The poetic relay that engulfed Botswana Craft
Spira Tlhankane | Tuesday September 6, 2016 15:05
The Gaborone International Music and Culture Week (GIMC) 2016 was getting warmed up after hosting two successful events and the poetry event had to be like no other. Like a throng of lions, the lineup of poets on the day was formidable enough to attract an equitable number of revelers.
When the time arrived, the contour of the venue was covered with nothing but spoken word poetry. Like daylight succeeds night, the poets had to follow one another and unbutton the dress of oral poetry. Even in Olympic relays it is never an easy task to carry the baton first but Juby Peacock was exactly what the doctors had ordered for a sprint of spoken word poetry. Peacock who is a poet, musician and former Miss Botswana began her session with a poem entitled perfect. She told the audience that the poem was dedicated to God.
Clad in a shiny gold dress, Peacock then recited another poem entitled ‘when love met me’ over a guitar instrumental. “When love finally finds me I will have no choice but oblige,” she uttered. She finished her session by dedicating a poem to the Okavango Delta. Her expression on stage evoked emotions that cannot be summed into words. Despite her session being unusually short, she romanced every auditory organ with the last line, “many waters cannot quench my love for Okavango.”
It was more like a roving torch and the baton had to be passed to another poet and Poetess Phopho was all set to run the audience through the track. As the night was getting colder, the track was getting warmer by the minute and no poet had the chance to get cold feet. Phopho had the best introduction ever and the way she swung words in the air created a mist around the place and there was nothing visible except poetry.
Phopho who refers herself as Motswana wa sekei also incorporated music into her poetry. She said she spoke in a tongue tons of voices. In one of her pieces she used simile to compare Maun to a woman. Spitting childhood memories about fishermen and mokolwane trees, she managed to paint a vivid imagery of Maun for a person who has never been to the place. “Maun, you are the song that I waited for,” she said.
She changed the tone to condemn a place she described as her ghetto. Phopho added so much emphasis in her intonation and voice reflection. She described the Ghetto as a place where men find hiding in beneath the bottom of women’s thighs. “These poems and verses are pedals to tiptoe into God’s kingdom,” she said. She also invited another poetess on stage and together they called themselves Sekei girls.
It was getting interesting and the referee on the day was no one but Goitse Kgaswane of Big Brother Hotshots fame. With fire in her eyes and flash in her teeth, Goitse ensured that the baton was passed correctly and there was no room for disqualification.
In one of her of lines she said men wonder when she walks around because they cannot touch her inner myself.
When everyone was starting to think that it was an all girl affair, a young man called Delerecal took over and added masculinity into what was turning into a feminist atmosphere. Spoken word being powerful by nature, Delerecal came with other poets among others Morwa Motsamai to construct words of criticism towards the recent treatment of youth at Parliament.
To throw spanner into the works, Maya Rose and The 360 Degrees Poetic circle took everyone for a poetic spin ahead of the seemingly near finishing line. One of the poets in the circle got a love from the audience with the oral art of her repetition. She used repetition to portray society as a destroyer. “Society you never loved us, you overpopulated us, you family planned us, you copyrighted us and you must identify us,” she uttered.
One of the poets Kunta also spit his motswako poetry to the love of the audience. The man who won the second position at this year’s Maitisong poetry slam cited legends like Andries Bok and Stampore as his inspiration. “I was born go kgabisa modumo, this stage ke tshimo yame ke le jwalela poko,” he uttered.
Morwa Motsamai who needed no introduction arrived on stage for his solo performance. But he brought an acapella group on stage for a unique mixture of acapella and spoken word poetry.
His aural patterns were very different from the poets who had performed that night. His voice had the ability to paint a gaudy picture on the canvas of the audience’s minds. Seated on a stool and a guitar humming on the background, Motsamai’s visual poetry sent people into oblivion.
The final lap had arrived and it was up to Goitse to send the fastest poet towards the finishing line. Indeed she was fast and within a blink of an eye she appeared on the stage. Like crimson sunset, she arrived when supper was being prepared.
Her name was Lebo Mashile from South Africa and she was the sweetest dessert after what had been a delicious dinner of poetry. Right away she promised to take her fans through a journey. Mashile had everyone’s attention when she suddenly talked about muti in deep appreciation.
“I don’t walk alone, I steam it, you bathe it, you smoke it and you repel it in public,” she said. She used imagery to describe muti as a sparkle of roots and herbs. Her oral utterance is the one that needed to be heard. Being a female poet she had to embrace her self worth and in one of her pieces she described her body. “I am black and life in Jozi is hard when you have got tits,” she expressed.
The poet who had appeared in movies like Hotel Rwanda had a lot of stage presence and the way she unknowingly took the audience to the finishing line of the poetic relay was quite amazing. Some of her memorable lines include “when boys cry we get screams from men, what we teach we will reap from men.”
Overall it was a good harvest for the consumers of spoken poetry and they can only hope for a greater perhaps a better show next year.