Tag: Spoken word poetry

ADJEI AGYEI-BAAH, CO-FOUNDER OF THE AFRICA HAIKU NETWORK AND #BABISHAI2016 JUDGE

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 Adjei Agyei-Baah is the co-founder of the African Haiku Network, editor of Mamba Journal on Haikus, judge of the #Babishai2016 Babishaiku Competition and guest at the #Babishai2016

Adjei Pic 2
Babishai is so pleased that you took up the position as judge for our inaugural Haiku competition, or Babishaiku. As the co-founder of the Africa Haiku Network, which you co-founded with Emmanuel Jessie Kalusian, you hold strong values connecting Haiku to African language. Share a few please.


Yes, Africa can ‘nativise’, and even translate and write haiku in our widely spoken indigenous languages like Swahili/ Kiswahili etc… in order to become part of our literature thought at schools and colleges. But I think connecting haiku to only our language would display a limited role and benefit and would be appropriate if extended to embrace our culture and values in its entirety. In fact, I still see haiku among the less explored arts that Africa can take advantage of in telling her story. Its brevity and power of delight can easily cause people to stop and read,especially in this technological age where people have limited time,to read lengthy texts and images generated by the various applications and social media platforms. In such situation, haiku then becomes a teaser or bait to entice people to pause and read for a moment.

     Surely, haiku can be used to record our daily observations and happenings in our environment. For instance the haiku below captures the pitiful sight of the deplorable state most Africa’s railway networks, which presently have their tracks going rusty, compared to the advanced Germany’s Sky and Japan’s Bullet Trains, which travel at lightning speed:


         end of road—/railway truck runs/ into earth

        And by this simple haiku, awareness can be created for people in authority to give such as   state the needed attention or becomes a call toinvestors to come downto salvage the    situation:

 

Similarlya haiku can be used to tell Africa’shistory to the generation yet to come, be it good or bad. In the haiku below, I share a rich historical experience with readers on my visit to the Cape Coast Castle in Ghana (formerly called the Gold Coast), where the colonial masters left forts and castles as colonial monuments after the collapse of slave trade that have become haunting structures of terror showcasing to some of the atrocities committed against the black race.

 

On top of these castles, remain their planted cannons, mockingly acting as sign-posts, pointing the direction were they came in and the route where they exited:

 

castle cannons― /pointing where/ their owners gone by

 

Indeed, haiku as art has so many benefits to Africa but would prefer to speak extensively about it some other time to come.

 

The Mamba Journal is Africa’s first single Haiku publication. How have audiences responded to it so far?

 

Response have been so far great, in fact we received congratulatory messages from almost all international haiku journal editors/ founders like Shamrock, Heron’s Nest, Cat tails, Paper Wasp, Modern Haiku etc. and other haiku societies and lovers around the world. In fact, they were happy for our feat, in finding Africa a spot on the world haiku map. But from Africa have been few messages since the haiku art is not much known and even seasoned poets and academic institution have not been practicing it. Prof. Wole Soyinka was happy about our historic breakthrough and sent us his first haiku which we hope to publish in our 2nd edition, if he grants us permission.

Do you write Haiku in any other language apart from English?

Yes, I have often translated my haiku into my mother tongue, Twi, the widest spoken language in Ghana. Fortunately for me, some of my haiku(s) have also been translated into Japanese, Romania, Russia, French and German. But I have the intention of translating my upcoming collection “Afriku” into Swahili and other international languages such as French, Spanish and Chinese for these countries to also experience and appreciate our unique seasons and settings outside their own.

Ghana is heavily invested in the arts. Which arts and culture events do you always attend while there, and why?

I am devotee of poetry and spoken word, for I see these two art as channels to create social awareness, as a means of talking about the corruption and bribery in high places, the church taking advantage of poor, the commoner overburdened with taxes and also as a mean of providing entertainment to ward off our daily stress.

 

How important is it, in your opinion, to conduct poetry competitions for Africans living in   Africa?

 

It is a smart way of telling the African story by Africans themselves to their unborn generations, rather than leaving it in the hands of foreigners who may record it with ugliness. It’s like making an effort to define oneself before someone else does it for him.

