Tag Archives: Captivation

Gcina Mhlophe

South Africa No Comments

Iconic and award-winning Kwazulu-Natal storyteller and poet, Gcina Mhlophe has been writing and performing for over twenty years. Known for her engaging stage presence, she has written numerous award-winning childrens books as well as poetry, short stories and plays, including Nozincwadi Mother of Books, African Mother Christmas, Fudukazi’s Magic and Love Child. Gcina Mhlophe has received Honorary Doctorates from the London Open University as well as the University of Natal and awards from BBC Africa Service for Radio Drama, The Fringe First Award in the Edinburgh Festival, the Josef Jefferson Award in Chicago, and OBBIE in New York. Her work has contributed to the revival of indigenous storytelling in South Africa.

Gabeba Baderoon

South Africa No Comments

Gabeba is the author of the poetry collections The Dream in the Next Body (2005), The Museum of Ordinary Life (2005), and A hundred silences (2006). The Silence Before Speaking, a volume of her poetry translated into Swedish, is published by Tranan publishers. The Dream in the Next Body was named a Notable Book of 2005 by the Sunday Independent in South Africa and was a Sunday Times Recommended Book. A hundred silences was short-listed for the 2007 University of Johannesburg Prize and the 2007 Olive Schreiner Award.

In 2005, Gabeba received the DaimlerChrysler Award for South African Poetry and held the Guest Writer Fellowship at the Nordic Africa Institute, the second person after Ama Ata Aidoo to receive this honour. In 2008, Gabeba was the recipient of a Civitella Ranieri Fellowship in Italy and a Writer’s Residency at the University of Witwatersrand. Gabeba has read at international literary festivals such as Winternachten in the Netherlands, Poetry International in Rotterdam and London, the Calabash Literary Festival in Jamaica, the Stockholm Poetry Festival, the Bristol Poetry Festival, the Franschhoek Literary Festival, Spier and Poetry Africa. Her fiction appears in Chimurenga, Twist (Oshun, 2006), Cape Town Calling (Tafelberg, 2007) and Art South Africa (6.2, Dec 2007). Gabeba is also a scholar, and writes for the media. Details of her academic writing and her articles in Newsday, the Sunday Independent, Mail & Guardian, Oprah and Real Simple magazines can also be found on gabeba.com.

Genna Gardini

South Africa No Comments

Genna Gardini is a writer based in Cape Town. She won the 2012 DALRO New Coin Poetry prize and was chosen as one of the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans for 2013. Gardini has had two plays produced at the National Arts Festival, WinterSweet(2012) and Scrape (2013), both of which won Standard Bank Ovation awards. She was selected for the Royal Court Theatre’s South African Playwright 2013 – 2014 programme. Her work as a poet has been published widely, both locally and internationally. She works as an arts writer for various publications, including the Cape Times. Gardini is currently completing her MA in Theatre-making (Playwriting) at UCT.

Gail Dendy

South Africa No Comments

Gail Dendy has published seven collections of poetry, her most recent being Closer Than That (Johannesburg: Dye Hard Press, 2011). Her first collection, published by Harold Pinter, was Assault and the Moth, Greville Press (UK) 1993. This was followed by People Crossing (Snailpress, 1995), Swimming in the Long Dark Sound (Stride, UK, 1998, Painting the Bamboo Tree (Arc, UK, 1999), The Poetry of Norman Corwin and Gail Dendy (Shirim, USA, 2002), and The Lady Missionary (Kwela/Snailpress, 2007). Her poetry regularly appears in journals and anthologies both in SA and overseas.
Throughout the 1980s and early ’90s Gail pioneered Contemporary Dance in South Africa and was nominated for the inaugural AA Vita Award for Best Performer. In her writing career, she was a Finalist in the South African Science Fiction Society’s Short Story competition, 1992; Finalist, Dalro Award 2007, Winner of the “Playwriting” category, SA PEN Millennium Competition, 2000; and Joint Winner of the cash prize for the Herman Charles Bosman Literary Award, 2008. She has also been long-listed for the Plough Prize (UK, 2008), shortlisted for the Thomas Pringle Award for Prose (Category: Short Story), 2010, and shortlisted for the EU/Sol Plaatje Poetry Prize in both 2011 and 2012.

