Tribute to African writers published in Poem2day creative review.

Tribute to African Writers by Mbizo Chirasha, Zimbabwe

Tribute to African Writers

For I wrote so long a letter to Mayombe and Anowa
That I will marry when I want
For the beautiful ones are not yet born
While we wait for the rain
In the coming of the dry season
Behind the anthills of Savannah
Milking the cows of Shambati
Gathering good bits of wood

And the fortunes of Wangarini
In that forests of a thousand demons
A sleep-walking land, for things had fallen apart
We faced the wrath of the ancestors
Bones and shadows
For it was not any easy walk to freedom
With Farai girls, Nehanda and the son of the soil
In that long journey of Popynongena
We met Matigari
And the tycoon from Peter Maritzburg
And the poor Christ of Bomba

We saw the devil dangling on the
Cross and his blooming petals of blood
We had the arrows of God
We wanted to kill the mangy dog
In the river between, was this a war of freedom?
Indaba my children
We sang the song of Lawino and Ocol

Walking down Second Avenue
Fighting to decolonize the minds of the people
We became the house of hunger
In the country of our own
The butterfly was burning
In the summer season
we never ate the grain of wheat
For we harvested thorns
Cry my beloved country
Country of my skull
For Nehanda still snores
Even after the struggle of Zimbabwe

MBIZO CHIRASHA is an internationally acclaimed performance poet. He worked as a guest poet in Namibia-Haiti presidential fund-raising project. He was also Poet-in-Residence for the United National Information Centre from 2001-2008, and for ISOLA/International Conference of Oral Literature this year. He is the founder of Writers' Caravan, a creative writing initiative in Zimbabwe.

Mbizo Poet appears in Kushinda Wales arts journal

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k!8 ~ ‘I have eaten my poetry’ ~ Mbizo Chirasha

It has been a full three months since k!7 but worth the wait to have the privilege of publishing these new works by Zimbabwe’s Mbizo Chirasha. A performance poet and writer of international acclaim, Mbizo’s achievements include Guest Poet of the Namibia – Haiti Fundraising Project and Poet in Residence at the International Conference of African Culture and Development 2009. He has also founded or been centrally involved in many creative and young writers’ projects and his work has appeared in print many times in Africa and elsewhere. You can read more of his work at his African Poetry Chatroom blog.

LETTER TO MY DAUGHTER

this poem reshuffled cabinet
the rhythm resigned the president
its metaphors adjourned parliament

my daughter
awaken sleeping patriots eating peanut in slogan darkness
rise dozing voters in the warmth of political acid
awaken struggle heroes in graves tired of wrong epitaphs and fake eulogies
awaken fat cats puffing zanunised propaganda burgers in slumber

rise green horns drinking much talked herbal tea of change
grandfathers of patriotism to bring back
truth drowning in potholes of grief
god fathers of change to bring back my vote choked in drums of new renewed
corruption

bring red hot charcoal to roast political bedbugs sucking our blood in daylight
bring a word scientist to burn the justified injustice in poetic sulphuric acid

my daughter
this poem reshuffled cabinet
the rhythm resigned the president
the metaphors adjourned parliament.

LUNCH TIME

i have eaten my poetry
i stuffed my metaphors for lunch
imagination my cool drink
empty bag of my stomach blowing tornado,
frustrated
a gunshot passed through my chest
another frustration

STINKING BREATH OF MY PEN

greasy propaganda apples for peasants
bourgeoisie for sweating corruption omelet
villagers for cassava and diet coke
streets for hip hop and toy guns
school uniform for PhD studies and bible for my daughter
wreath for saint valentine
roses for saint Paul

revolutions changed and revolutions unchanged
canister for fat breakfast
bullet for big supper
i am fasting the supper and breakfast

sun born with Vaseline on its forehead
moonrise with cancer on its breasts
tender skin of stars split by ghetto politics
kindas blowing condoms with lung wind
elders blowing balloons with broken hearts

another revolution
another liberation

another slice of politics
another rumble of hunger
another for the priest.

sweat drops, raindrops, tear drops
raindrops, teardrops, sweat drops
the breath of my pen stinks

Poems and Photo ⒸMbizoChirasa2010

poet mbizo profiled in one ghana one voice 2011

Author Profile - Mbizo Chirasha

Biography:

Mbizo is the official poet in residence for the ISOLA International Conference of Oral Literature 2010 at the University of Nairobi. He is also the Guest poet at the 2010 Arts in Translation conference in Iceland. He was Africa's 100Best Books delegate at Swedish cultural book/cultural centres and the Goteborg Book Fair in 2003. Mbizo founded the Writers Caravan, a creative writing initiative in Zimbabwe. He is also the founder of an amateur poetry conference, a poetry festival and other projects.

