Good evening and thank you for coming. (Pause) I was asked to talk on Social Critique in Namibian Poetry and I am gladly going to do just that.
I grew up in a NGO world, meaning I have been involve and involved in community development work through the Bricks Community Project, an NGO that incorporated community media and culture as tools for social and economic development. Through it’s Cultural Unit, Bricks advocated the use of Community Theatre for the Purpose of developing and empowering communities throughout Namibia. Being part of the Cultural Unit, I was exposed to the themes and issues relevant to a Namibia that just attained independence. As early as 1990, I was already socially aware of the disparities in the country and by using theatre as a developmental tool, I was involved in community awareness raising and development. It was a time when everything made a 180 Degree change from Afrikaans to English. Our minds were still vibrating from the toy-toying and the National Anthem was still the number one hit in the country.
A bunch of us had our own ideas and started doing our own awareness raising, reading and sharing tales of literature. Talking about writers like Ngugii wa Thiongo, Dambudzo Marechera, Steven Bandu Biko and being obsessed with Artists like Mzwakhe Mbuli and Mutabaruka. The talk of revolution and independence was still on our tongues when we established Ama Poets, a poetry group that strived to make Namibians politically consciousness and to write and recite poetry that was relevant to our own people.
We were the Ama Poets, the real poets, so to speak, in Namibia and we performed at various platforms in Windhoek and outside , from cultural Centres to launches, festival and NGO functions. Ama Poets dealt with real issues affecting the Namibian people, we moved away from the reading of poetry to recitations, dramatizations, recordings and even publishing of our own poems. Ama Poets mixed poetry with music, drama and chants. We took the Journey of the Emancipated, a poetry production we developed and performed to various platforms. As I have said, we used the Queen’s language (English), a language which we adored but which never adored us. If I may use a phrase from Boli’s poem of yester-year
Back then surnames like Molapong, Sidwaba, Mootseng, Kambule, were not the average surnames in Namibia and many times we were considered to be foreigners. This was said by a well ranked politician who attended one of the many performances. We are all poets… waiting for the last moment to die, this was the slogan of Ama Poets and it speaks for itself. Our poems dealt with both social and political issues, we spoke against injustices and in the same vein made it a point to make people appreciate themselves.
Since this is election year, I will not quote people; I might just misquote them and cost them their ranking. So I will read you one of my poems
INTRODUCTION
I WAS BORN BLACK
THROUGH A STRONG BLACK WOMAN
IN A BLACK COMMUNITY
FOR THE BLACK PEOPLE
WHO LOVE BEING BLACK
AS A BLACK CHILD
I GREW UP IN A BLACK TOWNSHIP
WHICH IS CALLED KATUTURA
A BLACK WORD MEANING
WE THE BLACK NATION
OF THIS BLACK CONTINENT
WILL NEVER STAY WHERE
WE DON’T FEEL BLACK
THE WAY BLACK PEOPLE FELT
FOR THEY WERE BLACK
EACH LINE IN MY POEM
IS FROM A BLACK POINT OF VIEW
AND BEING BLACK, MY FRIEND
IS PART OF MY NATURAL BEING
IN ORDER TO RELATE TO ME
YOU WILL HAVE TO ACCEPT THE FACT
THAT I AM A BLACK MAN
I can say that the slogan of Ama Poets: We are all Poets, has been realized… so I think. In recent years more and more people have out grown their closets and are involved in the writing and reading of poetry. We have seen some poetry movements taking root in Namibia, many more organizations and institutions are encouraging poetry and the publishing of it. Poetry has moved from being an individual scrambling on paper to public platforms and even the WWW
I have always used poetry to make social commentary and will continue to do so. Poetry has become a medium through which I expressed my observations and the questioning of some of the injustices. Be it political or social I write about it. And being a citizen of Namibia, I have not experience anything out of the ordinary after my poetry performances apart for the discomfort some people feel. Should you write poetry about flowers, the sunshine or even the dead cockroach I appreciate that but poetry can be used more effectively than just for pleasure. It is a known fact that Arts in general played a vital role during the struggle and literature and poetry has always been used to consciously bring the readers to a common understanding. So has poetry also been used by the previous guys.
Poetry today has lost that sharpness in it. It has become just another thing, writing that reflects individual pleasures or pain. I suppose this mirrors the kind of society we have become, Individuals. The themes poets or rather writers of poetry explore are limited to just words, sex and vanity. The social and political commentaries are left to politicians and analysts whom we know are removed from the general society. The writers of poetry have lost some essences of writing poetry. As much as it has to do with the using of the word, many of the poems we read today have no substance. It doesn’t allow the reader or listening to appreciate its crafting.
Poetry can and has been used to look at society critically. I still DO that, especially now that so many people are writing and reading poetry. Ama Poets have used poetry to inform and at times incited the listeners, Kitso Poets have used poetry to encourage the art form and through Township Productions, I am trying to encourage the written poetry. As an individual writer, I am trying to sharpen poetry for it to penetrate all shields of ignorance.
I thank you