The most recent anthologies to feature Gail Dendy’s work are: Anthony Astbury (ed) A Field of Large Desires (Manchester: Carcanet, 2010; Liesl Jobson (compiler) The Sol Plaatje/European Union Poetry Anthology 2011 (Cape Town: Jacana, 2011), and Patricia Schonstein Pinnock (ed) Africa, My Africa! (African Sun Press, 2013), and Harry Owen (ed) For Rhino in a Shrinking World: An International Anthology (East London, SA: The Poets Printery, 2013).

Over the years Gail has worked, inter alia, as a university lecturer, copywriter, and radio news writer. She is currently the Information Specialist for an international corporate-law firm.

Gail is passionate about environmental- and animal-rights issues. She lives in Johannesburg together with her husband, pets, a law library, and a collection of ballet, dance, classical, and Rock ‘n Roll CDs and DVDs.

G.O

South Africa No Comments

G.O is a Cape Town based poet who has performed at places such as Touch of Madness, Tagore’s, and Zula Sound Bar. He has appeared on Bush Radio, UCT Radio and Vibe Radio. He has  been published in IAM Magazine, Zazi Magazine and IMBO Online Magazine.

He coaches a poetry team called Word of Mouth that won an entry to compete in the Annual Brave New Voices Slam Poetry Competition in the United States.

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Evans Nganga

Kenya No Comments

Evans Nganga is a Kenyan contemporary artist, dancer, poet, yoga instructor and beadwork craftsman who concentrates on performing arts based on African traditions and modern art. The past few years have included months of varied art projects, workshops and performances with both local and international artists, choreographers and dancers and travel for research and performances.

He has received his artistic academic training through open forums, seminars and self study, while practical training included dance workshops and apprenticeship receiving instructions in choreography and electronic media at the tertiary level. Evans has choreographed a Solo Dance Piece titled the poem performed at Encounters from Africa festival, the annual festival of solos and duests at Goethe Institute in Nairobi and Dance Week in Kampala, Uganda.

Evolution

South Africa No Comments

Evolution is an artist, poet, musician and creative head who credits all her work to her ancestors. She speaks only the truth which they provide. She mediates between the spirit world and that of physical existence.

Esther Karin Mngodo

Tanzania No Comments

Known by her stage name Es Taa, Esther Karin Mngodo is a Tanzanian poet based in Dar Es Salaam. At the age of 10 she was encouraged by her mother to join the choir, which she did. As the youngest member at the time, Es Taa started off as a Saprano and later on as an Alto. She recently discovered her Tenor voice in a band that ahe has been part of since 2006. Not only is the 26 year old a poet and a musician, but a journalist, a storyteller, a playwright, a social worker, a song composer and a woman passionate about her faith in God.

In 2011 she co-wrote a Musical Move: The Time is Now that was staged at The National Museum Theatre in Dar Es Salaam. She recently performed her original poems at The Smart Partnership Dialogue Meeting held in Dar es Salaam that was attended by Commonwealth Heads of States and different dignitaries.

Using her own life experience, Es Taa’s passion is to unearth matters that people would rather not talk about openly, to bring healing through authentic lyrics that have been birthed through her own pain, mistakes and the quest of life’s purpose. She also seeks to use art as a tool of social change by addressing issues of human rights and social justice in a way that people can relate to.

Emile Jansen

South Africa No Comments

Hailing from the Cape Flats, Emile Jansen aka Emile YX, B-boy War-lock or A-free-Can I, has been involved with Hip Hop Culture since 1982. He is widely recognised as one of the pioneers of South African Hip-Hop, making his name as a founding member of legendary Hip Hop ensemble, Black Noise. Emile has released several CD compilations, appeared on stages world-wide and has associations with celebrated performers in his genre.

