Social Critique in Namibian Poetry (A bunch of us and People’s Place)

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

Poetry and I

With the passing of years, I have come to know a lot of poets from different backgrounds. And with all of them I've shared the stage and the Word. I've come to appreciate many forms and styles of both writing and performing poetry. It made me think about the times I started writing poetry many years ago.

At my age I am already regarded by many in Namibia as a veteran in poetry. But again you must understand that Namibia is a politically young nation and everything we did the past 20 odd years was regarded as pioneering. So I am regarded as a poineer of poetry. This is the situation in Nambia.

Having been part of many poetry events and especially festivals, I have come to see myself as a companion in this great trek of forming meaning through poetry. I am just an infant in the village of poets and I am quite appreciative of that. As being an infant, it helps me to learn from the global veterans of poetry, prose and other creative writings.

I have discussed poetry with elders, grey haired poets who have parentally breathed inspiration in my writing and involvement in poetry. Like they say a person is a person because of other people. The same goes for me. I am a poet because of other poets.

Inspiration does not only come from the elders but also from the younger ones. I have met young poets who are transforming the way poetry is performed. Even though at times, they all sound the same and copy more from other people than invent their own styles of performing poetry. Despite this, they gave me a sense that poetry doesn't belong in the shelves of member driven libraries. They themselves have become the libraries, books that can spit rhyms and bring to life the word written on a piece of paper.

Poetry has come of age, even in Namibia and it brings joy to me. A twenty years process for me is re-volutionised in a matter of months. There are more inspirations and more younger people have opinions about everything. Hence the desire to be heard and seen.

About MOLA

Travelling to Swaziland

Keamogetsi joseph Molapong has been writing poetry since 1990. He was instrumental in establishing the two Windhoek poetry groups Ama Poets and Kitso Poets in 1992 and 1996 respectively. Together, they or­ganised poetry competitions promoted by the publisher New Namibia Books, as well as by the Namibia National Student’s Organization (NANSO), the National Planning Commission, the Legal Assistance Centre, and others.

As part of Ama Poets, Keamogetsi joseph Molapong recorded poetry with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Ama Poets re­ceived public attention through numerous performances, articles in local newspapers, and interviews. The staging of the poetry production Journey of the emancipated in 1992 became a major success of the group.  As a founding members of another poetry group called Kitso “Knowledge” Poets, Keamogetsi joseph Molapong contributed to We Opened the Door and Saw Ourselves, (New Namibia Books, 1998). With Kitso Poets, Keamogetsi joseph Molapong continued to explore poetry at several competitions and workshops. They recorded with both the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation TV and Radio. Further interviews, recordings and poetry broad­casting were done with the Katutura Community Radio (KCR), Radio Netherlands. A number of poems appeared in The Namibian.

Caught by Thoughts in Berlin

In 2002 the poet produced a poetry production called The Black People I Know, his last poetry production. In the same year, he was invited to share his poetry with students from the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. During his month-long stay a major poetry performance with drama students took shape. The visit came to fruition with Come Talk Your Heart (New Namibia Books, 2005). Keamogetsi j. Molapong, among many other creative ac­tivities in the fields of drama and poetry, participated in the following publications: Action! An Introductory Drama Manual, African Origin and Civilisation; Poetically Speak­ing; Bricks Magazine. Body and soul a poet, he devotes himself to the enrichment of Namibian poetry. Recently, he has credited another collection of poetry entitled In Search Of Questions (BAB, 2005). This was a limited edition of tribute to Carl Schlettwein, the founder of Basler Africa Bibliographien (BAB), which promotes publishing activities and scientific research on the Southern African region, and, in particular, Namibia, focusing on culture and history. In 2007, Keamogetsi joseph Molapong participated in the 11^th Poetry Festival in Durban, South Africa. Together with 20 other poets from the globe Keamogetsi joseph Molapong, read, recited and facilitated poetry sessions with school learners in the townships of Durban. He recently participated in the Poesiefestival Berlin 2009 (26 – 30 June 2009) in Germany, where he shared the stage with poets from Southern Afrika.

In 2008, through an initiative called Township Productions, Keamogetsi joseph Molapong started a poetry publication called POETREE, which up to date has seen 5 Editions. POETREE is published bi-monthly through the grants from the National Arts Council of Namibia (NACN). This project aims to publish poets who otherwise would never see their poetry in published and book form. Additionally Township Productions has also worked on and published 3 other poetry anthologies. Keamogetsi joseph Molapong has started working on his second poetry collection called The Scares On My Skin which he plans to publish next year. The publication will be a result of 3 poetry shows Produced by Township Productions. The Scares On My Skin 1, will be performed before the end of the year with The Scares On My Skin 2 & 3 scheduled for the following year.

Poetry Reading In Durban

The themes of his poetry mainly focus on social critique of the many harsh ineq­uities of post-independence Namibian society.  As such he has contributed recitations to such as Book Launches, Festivals, Commemorations, etc. Because of the nature of his Poetry, Molapong has presented his work at the University of Namibia, for the Department of English and the Department of Sociology respectively.