 

      You have been a judge before for a Haiku competition. Describe that experience.
Nope, this is my first time, but would say as a co-editor and aficionado of haiku, I have regularly been mentoring and editing chunk haiku everyday. The difficult part has always been sending a “rejection” mail to a submitter, it has always been quite hard. You have go about it in a “fine” way so as not extinguish the feeble fire of first-timers. Most at times too, there are friends, who want to take advantage of their friendship with you, to force you to accept “anything” they pen as haiku for publication. And here is where I stand my grounds, since a good editor need to be a bit ruthless, so as to separate the chaffs from the grain.

Do you use Haiku to woo women?

Eish… I wish I could but not in its wrong sense but would rather want to entice them with it. In fact when it comes to haiku in Africa, its rather unfortunate that only few women are doing it.On the international scene, I can only point two heads, Celestine Nudanu (from Ghana) and Nshai Waluzimba (from Zambia) who are devotees and have received commendation for some of their haiku pieces.

What diet is best for poets, in your opinion?

Hmmm, this is quite a tough one. Honestly I am stuck here. But I will recommend any food that ward-off stress and make them stay up refreshed at night and write their heart out.

 

At the Babishai Poetry Festival this year, what three things do you expect?

I expect to meet new young African poets, not the same old faces we already know. A little freshness, will surely spice up the show. I hope to see a lot of books, more especially anthologies to get know of what is happening in the world of poetry in other Africa countries, most especially from East Africa. I think my people back home will be delighted to know about it and will as well love to witness some performances which I will personally love to perform one or two poems from my upcoming collection “Embers of Fireflies”.

Any parting remarks?

Thanks for this opportunity to share my thoughts with the world, in my quest to promote Africa to find her rightful place of the World haiku map.

 

 

Thank you
The #Babishai2016 poetry festival runs from 24-26 August in Kampala. Contact us at festival@babishainiwe.com

 

Meet l-Ness The Lioness-#Babishai2016 Poetry Festival Guest

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Every week, we’ll be interviewing our #Babishai2016 Poetry Festival guests. This week, it’s L-Ness from Kenya. Her session is for children. Babishai Poetricks is in for  a treat. L-NESS alias Lioness is a Poet, a Femcee, a Hip Hop Cultural Specialist, and one of the top lyricist and performance femcees of Hip Hop in the region. Her first album is titled SIMANGWE 2011 and the theme is ‘’Don’t Stop the Music’. One of the songs in this album is being used by Music Copyright Society of Kenya as their campaign theme song against piracy and artist exploitation.

gUEST PHOTO l-NESS

 

  1. Explain if you are you the poet you wanted to be 5 years ago.

In actual fact, I am growing to be more than the poet I wanted to be five years ago. I started as a rapper and transformed into a Mc/Femcee. I have been blessed and privileged to share the same stage with international poets from all over the world in events like the Poesiefestival 2015 and the Spoken Worlds 2014 concert, both in Berlin. I didn’t even know I was a poet. Other poets and institutions involved in the Poetry and Spoken Word arena like Kwani and Storymoja in Nairobi, Kenya and Literaturewerkstatt in Berlin, Germany, identified me as a poet. They read my translated poems/rap verses and saw my live stage performances and creative writing workshops and considered it poetry. Due to the direction I choose my poetry to take, I am able to tackle selective topics that open discussions which generally people are hesitant to talk about like politics, religion and worship jealousy (Terrorism), social issues, cultural issues, woman power and leadership in Africa.

  1. Poetry is subjective and yet all talent needs to be nurtured. How has this fact influenced your work?

The subjective nature of poetry has influenced different ways of performing, recording, publishing and distributing my works. Some suggest that language and logic are predominantly functions of the left side of the brain, while music/sound is processed in the right side of the brain which deals largely with feeling and emotions. I combine my poetry with musical accompaniment, in addition to the fluctuating tones that I incorporate in my performance poetry, in order to evoke spontaneous reactions from the listeners.