Dolapo Ogunwale

Nigeria No Comments

Oluwadolapo meaning “The Lord has poured (things of) substance together” is an embodiment of her name. Her poetry speaks of her inner experiences, either thought out or lived through. She writes in the hope that her words connect with another’s inner self and begins a deep inner reflection that will cause lasting change from the individual to the entire world.

Dolapo’s spoken word delivery has been described as theatrical and deeply moving. Applying her background in music, dance and stage acting into her live performances, she does not resemble one who only began this genre of artistry in August, 2010.

Born to yoruba parents as Oluwadolapo Ebunoluwapo Ogunwale in the city of Lagos, she hopes to find listening ears and open hearts on the world stage.

Dami Ajayi

Nigeria No Comments

Dami Ajayi was born in 1986 in Nigeria and has been penning down poems since he was 11. His debut collection of poems, Clinical Blues, which has notoriously remained in manuscript form, was shortlisted for the 2012 Melita Hume Prize. His poems have appeared in several reputable journals in Africa, Europe and America. Dami is also a medical doctor.

Dumisani Slinger

South Africa No Comments

Dumisani Slinger is a spoken word artist, writer and performer who hails from the dusty streets of KwaZakhele, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

His love for all things poetic stemmed from his passion for hip-hop. A friend introduced him to the world of poetry & he hasn’t looked back since.

His ferocious delivery and clever wordplay draw the audience in as he continuously drops hard facts on topics ranging from socio-political issues right down to the struggle to know thy self. Like many a writer, his poetry is sometimes inspired by the literature he consumes and also by the toil of life.

He has performed on various stages and platforms in and around PE and has even made an appearance on BayTV. The highlight of his journey in poetry came in 2012 when he was chosen, along with 3 other poets, to facilitate a workshop on Poetry & Creative Writing, which was held at the Red Location Museum during National Book Week.

Using the power of the spoken word, the young man aims to inform, inspire & change perceptions.

Dorian Haarhoff

Namibia No Comments

Dorian Haarhoff (1944- ) a South African/Namibian poet, facilitates creative writing, and story-telling wordshops and acts as a one-on-one writing mentor. In a past life, a Professor of English Literature (Namibia), Dorian now tinkers his trade in the street markets of the world. Mythology, creation spirituality, whole brain theory, the new Physics, narrative therapy, Ubuntu, Eco and Jungian psychology and the poetic tradition influence his writing and work.

Passionate about developing innate creativity and imagination, he believes in the power of poetry to create new realities. He has been participating poet at Poetry Africa, SA and at the International Poetry Festival in Colombia, South America.

Selected publications:

Creative Writing teaching text

The Writer’s Voice: A Workbook for Writers in Africa (Zebra Press, Johannesburg 1998.)

Poetry:

Wrist and Rib (own publication, Cape Town, 1978.)

Stickman (own publication, Windhoek, 1981.)

Bordering (Justified Press, Johannesburg, 1991.)

Aquifers and Dust (Justified Press, Johannesburg, 1994.)

Tortoise Voices (Mercer, Cape Town, 2002.)

Drawing Water (Leopard Press, Durban, 2007.)

Poemegranites (Leopard Press, Durban, 2012.)

Editing of Poetry (Student Writing)

The Writers Eye: Namibian Poetry in Process (ed. D. Haarhoff, Basler Afrika Bibliographien, 1997.)

Drama Scripts:

Goats, Oranges and Skeletons (ed. T. Zeeman, Gamsberg Macmillan, Windhoek, 2002.)

The Missing Namibian, SAMP – (Swedish African Museum Project) performed in Sweden and Namibia , 1996 (unpublished.)

Children’s Stories/ Drama:

Desert December (Songololo, Cape Town, 1991, Clarion, New York, 1992 and Pan Macmillan, U.K., 1993.)

Water from the Rock (New Namibia Books, Windhoek, 1992.)

Legs, Bones and Eyes (New Namibia Books, Windhoek 1994, Puffin, 1996.)

