Fireworks are unmistakably brilliant, dramatic and flamboyant; impossible to miss in many towns across the world.

Many hotels, malls and gardens across Kampala welcomed 2018 in this similar fashion. Likewise, large cities like London, Dubai and Sydney spent huge amounts of money and time to share their own collective delight as the clock struck midnight.

At Babishai, we are set to keep enjoying and celebrating 2018. The fireworks may fizzle but the astuteness of poetry remains. With both the poetry and haiku as part of our annual competitions, we are blest to be a part of unlimited talent across Africa. The shrewdness in the writing; the imagery and profoundness of many themes always leave the judges mesmerized. Each contestant of the Babishai competitions presents a unique quality; a gift that is indescribable. How can anyone describe that feeling after reading a winning haiku or poem! Recalling Kariuki wa Nyamu’s winning haiku of 2017.

last night’s rain

in the morning mud

fresh toad prints

Kariuki wa Nyamu/Kenya

Kariuki wa Nyamu: Babishai 2017 haiku winner

Adjei Agyei-Baah, co-founder of the Africa Haiku Network and chief judge of our haiku competitions has certainly lit the way for African haiku and we’re indebted. His invaluable gift continues to challenge existing literary landscapes.

In 2018, as we hold our fourth poetry festival, extending the fête to Mbale. In 2016, we launched Bamasaaba ba Wandiikha, a platform to promote and share literature from Mbale. In 2018, we will bring this to the fold once again as we hold our third poetry nature series event at Sipi Falls. Poetry at Sipi! What a marvellous way to be a part of poetry. The 2017 experience of Poetry at Mabira was timeless, magical and poetic, according to the group of creative sojourners that went.

Griffin Falls at Mabira Forest: Photography by Wasswa James

Every year, we hold a unique poetry experience, holding our poetry excursions in some of the world’s most glorious and spectacular venues. All of these are in Uganda. In 2016, it was Poetry on Mt. Rwenzori, in 2017, Poetry at Mabira Forest and in 2018, it is Poetry at Sipi Falls. It will be a time like never before.

We wish you a fantastic 2018 and invite you to our world of poetry.