The dawn of a new literary era

GASEBALWE SERETSE
Staff Writer | Wednesday July 11, 2007 00:00

The newly published poets in the edition include Abiod O. Mosienyane, Onalenna Mabote, Jenny JD and Kabelo Joseph - a graduate of Crossing Borders online writing programme initiated by the British Council and the Lancaster University.  Well-known performance poet, TJ Dema contributed six poems namely Forever Ago; That Type Of Jazz; Let The Tribe Decide; Bogadi; Something Kind Of Wonderful; Emotional Black Mail; and Reflections Of Womanhood.

Most of Dema's poems deal with issues of gender and it would be safe to assume feisty African-American feminist poets inspire the versatile orator. The young poet has the ability of poking fun at the black brother in an entertaining way. For example in 'Something Kind Of Wonderful' she wrote:

He came at me big, black, bold, wonderful
Lugging about ideas like a two ton truck
Spitting adjectives and adverbs by the bucketful
He was mesmerising like last night's sunset
Red-blooded young buck
White hot and in heat
You had to humour this somber clown
Skin like ochre eyes golden brown. 

While Dema's written poems are pleasing to the eye, the young woman is always at her best when she performs live on stage. The editor of the anthology, Barolong Seboni admits that when it comes to written poetry, one always runs the risk of losing the vibrancy, animation, immediacy and sounds of orality and the drama of performance.
'This is the paradox of loss in preservation, as I choose to describe it. Some of the poets contained here, and they are indeed 'contained' because live performance is their love, and have since become household names in their own right...,' Seboni says in the book. In his attempt to warn against the sexual carelessness of the current generation, Kabelo Joseph has penned a poem about AIDS. In the poem he says:

It prowls about in nightclubs,
Hunts for unsuspecting preys in bars,
Churches, offices, camps and campuses
Is cocooned in lust
And pounces on its victims
Like a serial killer;
Is more dangerous than Dimo:
The faceless monster
Whose face is sunk in mud,
Whose tempting buttocks
Are shot in the air like an advertisement,
Waiting for naughty toddlers
To lock them in the darkness

It is interesting to note that most of the poets in this edition addressed contemporary issues while Dave Williams, a white man celebrates Lethafula. He wrote thus:
Come, my brothers.
Come forth, sisters!
Celebrate.
Dikgafela! Letlhafula!
Ululate!!
Look, banna,
Lo, basadi!
Go loma;
The sweet melon juice
Flows down Kgosi's chins
As the river flows through
The valleys of this, our
Blessed land.

For years, WABO has endeavoured to publish the works of local writers on an annual basis and it seems that the dream has finally come true.

Perhaps it would be wise to urge Batswana to welcome the dawn (mahube) of a new era and buy the book, which is VERY affordable at P10. Mahube will soon be available in all major bookstores in Botswana.