Guano Girl (Justified Press, Johannesburg, 1994.)

Space Racer, graded reader (Kagiso, Cape Town, 1996.)

Grandfather’s Enoch’s Pipe, graded reader (Gamsberg Macmillan, Windhoek, 2002.)

The Water Diviner, short list top 3 African Baobab competition 2011

Alice in Welwitschialand (Environmental Play) Performed 1992, 1993 and 1994 NTN (National Theatre Namibia) and Grahamstown Festival. (unpublished)

The Colour of Water, Children’s Radio Drama Serial. Namibian B C, 1993.

Diana Ferrus

South Africa No Comments

Diana Ferrus was born in Worcester in 1953 and completed her high school career in 1972. She completed a postgraduate degree in Women’s and Gender studies at the University of the Western Cape where she works as an administrator in the Dept of Industrial Psychology.

Diana is a writer, poet, performance poet and story-teller. Her work in both Afrikaans and English has been published in various collections and some serve as prescribed texts for high school learners. Her publishing house, Diana Ferrus Publishers has published various publications including her first Afrikaans collection of poetry, Ons Komvandaan. Diana co-edited and published a collection of stories about fathers and daughters, Slaan vir my ‘n masker, Vader in 2006. The mission of her publishing company is to publish writers from previously disadvantaged communities. Her company in association with the University of the Western Cape has published life stories of three former activists and unionists namely, Liz “Nana” Abrahams, Zollie Malindi and Archie Sibeko. These publications contain rich material about South Africa’s past and some are prescribed texts at the University of the Western Cape.

She is a founder member of the Afrikaanse Skrywersvereniging (ASV), Bush Poets (all women poets) and Women in Xchains (grassroots women writers).

Diana has attended numerous literary festivals locally and abroad. In 2006 she performed her poetry at the Klein Karoo Kunstefees with the Mamela band. They received a Kanna-award for the best contemporary music. At this very festival Diana received a Kanna-award for her contribution to Afrikaans.

However Diana Ferrus is internationally known and acclaimed for the poem that she wrote for the indigenous South African woman Sarah Bartmann who was taken away from her country under false pretences and paraded as a sexual freak in Europe.

Diana’s work has had and still has a bearing and influence on matters of race, gender, class and reconciliation. She is popular amongst South Africans of all race groups. She believes in her country’s future and works tirelessly for her people’s emancipation from racial, sexual and class exploitation as well as reconciliation.

Desiree Bailey

Trinidad and Tobago No Comments

A native of Trinidad and Tobago, Desiree has lived in New York for over 13 years. Still, the Caribbean will never leave her.

She believes that the written and spoken word can set fire to the positive action and social change that is waiting in our bones.

D’bi Young

Canada Jamaica No Comments

born in kingston jamaica, raised in whitfield town
birthed from the womb of dub
by anita (poets iin unity) stewart
who raised her child
at orality’s hub
storyteller d’bi.young takes performance live
is celebrated by the people on her way
including receiving two doras for blood.claat
first of the sankofa trio of plays
the second and third are benu and word! sound! powah!
onewomban biomyth monodramas
d’bi. is dubpoet, educator, soul-searching wombanist
also aspiring rawfoodist
played staceyann in da kink in my hair
founded anitafrika! dub theatre
recorded six dub disks
with two collections of poetry published
new album set to blossom late 2010
watching her two sons grow
while currently touring the world

Cynthia “Flowchyld” Marangwanda

Zimbabwe No Comments

Cynthia Marangwanda is a Zimbabwean spoken-word poet who identifies herself as a feminist and a creative activist. Her art is rooted in Harare’s vibrant urban culture scene and fueled by the protest sounds of hip-hop and reggae. Her poetry is mainly concerned with themes of identity, emancipation, the deconstruction of oppressive structures, socio-political commentary, individual power, as well as in transformation, all seen through the lens of a twenty-something African feminist.

