Wordfest 2005

2005-07-06T20:36:00.000-07:00

Our children must read these books

by Jenna Viljoen

Dr Laban Erapu, publisher with the Vaal University Press, despairingly began his second re-launch of his five books yesterday, to a disappointing audience of one.
Me.
The room was also empty on Tuesday at 3pm when Dr Erapu first tried to bring the five books into the public eye.
The first of the books is Narrative as creative History: The 1976 Soweto Uprising as Depicted in Black South African Novels by Aubrey Mokadi which created the call for the republishing of the books on the Soweto uprising.
Three of the reworked books launched, which aim to provide a black contribution to South Africa’s history, The Children of Soweto by Mbulelo Mzamane, Mandla by Miriam Tlali and A Ride on the Whirlwind by Sipho Sepamla, were previously banned.
Laban said that the books have since been "polished as better works of art" with "many language problems" having been ironed out.
He says they are encouraging creative writing to be used in the "historical recreation of narratives and society in South Africa".
Their creative style "allows you to see, hear, taste, and smell what the uprising was like".
Also launched was Khayalethu: the Promised Land which is written by Dr Laban and based in the Cape.
He believes his own work on Xhosa king, Ngqika, is "of epic proportion" and should be placed on a level with writings of Shaka Zulu.
Before this reworking, Laban said that the black voice in South Africa’s history had been silent.He hopes these books will allow for "a more accurate and inclusive history than what we have now."
"The youth celebrate June 16 (Heroes’ Day) but don’t know why! And they need inspiration in South Africa of today."
He wants to introduce the books into the education system. They allow the youth to see "they can be children the one day and heroes the next".

2005-07-06T20:28:00.000-07:00

Mamgobozi

WORDSTOCK DIVERSITY … Editor: "Who’s that guy? News ed: "He wrote a review." Ed: "The one you thought was a pretentious load of crap." News ed: "No, the one you thought was a pretentious load of crap."

AUTHOR RESPONDS: "Livingstone says: ‘Being savaged by a critic is like being bitten by a dead sheep.’"
BOXING … Nicholas Ellenbogen, of Theatre for Africa fame, will take the soapbox at 1pm today. "I am talking about why the Grahamstown festival should be closed down. And don’t push me off my box!"

OU BAL, YOU ROCK … "Michelle Ryan (WordStock’s news editor) is so efficient! If only I was 40 years younger..." Oke, you’re still quite a sexy old goat.

MY WORD … "We love it when women authors in leathers visit us!"

PICTURE IMPERFECT … WordStock photographer: "The circuit is blown inside the flash." Editor: "So what did you put in it, vodka or beer?."

LAW ON THE COUCH … At Tuesday night’s Symposium speech by legal journo Carmel Rickard, the psychologist turned to the legal wig and whispered: "What the …. is she talking about?" which drew the reply: "I don’t know. Aren’t you the psychologist?"

TOILET KID … A street kid aged about 12 was standing on a seat in the women’s loo peeking over into the next cubicle, said a very upset festino. Strange sight to see a little pair of black shoes just standing there behind a locked door! Why? Who knows.

JADED! ... With one more WordStock to go, fatigue is setting in. News ed Michelle Ryan keeled over and crashed on the newsroom couch yesterday, and our exhausted printers lay asleep in heaps; heads and bods on tables.

2005-07-06T19:44:00.000-07:00

Reviews

Letting off Gus!

Waiting for Gateau
Cartoons and Drawings by Gus Ferguson
Reviewed by Clive Lawrence, journalist and lecturer in the Journalism and Media Studies Department of Rhodes University

When the weather in Grahamstown is gloomy (which it often is) and I am gloomy (which I often am) I do two of two things: I listen to a Leonard Cohen CD, followed by a book of poems or cartoons by Gus Ferguson.
Cohen cheers me up because my life can never be as gloomy as his.
Ferguson cheers me up because he takes the general gloominess of being human and turns it upside down until the pennies fall out of its pockets and tinkle on the cold grey pavement.
Cohen is world famous, but under-valued in many contemporary homes.
Ferguson should be world famous and is highly valued in South Africa’s more intelligent homes.
Fortunately, I belong to such a home, although my wife’s cat, Culvert, doesn’t like his dog drawings. There are five dog jokes in Ferguson’s latest book Waiting for Gateau. Six, muttered Culvert, sprawling on the cover. Okay, six if you count the small fat dog with the large fat man, and you don’t know which the vet is addressing when he says, ‘He’s too fat, you must take him for a run every morning!’
(I burst into a guffaw and Culvert gives me a half Cheshire, or less)
Okay, I agree, where are the cat jokes? Where are the intelligent cat jokes? There are jokes about snails (wouldn’t you know it); jokes about old people (shame on him); jokes against religion (watch it, gus, before you get lowercased); jokes against poetry (skande); jokes about sex (which seldom fall flat); jokes about birds (which made Culvert twitch); one chicken joke (Nando’s may sue him); a few literary jokes (Culvert and I are both fortunately well read) and one joke against Death (whoa!).
Some jokes hit you between the whiskers; some you have to study before they suddenly reveal the point of guffaw; a few are esoteric; and one or two neither Culvert nor I could get. I think Ferguson does this to keep us coming back. The Joke Police have him under surreptition.
All the drawings are superbly bad. As Tigger once said, "Tiggers are… good flyers…only they don’t want to."

