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Nthambeleni Phalanndwa beat the drum while he recited poems by his late contemporaries.
News - Date: 30 September 2018
A group of writers, poets, publishers, scholars and readers gathered to celebrate Heritage Day by reading the works of some African poets who have passed away.
In an event at the Thulamela Main Library in Thohoyandou on Monday, the inaugural Heritage Day Poetry Reading Festival was an occasion to treasure for the fans of local poetry. They were treated by different readers who read from a selection of poems that varied in theme, structure, milieu and style.
The festival organiser, Mr Maano Tuwani, said that, as a lover of African literature, he had found no other way to celebrate the African heritage but through reading the works of the late poets who had all touched readers in different ways.
“We have moved away from talking about writers and books and have started encouraging people to read,” he said. “Why should we talk about books? We should do away with speeches on books and start reading the actual stories in the books.”
The list of late South African poets whose works were read included Dennis Brutus, Mafika Gwala, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Mazisi Kunene, Etani S Madima, Ingoapele Madingoane, Thifulufhelwi Makhado, Tshindane Mashuwa, Daniel M Ngwana, Zinjiva Nkondo, Nkhelebeni Phaswana, Tendamudzimu Ratshitanga, Sipho Sepamla, Muligwe Sigwavhulimu, and Chris van Wyk, with some renderings of works of Chenjerai Hove (Zimbabwe), Okot p'Bitek (East Africa), and Kofi Awoonor (West Africa).
“Paying tribute to all these great poets only shows that we appreciate and celebrate what is ours,” said one of the readers, Nthambeleni Phalanndwa. “We are reading poets who didn't hesitate to grab the pen and speak truth to power and governments who abused people. They were poets who knew how to soothe broken hearts and strangled souls during the dark days of oppression in Africa.”
The readers of the day included, among others, Vonani Bila, Ndivhuwo “Dzomo la Venda” Mabonyane, Azwihangwisi Mafune, Watson Mmbengwa Mbulaheni, Matodzi Ramashia, Nkhensani Ngobeni, Tshanduko Nemutanzhela, Tshilidzi Ramovha and Thivhusiwi Tshindane.
Tuwani made a public call for Tshivenda poetry anthologists to consider including all poets who had opened the path for the new generation in any new anthologies, so that the new generation would have knowledge of the genesis of Tshivenda poetry and earlier poets.
“If you exclude poets such as Daniel M Ngwana in any school anthology, do you think you are doing that anthology justice?” he said. “There's hardly any inclusion of Ngwana's poems in anthologies and this exclusion serves to deny the generation of today a relevant history about Tshivenda poetry. Let's continue to celebrate our writers, those who are no longer with us and the ones who are still with us.”
Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.
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