Cynthia started performing spoken-word in 2008 at Sistaz Open Mic, a show held monthly at the Book Café. She has performed at many other events at the Book Café including the House of Hunger Poetry Slam, 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence and the Afro-Slam Poetry Express. Other places she has performed her poetry include the Harare International Festival of the Arts (HIFA), the International Images Film Festival (IIFF), International Women’s Day events as well as appearances in Namibia and Lesotho. Cynthia also co-founded Chimoto! – a platform for fellow emerging performance-artists and urban creative-outreach project in 2010 and she has also worked with Zimbabwe Poets for Human Rights.

Chirikure Chirikure

Zimbabwe No Comments

Chirikure Chirikure was born in Gutu, Zimbabwe, in 1962. He is a graduate of the University of Zimbabwe and an Honorary Fellow of Iowa University, USA. He currently lives in Berlin, Germany, as a fellow under the 2011/12 DAAD Berliner Kunstlerprogramm (Artists in Berlin Programme). He also works as a performance poet and cultural consultant.

He worked with one of Zimbabwe’s leading publishing houses as an editor/publisher for 17 years, until 2002. After working as a consultant for a while, he went on to work for an international development agency as a programme officer for culture, for Southern Africa, based in Harare, until April 2011.
Chirikure has published the following volumes of his poetry: Rukuvhute (1989, College Press, Harare); Chamupupuri (1994, College Press, Harare); Hakurarwi – We Shall not Sleep (1998, Baobab Books, Harare) and Aussicht Auf Eigene Schatten (Shona and English poems with German translations) (2011, Afrika Wunderhorn, Heidelberg, Germany).

He has also contributed some pieces in a number of poetry anthologies, including Zviri Muchinokoro (2005, ZPH Publishers), Intwasa Poetry (2008, AmaBooks Publishers), Schicksal Afrika (ed. Horst Kohler) (2010, Rowohlt Verlag), No Serenity Here – An Anthology of African Poetry in Chinese, (2010 Moonchu Foundation).
His poetry has been translated into a number of languages. He has also written and translated a number of children’s stories and educational books.

Chirikure’s first three poetry books received first prizes in the annual Zimbabwe writer of the year awards. His first volume, Rukuvhute, also received an Honorable Mention in the Noma Awards for Publishing in Africa, in 1990. His other book, Hakurarwi – We Shall not Sleep, was selected as one of the 75 Best Zimbabwean Books of the 20th Century in a competition ran by the Zimbabwe International Book Fair in 2004. In that competition the same book got a prize as one of the best five Shona publications of the 20th Century.

Chirikure performs his poetry solo and/or with DeteMbira mbira music ensemble. With DeteMbira, they recorded an album of poetry and music, Napukeni (2002, Tuku Music/ZMC). He regularly performs and tours with musician Chiwoniso Maraire, with whom he has recorded an album of poetry with mbira music, Chimanimani .

With support from family and friends, he has also recorded an album of his poetry with contemporary music, Chisina Basa (2011, Metro Studios Harare/Inyasha Studios UK).

He has also written lyrics for a number of leading Zimbabwean musicians and he occasionally performs and has recorded with some of these musicians.

He has also contributed lyrics, translations and voice-overs in films and documentaries, and has acted in some theatre productions. He has also been an occasional contributor to the print media and used to run a radio programme for young Shona writers.

Over the years, Chirikure has participated in several international festivals, fairs, conferences and symposiums, as a performer, speaker or resource person.

Checkmate Mido

Kenya No Comments

The ever-resilient Checkmate Mido is a human beatbox, poet, musician and actor. He is known for his thought provoking poems and incorporating beatboxing into his performances.

In December 2010, at the annual Kenya Music Week, held at the Sarit Centre, he co-released his 6 track EP called Broken City with Kennah as his first foray into recording an album, which apart from the two, features various artists such as world renowned percussionist Tenpar Tella.