Hacking good laugh

Mutterings by Tom Eaton
Reviewed by Natasha Joseph, journalist and stand-up comedian

Tom Eaton is the funniest man in South Africa today. Granted, he faces tough competition from the ANC Youth League and any number of local sports commentators, but when it comes to the printed word, Eaton’s the man.
His new book, Twelve Rows Back, is a collection of columns that tackle (the first -- and hopefully last -- bad sporting pun in this review) issues of sport, media and all sorts of uniquely South African nonsense.
If you’re a regular Mail & Guardian reader, you’ll have encountered Eaton’s columns before, and you’ll have some idea of what to expect.
Or not. Eaton seems not to favour a formula; my suspicion is that he’s so overwhelmed with things to laugh at – God bless South Africa!– that he can switch from mocking dof commentators one week to barely restraining his hysteria while discussing the country’s latest political skandaal.
The night I started reading Twelve Rows Back, I was tired and grumpy. After only one page, I was giggling like a maniac. I worry that Eaton may be one of those people who just can’t help being funny. Thank the gods he’s resigned himself to that fact and decided to wield humour and satire as a weapon!
This is a great book. It’s an excellent read for anyone who can laugh at themselves and at our fledgling democracy. Invest, I say!

LEADERSHIP PERSONIFIED

Oliver Tambo: Beyond the Engeli Mountains by Luli Callinicos
Reviewed by Rosanne Buchanan
published by David Philip

More than anyone else, OR (Oliver Reginald) personified the leadership of the ANC when many of its leaders were in prison or in exile, and when some had been hanged or murdered in police cells. And he served in this capacity with humility, without thought of personal gain, always insisting that it was incorrect ro present him as the President of our movement." – Thabo Mbeki wrote in his foreword.
Although I tend to go for more of a "bookclub" read, once I started this brilliant biography, I was hooked.
Not only does Luli Callinicos, once a political activist herself, capture and document the history of the ANC, but she also weaves an unputdownable personal story about one man’s mission to further his knowledge and education in a time when everything was against him.
He’s a much neglected figure in our national memory and I was engrossed as I read about what shaped the childhood of Oliver Tambo, or "OR" as he was affectionately known, and saw a boy develop into a visionary, a gentle man who did not support violence and someone who had a strong Christian faith.
He was born in 1917 in the Eastern Cape, and he eventually became Nelson Mandela’s legal partner and the exiled leader of the ANC between 1960 and 1990.
He played a significant part in the fight against aparthed and his nurturing style of leadership and respect for his fellow human beings was the glue that kept the organisation together.
From the way the story of his life unfolds, one gets the sense that Tambo internalised a lot of the external stress going on around him and ultimately his health suffered. He died of a heart attack in 1993, on the eve of liberation.
The book is well researched – it took the author 10 years to compile – and includes 200 interviews with not only friends but critics of Tambo. It was actually Tambo who initiated the biography by recording his recollections of his life on tape that he did not want published during his lifetime. Five years before his death, he approached Luli Callinicos to further his memoirs.
Speaking further of his contribution, President Thabo Mbeki says in his foreword: "In the tumultous events that followed his death and the ten years of our democracy, the contribution of this humble but brilliant patriot and mentor of our movement has been overlooked."

Seeing. Really seeing

the peeling of skies by Rosamund Stanford
Reviewed by Alexandra Johnson, a fellow poet from Grahamstown

It took me time to read this little book because each poem is a gem of feeling, of story, and must be savoured. The title is illustrative of the poet’s fluid and leaping imagination. She creates vivid and unusual imagery:
"but there’s no more sky in the sky
it’s fried its blue out too"
She depicts her childhood setting in rich, sometimes stark images of the farm where she grew up; the "ox hides twisting with drought" and "smoke-choked door of Bulu’s hut". My favourite description of her existence within this intense landscape is,
"hello little girl in the water
grasses
are you lost in the bliss of day
or have you run away?"
Her close connection to the earth is woven through many of her poems, for example,
"i am skying
through the thinness
of clay-cattled dust"
Here, as elsewhere, she creates her own language; nouns become verbs and adjectives that birth new words, fresh and powerful in their descriptiveness.
Rosamund Stanford has a strong sense of what is real. She expresses her frustration with the superficial and unseeing society in which, as an adult, she must work and survive: "the pretending pride, that never relents, never reveals". She also exposes the underlying truths of family relationships through her frank and subtle perceptions, imbedded at times in clear uncluttered images of moments or events. Her love poems hold a courageous solidness which expresses both her truth and her vulnerability:
"my warm
like wee trickling down the thighs
of a child unheld
is seeping away"
These are the poems of someone who is really seeing, seeing the details around her but also seeing with the perceptive intelligence of her emotions, her body, so that she is able to express the subtle, the inner, the most personal.
A woman seen through crystal
Bodies of Glass by Crystal Warren
Reviewed by Heather Surridge, poet
woman’s story: her life, her loves and losses, her body dealing with sickness and health; a complex study in poetry about forbidden and unrequited love, about dealing with being alone. Are beliefs enough to get one through a cold night alone?
This collection communicates strength of character and a vivid portrayal through poetry of a life lived with love unresolved. It shows what beauty can be found through poetry and what strength is portrayed with brief words, bravely done as personal details are revealed with courage.
I could identify with her feelings of loss and wonder,
"promises rust
as they face
the morning mist"
Readers are given insight into life as it is today for a woman, which is not perfect, but is still full of beauty and pathos. Crystal has a steadfast belief in a higher being. Nothing is taken for granted but questioned to find understanding. Although love is a constant theme, there is more revealed about her life which gives the reader an understanding of how much can be said through poetry. Her poetry is at times sad, but is filled with hope for a certain future.
I look forward to more poetic works by Crystal and I hope the "frozen pen" will thaw and continue entertaining new and old poetry readers, shaking up our thoughts and showing a need to believe in ourselves and in a higher being, showing what can be achieved through poetry.
A quiet strength is shown throughout the poems: the simplicity of the book and the poetry is deceptive as there is such strength and truth in the word.

