The diaries of Ndi Aphrykah
Dumisani Ncube | Friday November 13, 2015 15:12
Some have gone to the extent of calling her the angry black girl due to the emotional pieces she delivers. Morongoa ‘Ndi Aphrykah’ Mosetlhi is a young poet who has been on the spotlight of late appearing in a number of poetry sessions and leaving the audience yearning for more with her wordsmith skills. She manages to take the audience into her own world with her poetic skills, which she sometimes mixes with a bit of music and humour.
Poetry lovers can still remember one of her best poems, Mr. Wrong Wrong, which she recited at Botswanacraft recently. The piece entailed her experience of being hit on by an old man who happens to be a father of someone she knows.
Narrating her path to poetry, Ndi Aphrykah (pronounced as Indie Africa) was so calm and well reserved as she paid attentively to every question.
“Well I used to write different poems and books back then, but I was not a spoken word artist till I was invited to perform one of my written pieces at Poison poetry sessions by a friend in 2011,” she said.
After that first performance she enjoyed being on stage and continued making appearances on stage till she got used to it. By then she was completing her studies in management and accounts at Botswana Accountancy College (BAC).
At the same time Ndi Aphrykah decided to take poetry seriously as she became a familiar face in the circles.
After completing her studies she immediately got a job at a tax and accounting firm in Gaborone, which slowly stole her time and love for poetry as she spent less time performing and writing.
“During my working days I did a lot of performances and I was not proud by the way I presented my art on stage because I was not fully focused,” she said.
As time went on Ndi Aphrykah who recently came from Maun International Arts Festival found out that she was not happy with spending more time in the office and less in the poetry world, “it felt like a burden to my art expertise”.
After a year and half of being a white collar worker she decided to leave her job for what she loved which is poetry. This did not go down well with her family as they ended up going for therapy, which led to her family and she, reaching to a consensus.
After getting the green light to follow her dreams she began to find her way back to the poetry world as she engaged the likes of Mandisa Mabutho who she highly respects. She also made appearances at open mic sessions such as Motswarapoetry where she is a regular performer.
Ndi Aphrykah who has found her way back to poetry recently performed at Sauti presents ‘The people are talking’ series where she touched people’s hearts with her emotionally coated poetry.
Describing her poetry and writings she said that she writes from the heart. “Most of the time I write about emotions and what is taking place in the society. I also draw my inspiration from the daily readings that I do,” she said. Ndi Aphrykah has written five unpublished novels that she wrote before she turned 18 years of age.
“I am working on retrieving them from the old computers we have at home,” she said.
As an artist she also has her own image, which she maintains during the interview with Arts & Culture. She came donning an all-black two piece with afrocentric accessories, which included a handbag, earrings and bangles.
“My accessories tell a story on their own,” she said.
“The red colour is our brothers’ blood that was lost and shed during the struggle, the yellow colours resembles the wealth that we have, but do not have access to and the green colour is for the vegetation we have, it also reminds us that we have a life to live,” she said, as she described the colours on her hand accessories.
As every artist she has experienced the ugly side of the arts industry as she shared her experiences of promoters that invite her for performances and disappear.
“I recently performed at Gaborone International Music Cultural Week and the promoters disappeared on us without paying us till today,” she said.
She is working on putting her poetry online for interested readers. Her old works can be found on HYPERLINK ‘http://www.amantefatale.wordpress.com.