Broken City was again relaunched at the secrets lounge on the 3rd of March 2011. http://nairobinow.wordpress.com/concertalbum-launch-kennah-checkmate-live-unplugged-mar-3-2011-secrets-lounge/

Apart from writing his own music and poetry, he had a hugely successful debut as an actor appearing in the popular play Mayors’ Diary performed by Ethnic Productions in collaboration with Adcents media (now Kilele Productions), in which he starred as the title character the Mayor. He also played a role in the thriller Death & The Estate (as Spencer-The Family Lawyer) staged at the Kenya National Theatre from 9th-11th December 2011.

He featured in the 2012 edition of The Theatre Company’s Fire By Ten series playing multiple roles.

Having featured in festivals such as Wapi (words and pictures) in 2011 and Kinanda Arts Festival he has performed at various other poetry nights such as Slam Africa, Kwani and Wamathai.

Crystal Tettey

Ghana No Comments

Crystal Tettey is a Malagasy/Ghanaian artist who is a member of EhaLaKasa- a group of young Spoken word poets who use performance art to inspire positive social change. She is fluent in English, French, Russian, Ga and Twi.

Koleka Putuma

South Africa No Comments

Performance poet,  Koleka Putuma, is based in Cape Town and currently pursuing a degree in Theatre and Performance at the University of Cape Town. She  facilitates and hosta writing and dialogue workshops at schools, community projects and interfaith programs in and around Cape Town.

She has headlined at SliPnet’s Inzync Poetry Sessions, JamThat Session and at Off The Wall. She is a resident poet of the collective Lingua Franca. In 2012 she took second place in the Cape Town leg of the Drama for Life Lover + Another National Performance Poetry Slam Competition and represented the city at the national finals.

Her work has travelled to Scotland and New York.

 

Chantel-Fleur Sandjon

Germany No Comments

Chantal-Fleur Sandjon is at the forefront of artists of colour in Germany that reclaim words, voices and the visibility of the subaltern. Based in Berlin and Johannesburg, she has been part of numerous art projects and publications in Germany and abroad. As a member of the collectives Blaque Reinnecarnation as well as The Critical Witness, Chantal-Fleur ignores the alleged boundaries between different media, art forms and the academics.

Herbert Woodward Martin

United States No Comments

Herbert Woodward Martin, born in 1933, served as professor of English and poet-in-residence at the University of Dayton in Ohio, United States of America, for more than three decades where he taught creative writing and African-American literature. He is the author of nine volumes of poetry and has devoted decades to editing and giving performances of the works of the poet and novelist Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906).

Martin’s publications include:

  • New York The Nine Million, Abracadabra Press, 1967
  • The Shit-Storm Poems , Pilot Press, 1972
  • The Persistence of The Flesh, Lotus Press, 1976
  • The Forms of Silence, Lotus Press, 1980
  • Galileo’s Suns, Bottom Dog Press, 1999
  • The Log of The Vigilante, Mellen Press, 2000
  • Escape To The Promised Land, Bottom Dog Press, 2005
  • Inscribing My Name, Kent State University Press, 2007
  • On the Flyleaf: Poems, Bottom Dog Press, 2013

Editor:

  • Paul Laurence Dunbar: A Singer of Songs, State Library of Ohio, 1980
  • In His Own Voice: The Uncollected Works of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Ohio University Press, 2002
  • Paul Laurence Dunbar: Selected Poems, Penguin Press, 2004
  • The Collected Novels of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Ohio University Press, 2009

Helen Moffett

South Africa No Comments

Helen Moffett is a freelance writer, editor, academic and poet, whose lectured as far afield as Trinidad and Alaska. Her academic writings include a great deal of gloomy but necessary work on sexual violence in the post-apartheid context. She writes about cricket because it reminds her why she likes men (and because she loves the game with a passion).

She has also published a university textbook on poetry, an anthology of South African landscape writing and several short stories. Poetry is her first and last love, she went from teaching it to students to eventually writing her own. Her debut collection of poems, Strange Fruit, was published by Modjaji Books in 2009.