Out into the world

Excision by Ingrid Andersen
Reviewed by Crystal Warren, poet and researcher at the National English Literary Museum (Nelm)

Excision is a term surgical and spiritual and literary, referring to the act of cutting out, of casting out, or crossing out, of excising inappropriate words.
This last-mentioned meaning is particularly relevant to this debut collection by Ingrid Andersen which records a woman’s silencing and struggle to regain her voice. A record which is well-crafted, controlled and concise, with not a wasted word. In Excising the pain she writes: "Words coalesce / out of confusion and despair / escape onto paper."
Many of the poems in Excision reflect on writing, on the power of words and the act of creation. These are countered by moving and often poignant poems of suffering and oppression. Yet there is no hint of self-pity or sentimentality, rather an intimate view of a journey of transformation.
Andersen explores pain and anger, the joy and pain of motherhood, of poetry, and includes meditations and reflections on nature, on God, on living in South Africa.
This is a strong debut collection, containing sensitive and poignant sketches of love and power. Andersen wields her pen with surgical precision and this reviewer is profoundly glad that she can say, in For Ingrid Jonker that "My voice still sings / in defiance of oppression." I look forward to hearing more from this poet.

2005-07-06T19:39:00.000-07:00

COURTS DON’T KNOW HOW OUR MEDIA WORKS, SAYS WELZ

by Mike Loewe

Libel cases against our media have shown up some of our judges as being antiquated, verkrampt, and even ignorant about the function of the media in democratic society.
And Irish media magnate Tony O’Reilly should be "hung by his balls!"
There’s probably only one journalist in South Africa brave and smart enough to say these things and it is Noseweek editor Martin Welz.
Martin and former Daily Dispatch editor, now editorial consultant, Gavin Stewart, took to the Wordfest stage last night to deliver the Dalro Lecture on media freedom. Insidious and bruiser corporate advertisers were given a skop by Martin, President Thabo Mbeki’s "press corp" was missing an "s" and an "e" by Gavin who strekked his arms indicating that these elitist hacks march to the prez’s tune.
Martin said, with Gavin seeming to be in agreement, that SA journos needed to exercise their right to be free and to express themselves freely.
Martin crucially hit out at South African judges and appeal judges for being ridiculous in their misunderstanding of media rights and said it was only the Constitution which prevented our judges from forcing the media back into the dark ages. This is especially the case when it comes to libel suits against the media.
The judiciary’s dismal handling of Justin Nurse’s "Black labour, white guilt" T-shirt lawsuit brought by the SAB had only been rescued by the Constitution Court’s recognition of the right to freedom of expression.
"They were just a bunch of kids who made a shirt telling the truth," said Martin.
Gavin said the obsession with silencing the media and civil rights under apartheid was traced back to the Suppression of Communism Act in the early 1950s. This vicious law spawned a plethora of other equally evil laws and later spawned the Internal Security Act from which bannings and other acts of suppression seeped. On the bright side, Gavin said South Africans were a "Bolshy" bunch. "There is no way they would allow us to go back to the dark ages."
Besides lashing Tony O’Reilly who had blazed a corporate media path based on "the destruction of (press) liberty", Welz also warned about the "dangerous dance" of the South African corporate and legal structure.
He railed against corporate advertisers for pushing aside press freedom, and often, simply gobbling up editorial space.
Turning to the law and the judiciary, Welz said South African law had no idea as to how media worked in SA’s democracy.
"There is no (media freedom) consciousness to the South African law."
Any case (in which the media is sued for libel) in our courts, becomes a "highly elaborate, intellectual game of unpicking words". Martin says reporting should not be tied to "biblical truth" and media should not talk with the "voice of thunder, as in here is the truth!"
Journalism was about reporting what people were talking about, in fact, "hearsay" stories, and were promoting a free and open public discussion.
Engineers who killed people could say they stuck to the code and get away with it. Doctors who gave the wrong medicine could say "but the package insert said it would be fine", and "sorry" and get away with it.
Journalists, however, could be hauled through the courts for months, as he had been once, have their marriages and lives destroyed, just for writing a story about a mad doctor.
"And he was mad."
He said judges hated the fact that journalists were doing what they were doing – making judgements, sometimes up to 50 a day, while the judges "may take a little longer".
Martin called for an urgent rethinking of legislation affecting the media to ensure the "liberty and survival" of the media.
With additional reporting by Jenna Viljoen.

