At the HIVOS Poetry Cafe on May Day poetry lovers were fed with combinations of humor, political satire and protest music and poetry.

Zimbabwe Poets for Human Rights member, Tapfuma Jongwe, particularly caught the audience’s attention with a piece titled ‘Valentine’. It is the name of a woman he once loved but who left him to go to South Africa where she died suddenly. He laments the general problems lovers face in an economy such as the one prevailing in Zimbabwe. Among other things the poet points out that on Valentine’s Day, they used to have candle-lit dinners, but out of no choice this happens anyway due to the power-cuts. With Zimbabwe ailing before its 30th birthday, Jongwe asks, “What is democracy when state agents use weapons of mass destruction against defenseless university students armed only with their brains?” “What is democracy, when taxes from hard working civil servants go to build mansions in Kuala Lumpur? “What is democracy when civil servants cannot afford a single crate of lion lager and only the ‘chefs’ are well fed nowadays.”

In short, the poet espoused the loss of the meaning of Labor Day among ordinary folk.

The poetry cafe was also graced by outspoken Kenyan, Shailja Patel and Norwegian flute mistress, Linn Heidi Anderson.

Underlying themes ranged from the daily struggles of ordinary citizens oppressed by an unfriendly socio-economic and political environment to humorous descriptions of Africa being one of the greatest places to be. At the end of it all, it was clear that a lot of truth is said in jest.

Acclaimed poet and author, Ignatius Mabasa, rounded off the day with the reminder that after all is said and done, we can only look to God to salvage us from the mess we find ourselves in. Famously dubbed ‘God’s poetry’ by the press, Mabasa had the audience in stitches with his analogy of an old man who laments the fact that he can’t seem to be able to aim his manhood directly into the loo. He misses all the time and above all, he can’t seem to remember why he ‘lost’. Another acclaimed poet, Chirikure Chirikure described Mabasa’s poetry as “political pornography”.

This entry was posted on May 2nd, 2008 at 11:28 am by Natasha Msonza and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.