership. ZIBF by virtue of taking an international stance accommodates writers, publishers, booksellers, reading clubs and libraries from Africa and the developed world.

We hope to see the stature of ZIBF grow to enable it to be considered as the one of the top International Book Fairs in the world. Thus librarians, documentalists and publishers, authors, writers should all come together to make this a success. Exhibitors can choose a display option that best fits their needs from a single or double dedicated space devoted exclusively to them.

On their Facebook page ZIBF wrote:

“The ZIBF was the biggest and best book fair in Africa during the 1990s. Sadly, it’s now gone the way of many other things in Zimbabwe.”

Exhibitors please rekindle the experience by emailing information [at] zibfa [dot] org [dot] zw or events [at] zibfa [dot] org [dot] zw to receive an Exhibition Stand Application Form. Early application is advised to avoid disappointment.

‘The Engagement Party’ is this year’s (2011) HIFA theme. The HIVOS Spoken Word Programme on Wednesday 27, April took time to engage Zimbabweans celebrating African expression as they listened to poems being recited by poets from Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi and Ghana. The theme for the day was, “Diversity in our Voices”. The occasion wouldn’t have been a success without the colourful and wonderful audience. Not only was expression done in poetry, but in song too, as witnessed by the performance by Zimbabwe’s beautiful jazz singer Claire Nyakujara.

Mbizo Chirasha, The Black Poet, was the first poet to perform. The themes of his poetry consist of children’s rights, politics, social lives, gender issues, praise and protest, culture and African pride. He took us on an expedition of the African names from the King Jaja of Opobo to Chaminuka with his poem was titled, ‘African Names’. Another local poet who performed was, Bhekumusa Moyo. He has several of his poems published in the Sunday News Poetry Corner and other publications. On this day he took to the stage two of his poems titled, ‘A poetic crusade’ and ‘This hand’.

Power to the sisters hey! T J Dema from Botswana was the only female poet who performed on this day. I must say her poems are truly engaging as she tackles life issues with her African voice. She performed ‘Neon poem’ and ‘First born Lullaby’. An extract from ‘Neon poem’ reads:

Poems are bullshit unless they teach
They serve absolutely no purpose unless they reach
The audience they are written, the ears they are meant for

Q. Malewezi from Malawi well known as Q, delivered his poem in heartfelt verbal bursts interlaced with humorous suggestions. He managed to invite the audience on an artistic journey in his alphabetic poem, ‘Journey to Q’. One would think it’s a journey of his life but no, he dwelled on all the issues in Africa in alphabetical order (A-Q of course) in an artstic manner, which was just superb. The other poem he performed was ‘Recycling Politicians’.

Quaye Kojo known as Sir Black from Ghana delivered the last poem. He tackles poetry more on a thought provoking note. During his performance he got inquisitive as he threw questions here and there to engagea  the audience.  Below is a quote from one of his poems:

If vegetarians eat vegetables
What should humanitarians eat?
~ Humanity in diversity~

To end the programme singer Claire Nyakujara showed her diversity by performing three songs one in Shona, Ndebele and English.

To listen to more of the poetic engagement do make a date with The HIVOS Spoken Word at the HIVOS Poetry Café.

Saturday (Coca-Cola Day) – 3-4pm
Sunday (Alliance Insurance Day) – 12-1pm

HIFA entered day three yesterday and the fun still goes on and on. The HIVOS Poetry Café keeps getting bigger by the day as the number of audiences increases. I’m sharing a puesic performance (when poetry and music come together) by Kenyan Ngwatilo Mawiyoo yesterday at The HIVOS Poetry Café titled ‘Lesson on Heritage’.

Vision of land         aaaka
Vision of Mulata Ivia kula Nzaui        akaa
Vision of ugali and sukuma wiki    sesesesese
Goat meat goat meat goat meat!

Persistent sunlight over the savannah        aa
dry desolate dust dancing over distance     a
woman’s woman sighing she swallowing
“coulda-done” – she’s moving on
I want Goat meat Goat meat Goat meat!!

And in Nairobi the sidewalks ache
there’s too many people walking crushing cement
maybe roots beneath    mmm  not enough sweepers,
dust rises coating stone buildings brown  Aii
So much struggle, toil, soul moaning Asi!!
Want Goat meat Goat meat Goat Meat!!!

Our foot stamps, prints rock beyond Nzaui,
in South Africa New York Tennessee
England Germany California Texas Ghana India
Tanzania Toronto Bangladesh Trinidad, Canada, Panama,
- everywhere we go, meet you, where you go after
seeking GOAT meat GOAT Meat GOAT MEAT -

So you too can endure
little rain and lengthy travels
and smile     dance
believe.

To see Ngwatilo Mawiyoo and other local and regional poets perform and feel the vibe of the spoken take part in the HIVOS Spoken Word programme. Be part of HIFA through engagement in poetry and music. Ngwatilo Mawiyoo’s first publication, ‘Blue mothertounge’ is on sale.

The Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition (CiZC) in their Daily Catalyst newsletter reported that:

Senior Criminal Intelligence Organization (CIO) and Criminal Investigation department (CID) officials in Mutare, together with the Manicaland Provincial Governor, Christopher Mushowe today, 19 April 2011, issued a joint order to the Mutare Municipality demanding that they pull down a 3×12 billboard in Mutare which was erected by CiZC. The billboard was erected under the Abasha POSA campaign aimed at supporting the POSA Amendment Bill, which sailed through the Lower House late last year and is currently stuck in the House of Senate.

According to Senior Town Planner for Mutare, Mr Simbi, these officials made it clear that the billboard was “too political” for their liking and as such had to be pulled down. They further argued that the advertising company, Ad Industries, which erected the billboard, did not follow the required process of seeking approval from the town council, which is the norm when a new message is to be posted.