2005-07-06T19:25:00.001-07:00

Rayda’s work is so intense, she can’t read it!

by Jenna Viljoen

You could have heard a pin drop when Rayda Jacobs and her publisher Bridget Impey both declined to read excerpts from Rayda’s Mecca Diaries.
Rayda wrote the book whilst at Mecca because she felt living and recording the experience at the same time make the account more accurate.
The work follows her trip to Mecca from preparation to aftermath. It deals not only with the physical journey but also its emotional and spiritual effects.
Tears welled up when Bridget, of Double Storey, asked Rayda if she could read an excerpt from the book and Rayda said: "I’d rather not. We know what happened last time."
She is talking about the Cape Town launch when Rayda heard that passage and started weeping and having a panic attack.
Yesterday, at Launch Pad, Rayda felt the same ragged emotion starting to build up and – despite appeals from an audience of about 25 Wordfestinos – she simply could not do it.
She pulled out a little pillbox showing people her half a panic pill, which she carries with her since the trip to Mecca a few years ago.
She still cannot believe she performed Hajj and "would never do it again" but says that she made three promises to God when she was there.
Having "already broken one, another hangs by a thread but will have to wait for the next Mecca to be reborn!"
When Bridget did read, Rayda said, through trembling lips: "Just give me a moment!" as she regained her control.
When she spoke about her previous book, Confessions of a Gambler, one of six she has had published, a member of the audience pleaded with her not to go on.
"You are going to spoil it for me!" the festino quipped.
Rayda shot back: "If I’ve spoiled it for you I will guarantee your money back!"
Rayda tells them: "I hope to die with a pen in my hand telling you about me."
She refuses to write an autobiography right now as "I only tell the truth and it would start with these simple words: my childhood was miserable!"
She says you can find her in her works "if you know where to look!"
A faint smile skipped across her lips when she joked: "Muslims are the type whereby one will buy the book and 40 will read it!"
Rayda has written on all religious faiths and, as a result, has been approached by Muslims, questioning why she has done this and stating "we are number one!"
To this she had replied: "That kind of arrogance will get you nowhere. We are labelled as Satan (by people of other faiths), the flavour of the month, but every Muslim is different."
"(But) we all worship the same God, whatever you may call him."
She says the only way to unite all nations is "to replace the people in charge".

2005-07-06T19:25:00.000-07:00

LITERARY DUO EXPLORE LIVINGSTONE

by Lauren Hills

Douglas Livingstone’s craft was one of precision and beauty, juxtaposing science and poetry in illuminating and meticulous ways.
Rhodes University English professor and acclaimed poet Don Maclennan, and Director of NELM Malcolm Hacksley imparted their insight into the life and work of this revered poet and scientist when they launched their posthumous collection of Livingstone’s poetry entitled A Ruthless Fidelity at Wordfest yesterday afternoon.
There was unfortunately a very small turnout that listened to the talk at the Wordfest Launch Pad.
With conviction and sincerity, Don spoke first, conveying Livingstone as the poet of the sacred. Don called attention to the way that "in the modern world people have lost a sense of self worth, lost connection with the sacred… humans have lost contact with Mother Earth."
Don portrayed Livingstone’s poetry as deeply connected to nature, describing his poetry as "full of living certainty, physical colour and landscape with a nagging existential anxiety that gives us a sense of meaning that goes dangerously further than the facts."
Through capitalism, globalisation and the ensuing power and greed that seem to be driving history, Don questions: "Did the natural world teach us this?"
Don’s words, complemented by extracts from Livingstone’s poetry, portrayed the connection between religion and poetry, and how meaning can be reached through the sacred connection between us and nature.
Malcolm, describing himself as "the soup after the roast," took to the podium, going into the intricacies of Livingstone’s poetry, his influences and his canvas of inspiration that varied widely from "wild animals to Holocaust victims… mythology to microbiology… jazz to religion."
Malcolm echoed Don’s words when he explored how Livingstone "speaks from within the heat of the immediate moment", while "transcending the here-and-now" to create meaning in his experience.
A Ruthless Fidelity is the collection of hundreds of Livingstone’s poems, with 200 of his unpublished poems featured in the collection. This book was published for the first time last year, and has been distributed countrywide.
Directeor of Wordfest Chris Mann commented that Don and Malcolm’s talks were "two stimulating and intellectually uplifting talks demonstrating Wordfest’s respect for works of outstanding intellectual quality encompassing science and classical work".