Helen Wambui

Kenya No Comments

Hellen “Poeticbee” is proudly Kenyan. She is a student pursing fashion design,she is also a performing spoken word artist,a recording musician, and 46th Slam Africa queen. She was born into a creative family where her life quickly started revolving around pen, paper, words and melodies.

Hector S Kunene

South Africa No Comments

Born in 1981 in Hammarsdale just outside Durban, Hector S Kunene first journeyed into poetry at the young age of 16 and immediately his love for his art emerged. It was his love for poetry that saw one of his first poems Bloody Corpuscles published in the Sunday Times newspaper. Hector later moved to Bloemfontein where he pursued his childhood dream of publishing a book because “I want to see people reading, I want people to start appreciating poetry again like they did in the days of Don Mattera and the likes of Mzwakhe Mbuli and Keorapetse Gkositsile”.

His first book Through The Tunnel released in 2010 not only received exceptional reviews but was also internationally recognized. He went on to publish a literary study of Omoseye Bolaji that same year which as well was well received by literary pundits, newspapers and numerous other local publications. The successes of both books resulted in him being awarded the Free State Writer of the Year award in 2010 in addition to the Free State Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation purchasing his works for libraries across the province.

Hector, who additionally serves as a Manager at SAA’s Airchef’s division, was also billed to perform at the Howick Writers Festival in Durban and was honored by Darrel David for Midland Literary Festival and Boekbedonner in the Karoo to name but a few. With a third book in the pipeline, the literary protégé is bound to receive further acclaim.

The rising star, who has even learnt other languages in order to resonate with his audiences, sites Dr. Don Mattera, Keorapetse Gkositsile, Napo Mashiane, Jah Rose, Lebo Mashile, Gcina Mhlophe and QwaQwa native Kwazi as his sources of inspiration.

His unique traditional poetry style laced with inspirational spiritual messages has undoubtedly endeared him in the hearts of his followers. “This is what I live to do. I worship God with poetry. I long to see the church appreciating God in Poetry. I yearn to see young children play in the rain singing ‘Re Ne Sa Pula’. I would love to see the libraries filled with our books and us being celebrated all over the world for doing what we love”.

Hector has worked with:
* Afurakhan
* Dr. Cool
* Dr. Don Mattera
* Flaxman Qoopane
* Kgafela
* Icebound
* Jahrose
* Lebo Leisa
* Lesego Rampolokeng
* Myesha Rose Jenkins
* Napo Mashiane
* Natalia Molebatsi
* Omoseye Bolaji
* Raselebeli Khotseng
* Rita Chihawa
* Sheila Khala
* The Archives

Hale Tsehlana

Lesotho No Comments

Hale Tsehlana is the Faculty Advisor for the Stellenbosch University Poetry Society, which she assisted to establish. She is a published poet and has read and performed her poetry in and around South Africa, India, Germany, UK and South Korea. Her collection titled Poems and Songs from the Mirea was relaunched in August 2007 at a special celebration for the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions hosted by the South Africa National Library for the Blind in Grahamstown and it has been published in Braille and Audio. In the face of current debates on multiculturalism and multilingualism in South Africa, this book takes a multimedia and multilingual approach to poetry with English, Afrikaans and Sesotho poems. The book encourages local writers to reach out to marginalized communities who may not be able to read and write; hence it is made into Braille.

She recently translated a children’s book Phapo’s Gift that will be suitable for use in primary schools. She is featured in Ink@ boilingpoint, a collection of poems and essays by women from the Southern tip of Africa, (2004) 2nd edition. Voices from the Free State (2004), an anthology of Prose, Verse & Creative Articles by Indigenous Women and Youth of the Free State Province, and Basadzi Voices, an anthology of poetic writing by young black South African Women, published in 2006 by University of KwaZulu-Natal Press. Hale Tsehlana was selected to attend the November 2007 Asia Africa Literature Festival in Jeonju South Korea and in May 2008 she represented South Africa as one of the 20 young writers selected world wide to participate in the Seoul Young Writers Festival. In 2009, she presented the Words on Water Festival – Stellenbosch Satellite event sponsored & co-hosted by the by the Indian Consulate Cape Town Office & Stellenbosch International office.