He is a widely anthologized poet, published in more than 35 journals, magazines and anthologies around world.

Five Questions with Mbizo Chirasha:

1. The title of this poem suggests the interaction between page ("pen") and performance ("breath") poetry. Do you write your poems primarily for the page or to be performed aloud? Do you think a poem can succeed at both equally?

I believe poetry I write can be performed and read successfully, for I believe the impact on written work can affect readers the same way it does to listeners in a spoken word session.


2. If you write your poems to be performed, how do you feel about your poems being displayed in print, with no audio component? Do you think something is lost when your poems aren't heard as spoken from your voice?

I used to think this, when I was still young in this art/craft. Now because I have grown strongly in this industry, I am understanding the dynamics of the voice we get both in readership and listenership.


3. When you perform your poems, do you have them memorized, or do you read them from the page?

Most of my performances are memorized works 'cause the audience reads, so when you read in front of them, they think that you aren't be a performer, but a writer or a reader. Sometimes in commissioned events I will read, but I must say the greatest performer must perform his poetry by head.


4. You are one of our "poets on the ground" in Zimbabwe. What do you have to report on the current state of the country? Of the country's arts community?

The leadership must stop take chances with people. The unity goverment must bring proficiency and efficiency in the state of affairs. We need a leadership that respects nurses and teachers. One thing that I don't understand up to now is having seventy-six ministers and their deputies: for what?

While the country fails to raise money for power and water as well infrastructural needs, I have my own pan-Africanist views. But pan-Africanism mustn't be the support of the ideologies of those who bring countries from struggle. It must have a name tag of respecting people who are ruled and those who advocate for change. The local government has become corrupt with residential stands and hefty salaries while cities are bathing in sewer. I wonder where is change?


5. How have Zimbabwean artists been responding to the country's struggles?

A lot of things have been happening: discussions, poetry sessions like Poets for Human Rights, and book cafes have offered platforms for voices of freedom. Visual exhibitions are being curated that try to articulate the state of the nations. But some artists don't participate because they feel the impact, they do it 'cause somebody is sponsoring them, or they become voices of those who have agendas for resources and other political reasons.

While I agree that corruption brought us down, other political forces also played part in the fall of the country. Politicians must remember to leave pure legacies and those from outside who say they beliveve in human rights must not do things with double standards, but instead with a focused vision to build Zimbabwe. We as Zimbabweans will also help find the solution if we put hands together here in the first stage of the unity government. I trust it will work for the good for the people of this nation.

Contact Mbizo:

Email: mbizoc(at)yahoo.co.uk
Website: http://www.mbizopoetry.blogspot.com/

mbizo poet heads for East Africa 2011

Mbizo Chirasha Heads for Kenya

Wednesday, 10 November 2010 06:30

Local poet, Mbizo Chirasha, a.k.a The Black Poet will once again represent Zimbabwe poetically when he performs at the Drums Café for Peace Festival to be held in Kenya from December 12-14 this year. This is not the first time that Chirasha has been invited to take part at highly honoured events. He was poet-in-residence at the International Conference of African Development in November 2009 in Accra, Ghana where he says he was the only person titled “Mr.” as all the other participants were either “Prof” or “Dr.” ^ Mbizo Chirasha 'The Black Poet' performs at HIFA 2009. “It is always an honour to be given such a high profile opportunity to perform in the motherland (Africa),” said Chirasha who traces his literary beginnings to the now defunct Midlands Budding Writers Association. The poet with a roaring voice was also one of the founders of the short-lived Writers’ Caravan. “I am working on another book called I am a Revolution having had seen the success of the first one,” he said. Asked what his vision is, Chirasha said he wished to be “the best tomato on the market” and vowed to mentor aspiring artists in the future. However, he was quick to bemoan the status of the arts in the country, saying the sector is being neglected and left only to a very few outgoing people. “Poetry is a medium, a form of rehearsing the future. It is not as comic as many people, including artists, are taking it to be. It is a class of its own,” said Chirasha. The Zvishavane-born poet also pointed out that government needed to set up an independent Ministry of Arts and Culture which will be directly responsible for all arts and culture matters unlike now where art is incorporated with education and sport. Mbizo’s visit to Kenya will boost his 2010-2011 plans to “brand” his name. Chirasha has shared the stage with the veteran local poet Chirikure Chirikure, Jamaican dub poet Mutabaruka, and others of his generation such as Ishkold, Linda Gabriel, Tinashe Muchuri, and Nqobile Malinga. He performs at major arts and culture functions in the country and has recently collaborated with an Indian-born New York based poet, Sweta Vikram, to publish a book called “Whispering Woes Zambezi and Ghanjees.” - Trevor Makonyonga for The Zimbo Jam