2005-07-06T19:20:00.000-07:00

Fourteen years, 27 attempts, Troy’s nomadic work has come home

by Michelle Ryan

The story of Blood Orange’s publishing is almost as interesting as Troy Blacklaws’ own story of Gecko and the character’s coming-of-age as a white boy in South Africa under apartheid.
At the launch of his second-published but first-written book, Troy told his audience yesterday that Blood Orange was turned down about 27 times from publishers, and that it took him 14 years to write in three different countries.
The South African author and teacher who has lived in England, Venice, Germany, and wants to go to Asia, speaks with a British accent but has not, by any means, forgotten the roots to which he wants his children to have a connection.
Troy wrote Blood Orange as a first-person memoir of his upbringing in Kwa-Zulu Natal, his schooling in Cape Town and his conscription into the South African army. Because the writing reflects the disjointedness of memory, the book was criticised by publishers for being too fragmentary.
"When we were first given Blood Orange, it had a special resonance. Like anything good, we couldn’t forget it," explains Bridget Impey of Double-Storey Books who eventually published Blood Orange this year.
"But, however good it was, it wasn’t financially viable. When Troy’s agent later offered us Karoo Boy, though, we knew it was perfect, it had just the right shape for our readership."
Once the South African market was familiar with Troy’s writing after the success of Karoo Boy, the publishers could comfortably publish his earlier book.
Troy interrupted his publisher to tell the anecdote of how he had to sneak into a writer’s convention in England under the guise of a delivery-boy to get the manuscript of Karoo Boy into the hands of the person who would become his agent.
"I’ve always had a cocky way of getting my foot in the door," he grinned widely, to which a woman in the audience responded: "and we’re so glad you did!"
Troy describes Blood Orange as "about trying to navigate the way through the hazards of growing up as an English-speaking white boy in South Africa," and, although the book follows many of the patterns of his own life, he deliberately didn’t write it as an autobiography.
"The character of Gecko is me rather poorly disguised, but I didn’t want the whole world to know I pee-ed on my brother’s head," the father of two says, to laughter from his audience, many with copies of Karoo Boy waiting to be autographed resting on their laps.
One of the main differences between Troy and the character of Gecko is that Troy was "too shit-scared to run away from the army," as Gecko does, and he describes Gecko’s act of bravery as a way of living out his own fantasy.
But, like Troy, Gecko is a nomad.
"I am haunted by figures of nomads. In Blood Orange I write of the old man who would walk through the mountains and streets of Paarl when I was a boy, with a box tied around his waist by a piece of fraying rope. He survived on pieces of bread and rotten fruit that people threw in the box, and, somehow, during the course of my life and my writing he became a mythical figure. He came to represent South Africa during apartheid for me."
In between juggling fatherhood, teaching, and "being a lover", Troy has stolen some "fugitive, guilt-ridden moments" to write another novel about a different nomadic figure.
As his son, Finn, skipped in and out of the Launch Pad, Troy ended his talk: "I treasure the moments I have to write, and don’t want to short-change myself."

2005-07-06T19:15:00.000-07:00

BLOOD WESSELS

By Chris Buchanan

"I’m not a poet", says Paul Wessels while perusing the review in Wordstock of his book My Ghost in the Bush of Lies.
The said review opens with the sentence: "South Africa’s hardcore poet of the outer edges of despair" which does not impress Paul in the least, but he hasn’t read the entire review so we continue chatting over espresso and cigarettes.
Paul and Robert Berold are the guys behind Deep South Publishers which grew from a distribution company in 1996 into publishers of largely poetry by authors such as Seitlhamo Motsapi, Ari Sitas, Angifi Dladla, Joan Metelerkamp, Khulile Nxumalo, Nadine Botha and Lesego Rampolokeng.
This is the fifth incarnation of Ghost and, through the guidance of a good editor, has become a story that is more expressionistic than narrative-driven and has been re-arranged to create more of a sense of continuity.
"It’s easy to get intoxicated by the sound of your own voice and a good editor can make your life profoundly easier," Paul says of Robert who edited the book. The sequel is already three-quarters of the way to fruition and should be a reality toward the end of the year.
Paul studied a BA in Grahamstown and left for Cape Town where he has been editing, writing and dabbling in sweetmagazine.co.za, Donga and New Coin -- all hotbeds of contemporary South African literature and critical writing.
He believes that most poetry is too flat and too much of a veneer. The poets have the performance capacity, but no content.
"It’s a matter of knowing when to shut up and lay your ego to rest."
There’s nothing worse for this writer than to spend hard-earned money on a book of poetry only to be disappointed by the content.
"I’ve tried not to be constricted to a particular view or perspective in my book and given the reader
an enormous amount of space to interpret the content."
Paul will return next year to Grahamstown and pursue a masters in politics which he understands will take him away from writing purely because it’s an intensive course and will leave him little time for anything else.
His political awareness started at varsity with Nusas (National Union of South African Students) and the End Conscription Campaign (ECC) in the eighties. Nusas, he felt, were a bunch of hardcore, objectionable, left, fascists; whereas ECC were a more anarchist contingent and their politics spoke on an everyday level within realms of expression.
This guy is no liberal lefty who needed to satisfy his conscience by belonging to as many organisations as was possible: he is profoundly aware of politics and in fact puts the subject to rest right there.
We continue to read the review of his book by PhD student Anton R Krueger, for whom he was beginning to show some initial contempt. "Fuck, these last three sentences are perfect. This review gets ten out of ten. It’s exactly right!" And Mr Krueger was exonerated for his initial cock-up.
More cigarettes and we talk about the festival and the dance in particular, which Paul feels he’s connected with in its similarity to what he’s been trying to achieve. "You’re left to your own devices in the interpretation of the work so different people can take different things away from the performance without being told in the blurb what you should be feeling."
So I will end with a quote from Ghost which I think sums up a writer who is obviously comfortable in his genre, in his personal space and in his articulation of himself.
"The vomit of poetry: who returns, recoils. Who recoils, returns to echolalia, the saddest word in the world. Still this ache of release, the only violence is relief’s explosion."