Austin Bukenya

Uganda No Comments

Austin Bukenya is best-known as a pioneering scholar in the discipline of oral literature, to which he and his teacher, Pio Zirimu, gave the now popular label, orature.

Born in Masaka, Southern Uganda, in 1944, he went to high schools around Kampala and Entebbe and was a first-class graduate of the University of East Africa (Dar es Salaam) in 1968. He also studied at universities in Madagascar and England, and took his higher degrees at Makerere and Kenyatta Universities.

He has taught languages, literature and drama at Makerere University in Uganda and universities in the UK, Tanzania and Kenya since the late 1960s. He has also held residences at universities in Rwanda and Germany. Bukenya is also a literary critic, novelist, poet and dramatist. An accomplished stage and screen actor, he was for several years Director of the Creative and Performing Arts Centre at Kenyatta University, Nairobi.

Ari Sitas

South Africa No Comments

Ari Sitas is a poet, dramatist and sociologist. A founder member of the Junction Avenue theatre company in Johannesburg, he was involved in most of its productions until 1982 when he moved to Durban.

Sitas’s involvement in popular and worker theatre since the 1970s has been widely celebrated, his broader writing and involvement as a leading intellectual in anti-Apartheid movements has left a trail of robust engagements within and outside the country. In 1978 the theatre company received the Olive Schreiner Award for his play Randlords and Rotgut, and in 1981 won an award for the video/film Howl at the Moon. His first collection of poetry Tropical Scars (1989) met with much critical acclaim, and he followed this with a collection experimenting with musical form, was included in the anthology, Essential Things (1990). Sitas’s book, Slave Trades (2000), a result of seven years of research and writing has been highly praised. His last collection, The RDP Poems (2004) was his most disturbingly controversial with their precise and bleak analysis of current traumas in South Africa’s transition. Rough music (2014) is his current collection of poetry. Sitas has also penned a libretto for an opera for composer Jurgen Brauninger, Dead Fish and Dreams of Love Again.

Ari Sitas is considered to be one of the country’s leading sociologists and has been elected by the International Sociological Association on the executive of its world council. Locally, he is seen to be a central thinker around the African Renaissance and of social justice and labour movements. He is currently working on a collection of his plays, a take on Around the World in 80 days (of which the India section has been completed) and a series of lyrics titled Insurrections done in conjunction with other poets and composers from South Africa and India.

Antjie Krog

South Africa No Comments

Antjie Krog was born and grew up in the Free State. She became editor of the Afrikaans current-affairs magazine Die Suid-Afrikaan and later worked as a radio journalist covering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, all the while writing extensively for newspapers and journals. She and her radio colleagues received the Pringle Award for excellence in journalism for their coverage of the Commission hearings, from which came the best known of her three non-fiction books, Country of My Skull.

She has won major awards in almost all the genres and media in which she has worked: poetry, non-fiction and translation. But, mainly, she has lived as a poet. Krog’s first volume of poetry was published when she was seven­teen years old and she has since released thirteen volumes of poetry and received among others the Eugène Marais Prize, the Hertzog Prize, the FNB Prize, the Protea Prize, and, for non-fiction, the Alan Paton Prize and the Olive Schreiner Award. She has also been a recipient of the Stockholm Award from the Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture and the Open Society Prize. She is married to architect John Samuel.

Anne Moraa

Kenya No Comments

Anne Moraa is first and foremost a writer. A powerful spoken word artist, she has won several competions (Slam Africa, Kwani Open Mic) and has performed pieces at major festivals (Kwani Litfest, StoryMoja Hay Festival).

Her strong feminist perspective and willingness to challenge norms led to commissioned performances on gender and sexuality, including the 2013 “Festivale CulturElles” at Alliance Francaise. A law graduate, she writes fiction prose as well as scripts, social commentary and basically anything she can get her hands on.