The subjective nature of poetry has also influenced the content of my works, since I aspire to inspire and empower through my poetry thus nurturing young minds. Positive content from any art form contains messages that must protect the listener’s eyes and ears, in order to protect their emotions, thus protecting their hearts and minds. Poetry has the power to mould minds by sharing views on lifestyles and moralities, either godly or ungodly. You find that most African poetry is about our good values, rich history, our struggle and our grappling with the question of how to get to where we ought to be as a continent globally. This is simultaneous with conserving and preserving the positive aspects of our culture and heritage.

  1. Tell us a bit how Rapercussions began and how it’s grown?

RAP + PERCUSSIONS is the definition. It is the ancient essence of our communication. It combines conscious poetry and rap alongside live traditional African percussion instruments like Obokano, Marimba, Shakers, Nyatiti, Orutu, Kayamba, Nzumali and reed flute.

The concert was launched at the Goethe Institute Auditorium in Nairobi, Kenya, on the 12th of June 2015, and the coverage was featured in the African Journal Documentaries.

The educative element of Rappercussion then featured at the Storymoja Festivals on the 16th to the 20th of September 2015, and it was at the Nairobi Arboretum in Kenya.

The concert has grown into a monthly event at the Tree House in Nairobi, Kenya. It involves more poets and Mcs like Mwafreeka and Monaja. The accompanists and participating team are currently developing a center where people can come and learn how to make and play these traditional instruments.

It has also grown beyond the borders of its origin, to the level of being featured at the Babishai Poetry  Festival 2016, which will be at the Kampala Museum, in Kampala, Uganda. This is where there will be simple explanations about the different functions of these traditional instruments, in the past and at the present, with enlightenment on which community each instrument emanates from.

 

  1. Your session at the Babishai Poetry Festival is entitled, Roots and Rhymes. Who is the target and what can they expect?

The children are the target, which means that the content is suitable for all age groups who desire to earn back the pride of our culture and heritage.

They should expect to:

  1. Learn performance techniques with active participation from their side.
  2. Connect traditional ways of storytelling with current methods of creative writing and performing poetry.
  3. Learn about our traditional instruments, their origins, materials used to make them, functions and roles.
  4. Why was it important for you to accept our invitation?

I respect every chance I get to exchange and share cultural values and heritages which empower others while at the same time being a growth and learning experience for me.

As an African woman, whose content is about Africa, I feel it is a great privilege to be able to visit other parts of this continent in order to broaden the content of my poetry through the different contexts where I get to visit.

  1. What are the two main subjects you find yourself constantly writing about?
  2. Women empowerment because it is through Woman that society gets empowered, everyone in society is related to her as she is somebody’s daughter, someone’s sister, somebody’s mother, someone’s aunt, somebody’s sister-in-law, someone’s grand-mother, another person’s first cousin or distant cousin. All those connected to her therefore, need to be empowered. So Woman empowerment boils up to Family empowerment and hence total Society empowerment. Society is made up of families and that is what make our continent.
  3. Socio-Political Issues because leadership affects how we develop or under-develop as Africans. We are very hard and smart working citizenry but are being dragged behind by social vices like corruption, income inequalities, tribalism and nepotism. These are leadership related issues.
  4. How do you feel towards art for social change?

Art for social change must be greatly advocated for because:

  1. It is the job of the writer to observe and put out, as a wake-up call to what is going on.
  2. Poetry gives people true solutions.
  3. We can incorporate our own empowerment in poetry instead of depending on foreign aid.
  4. Social progress is attributed to freedom and empowerment of the woman, and social decadence is directly associated with a decrease and lack of that freedom, yet, women are naturally talented and gifted in the arts.
  5. Society suffers from dilemma of equality, the dilemma of difference and the dilemma of identity. Poetry and other arts create adversity in the middle of diversity.
  6. There is over-emphasis on African problems, thus poetry and the arts builds confidence and showcases raw talent and original ideas, as positive aspects of the African society.
  7. We look forward to hosting you. Any concluding remarks?

Your invitation is deeply appreciated and I look forward to the Babishai Poetry Festivals, where we get to network with other poets from the globe. Thank you very much for this priviledge.

 

We’re grateful to Praxis Magazine online for supporting the #Babishai2016 Poetry Festival. For more details, email festival@babishainiwe.com or call +256 751 703226.