2005-07-06T19:05:00.001-07:00

Poetry rising in the Eastern Cape

by Lauren Hills

Poetry in the Eastern Cape has never been so alive! Hundreds of new voices are humming together in abundant poetic expression.
The Eastern Cape Wordfest 2005 has provided a platform for these voices to be heard, and this week has seen vibrantly different EC poets stepping up to the mike at the daily symposia to have their say in front of fellow poets, script writers and novelists.
Local poetry continues, as four newly published Eastern Cape poets launch their first books at Wordfest tonight.
Ingrid Andersen, Crystal Warren, Mzwandile Matiwana and Rosamund Stanford are coming together as four very different voices, showcasing their various collections of poetry.
"It is unusual and exciting that new voices are emerging at the same time from the Eastern Cape," says Crystal Warren, and Wordfest is the perfect space for the exposure and celebration of these dynamic voices.
Ingrid Andersen, originally from Johannesburg, has been living in Grahamstown for the past four years. Ingrid has "found her voice" in Grahamstown, and is launching her self-published collection of poetry entitled Excision, an expression of her "intimate transformation from silence" says Ingrid, emphasising that "my poetry is hopeful, showing my journey from suffering to liberation."
Grahamstown-based Crystal Warren is launching her book Bodies of Glass, which is "an expression of identity, embodiment and fragility."
For both Ingrid and Crystal, poetry has been a way of creative expression and an "outlet for issues impossible to articulate in any other way", says Ingrid.
From Port Elizabeth comes the innovative voice of Mzwandile Matiwana. Written from within St Alban’s prison, I lost a poem is a collection of poetry that is less of prison poetry and more about self exploration and realisation, "a cleansing" of his past.
Rosumand Stanford’s collection The peeling of Skies is the final collection to be launched, her poetry is "an expression of feelings that have grown bigger and bigger, portraying contrasting banks of urban and rural imagery" says Rosamund.
Experience the launch of this new poetry from the mouths of the poets themselves tonight at 7.30pm in The Launch Pad at Eden Grove.

2005-07-06T19:05:00.000-07:00

2005-07-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

Los the answers, there’s no time

WordStock’s SMS competiton winners are in bold, with a third entry in light, just because. THE COMPO IS NOT OVER. Enter again today and you stand a chance of winning one of two R100 Exclusive Books vouchers. Please get the vouchers from Michelle at WordStock, Wordfest, Eden Grove. We loved these entries!

Winners

072 458 2389 13 year old questions, reverberate in my mind, my hormones ask who I am, but I cannot be defined. In searching for life’s meaning, I simply cannot find, my future or my present, or the past I left behind. I still don’t know the answers, but I don’t pay them any mind, life is life, time is time.

073 232 0961 The curse of the single verse: Sweet words of rhyme eludes my mind, and verse reversed hangs lost in time

They came. They paid. They saw. They left. They lived. They cried. They ate. They smiled. They slept. They came again. They paid again. They saw again. They left again – one year to the next in Grahamstown. By the young poets society, performing now at the busking area. 082 470 7199

2005-07-05T19:50:00.000-07:00

06 WEDNESDAY JULY 2005
SOAPBOX, SOUTH AFRICAN STYLE!

by Jenna Viljoen and Lauren Hills

"Wow, this is hard! Stop talking now, I’m talking!"
These were the first words ever to be spoken on a soapbox at the national arts festival, possibly in South Africa and beyond.
Pansa’s Maurice Podbrey became the first South African artist to make the long climb onto the structure.
The idea made famous in Hyde Park, London, came to life in Rhodes University’s Eden Grove in Grahamstown.
The "Free Speech Stand" -- a large almost one-metre high pine platform with a thick, heavy wooden lectern, (on wheels) was created by Wordfest convenor Chris Mann.
It seemed to make little difference that Podbrey stood the wrong way around on the box!
What mattered was that the free speech soapbox was coming to life for diners, donors, and die-hards in or close to the Readers’ and Writers’ Café at lunchtime.
After bashing the side of the stand with wooden drumsticks (as loud as he could!) Maurice finally subdued the munchers – many of them Eastern Cape Wordfest participants who were enjoying their complimentary packed lunch before going home.
The inaugural line, yelled at the top of his voice, was: "The grant money developing theatre and playwrights are given in South Africa is only enough to hang themselves by!"
The density of the words placed no brake on his speed of delivery!
Maurice then told government: "We have not produced the playwrights and theatre we deserve in South Africa!"
This caused people picking at fried chicken bones in polystyrene boxes to look up in surprise.
He let rip again saying government grants for the arts were barely enough to "play the lottery with and you may only get a call back a year and a half later saying you haven’t won anything!"
Pointing at his snow-white hair, he said: "I’m actually 35! It’s the difficulty we have had in getting money out of government that made me look this old!"
When the convenor raised his hands in the air and applauded, the crowd joined in more in shock than with gusto.
Jerry Pooe, writer and producer from KwaZulu-Natal, was next to make the half-metre step up onto the box.
He was to the point. Wordfest needed more performing arts on its programme!
Word and performing artists were disunited. "Literature and the performing arts must come together," he said strongly.
Playwrights had to start turning great South African fiction into theatre.
Then, two members of the public leapt up and – in Xhosa and Zulu – repeated the ideas of the Pansa speakers.
This time, the crowd cheered, laughed, clapping loudly, stamping their feet and shouting their approval.
The soapbox had arrived in South Africa.
Napo Masheani, Feela Sistah and a performance poet from Jozi will be on the soapbox at 1pm today. They’ve got big issues!

2005-07-05T19:45:00.000-07:00

Mamgobozi

ONE GOOD DEED… One Village Green stallholder experienced rare goodwill on Sunday when her wallet containing profits made from the beginning of fest of over R5000 was returned to her by a stranger who had picked it up and dialled the number on the business card inside.

NO FREEBIES, PLEASE… This kindness of heart was echoed in Eden Grove yesterday morning when Norman Morrissey refused to accept his complimentary book vouchers in payment for the reviews he did for yesterday’s paper. "Being paid for my writing makes me feel really bad. See if you can donate them to a charity or library," he said.

OOPS… Apologies to Jeff Opland for giving the Xhosa praise poet featured in his book the wrong name. His profile in yesterday’s paper changed David Yali-Manisi into "Themba Imbogi". Sorry, Jeff. One of our reporters bought a hardcopy of your book in recompense. (Wordstock staff are thinking of changing the name of this publication to "Opstock" – the editor says "Opstook" could work, too - because of the extensive coverage we’ve given Jeff over the last few days. This is partially because he offers to take us out to supper, even though we never have time to eat, anyway.)

2005-07-05T19:40:00.000-07:00

Take a good book to bed – the Constitution

by Michelle Ryan

Political manipulation of the Constitution and the independence of the judiciary can upset the psyche of the people and depress the nation.
And the Constitution should become bedside reading for every citizen – our future is just too precious to be left up to the lawyers!
These two views emerged at Wordfest’s main Symposium last night when leading legal journalist Carmel Rickard and top Eastern Cape judge Johan Froneman spoke. Both told of the crucial need of the South African judiciary to uphold the Constitution – although they approached the subject from very different angles.
An audience of about fifty people, consisting of many middle-aged men in business suits, listened to Carmel, an award-winning and greatly-respected journalist who has written stories about Judge Froneman, give her psychological and symbolic take on the tensions between the judiciary and the executive.
She’s quite adamant that the independence of the judiciary is under threat today.
"Because I am not a lawyer," she explained in her mellow, measured voice, "I think of these tensions on a different level. I found that I could relate the increasing control of the executive over the judiciary to issues in my own, and in everyone’s psyche."
Maintaining constant eye-contact with her audience and gesturing widely with her hands, Carmel used Jungean archetypes and transactional analysis to describe the "crossing the lines" between government and the judiciary.
Most interestingly, however, she explained the psycho-analytical notions of the ego and the second self: the ego is the self as it exists, and the second self is what the ego has the potential to become.
On a public and political level, our nation is like the ego, and our Constitution is the second self it should constantly be striving towards.
"The judiciary is the upholder of this second self, the country that the ego has to mature into."
Judge Froneman then went on to discuss how the story of the Constitution should be read. With one hand in his pocket, he described the way the law used to be read during apartheid: as a book of rules written in the sky, with consequences for which lawyers didn’t have to take responsibility.
"I was brought up in the ‘bad’, ‘rule-book’ way of reading the law," the judge admits, "but, now, I want to suggest that the Constitution, although it is a rule-book, is read as the underlying values and principles of what we want for society." He says it is everyone’s responsibility to make sure that the Constitution is read as the best story it can possibly be, and we must accept each others’ readings with good grace.
"And that’s why the Constitution is too important to be left to lawyers. Everyone of you must make sure that it’s not just left to us," he ended.

2005-07-05T19:35:00.000-07:00

REVIEWS

SKULL IN THE MUD, AND OTHERS

A Ruthless Fidelity: The Collected Poems of Douglas Livingstone, edited by Malcolm Hacksley andDon Maclennan (Ad Donker/ Jonathan Ball, 2004)
Reviewed by masters student Nigel Bell from the Institute for the Study of English in Africa.

This is a splendid volume, in both appearance (with text designed by Michael Barnett, and a fine cover photograph of Douglas by Monica Fairall), and, of course, in substance.
We have here all the collections Douglas published during his lifetime (he died in early 1996), from The Skull in the Mud of 1960 to the tiny gathering (about two pages’ worth) of haikus he made in 1995 entitled Giovanni Jacopo Meditates (on the High-IQ Haiku). In addition there is a second section that includes the many published poems not in collections, and a third with as many unpublished poems selected from the hundreds Douglas left us.
The sheer abundance of imaginative riches, then, is astounding, and exploring them, for a reader unfamiliar, as this one is, with the whole range of the Livingstone oeuvre, a continuous revelation of their extraordinary variety and power. We know he was a distinguished marine biologist, with more than a hundred papers and a doctorate to his credit, and his intent investigative gaze, supported by an exceptionally resourceful vocabulary spanning both his professional and his literary interests, is at work throughout his poetry. But his humanist self was no less cultivated, with an allusive reach that ran from the classical era to his contemporaries. He looked, so to speak, through open windows as he worked, through which the light of recorded cultures, past and present, scientific and humane, streamed into his writing.
Science, as it happened, gave Douglas a perspective on the created world way back of the classical, deep into the dark abysm of time. And he took his marvellous wit back there, too, which in the case of animals meant noticing how to relate oddities of behaviour and appearance to our own. Here is part of his "Address to a Patrician at Station 8", from A Littoral Zone (1991):
Far out and unconfined, you mope
Old pea-brained survivor
--Latimeria chalumnae--
coping with four fin-feathered legs,
doing grave headstands in the dark,
armoured with condescension behind
the grim profile of a misanthrope.
• • •
What awes me—fish from long ago—
is not the muddying of your chaps
when waves clawed 200 metres up
or below today’s makeshift shores,
nor your changeless chinless lineage,
but your fathers squirting on eggs
to sire everyone I know.
It is impossible, in a few hundred words, to do more than glance at Douglas’s great qualities: his deep compassion, for example, whether for a suffering animal like the blue duiker, with his left hindleg "snared three days of sleepless terror" in the noose of a poacher "gone for weeks", who "will not be returning"; the little creature must gnaw himself free, and with water lying "a doubtful day away", he faces "a three-legged stumble through hyena-patrolled terrain" ("A Piece of Earth", from The Anvil’s Undertone, 1978). Or for someone like Mketwa, his tough, erratic companion in physical labour—"unkillable", Douglas thought, but he died in the street from a knife-wound (it was his own knife) in the chest. When the ambulance came, it "bore his corpse away, not out of my life" ("Dust", from The Anvil’s Undertone).
He cared deeply for the victims of the world’s cruel, implacable forces ("Holocaust heaps…carcinomas / in children, floods, quakes…"), and he prayed that the God who presided over these and other horrors should "make poems within me" (‘Descent from the Tower’, from A Littoral Zone). Douglas had no appetite for political action, but he was not a passive observer of the world. He fought, sceptically but valiantly, with the weapons he had to hand—for truth, for the welfare of the fragile and beautiful blue cell in space we momentarily cling to, and for the love he had for animals and particular people (especially women). His weapons, and his witness, were his poems.

A THOUSAND DEMONS RELEASED

My Ghost in the Bush of Lies by Paul Wessels (deep south publishing) (Some sort of Skin)
Reviewed by Anton R. Krueger, Phd student in playwriting and lecturer at the University of Pretoria

"I need some sort of skin. I’m all out of my own."
South Africa’s hardcore poet of the outer edges of despair has produced an unstoppable, genre-defying assault on the senses. He has covered his soul in an explosion of texts, in a multitude of meanings. Paul Wessels has become legion, he has released a thousand demons.
Every word is precise, and each page has been honed down to the barest essentials, and yet the language still seems excessive. Sentences slip and spill off the page. Here are dreams, and pornographic letters; book reviews and e-mails from his mother. Here are orgies and theatre and trials in a court of law. Here are the dark themes of a white South African unconscious – the farm, the border. Here is war and sex and philosophy. We encounter new perspectives on de Sade, Baudrillard, JM Coetzee and Deleuze & Guattari. Nietzsche is everywhere. Occasionally the moon wrestles itself free of clouds and the author’s beautiful, cold poetry shines through.
Inside this dark dream we encounter a plethora of Pauls – from the Road to Damascus to Valery to Paulus Nomad to Wessels. It seems to be a kind of "factless autobiography" (to redefine Pessoa’s term), in that it reveals Wessels as a diffuse collection of warring texts, which makes a mockery of any desire for the coherence and unity of identity. We could not get any closer to Wessels, nor any further away. In permitting this savage explosion, these fractured revelations, the author has also obliterated himself. Now we know everything and nothing. He has become the purest conduit of the messages which flow through him.

NIGHT IS REWRITING THE SKY

Personae by Sarah Johnson
Reviewed by Crystal Warren, poet and researcher in the National English Literary Museum (Nelm).

Personae is the first collection by Sarah Johnson and the third in the UCT Younger Poets series. Johnson might be young, but this does not detract from the power of her poems. Including religious aspects in poetry can be difficult, running the risk of reverting into piety or sentimentality. Yet Johnson incorporates religious images and adopts the voices of biblical characters to produce poems that are sensitive and moving, with a resonance beyond simply the spiritual.
While some poems are personal, in the majority she records the thoughts and actions of different people. In adopting personae, she gives voice to biblical figures such as Potiphar’s wife, Bathsheba and Delilah who attempt to explain their actions. In other scenes Ham is haunted by the image of a girl he once loved and Joseph ponders on the strange child in his care in At the Crib, ending with the chilling line "as morning feels its way past wood, this pot of nails."
Other poems explore creativity and writing. In Writer’s Block a writer fears that "forgetting how to sleep, / he will forget how to write. His fingers twitch / and the light skips from his pen". In Theomachy she records that "During church sometimes / I revise poems in my head" which enables her to see that outside "night is rewriting the sky".
Symposium is a longer sequence of voices laying bare all that is not said at a suburban dinner party, and incorporates some of the other themes of this collection, that of memory, loss and desire.

THE SONG EXISTS IN YOUR MIND

Book of Songs by Shabbir Banoobhai
Reviewed by Jo Anne and Georgina Barrow, top Grade 11 English students at Grahamstown’s Diocesan School for Girls (DSG)

Book of Songs takes you on an evocative journey that uses lyrical poems as a vehicle to express the emotions and concepts that capture the essence of life’s experiences. The use of song enables us to be exposed to the variety of expressions in the anthology – songs of celebration, songs of solidarity, songs of lament and songs of love. It is the way in which the poems flow and sing that allow for the emergence of a simplicity and honesty only a song could offer.
The human experience is explored through a variety of themes that form the core of this experience – weaving together the political, social, religious and philosophical aspects of our human nature. Banoobhai uses intense emotion, personal relationships and his love of nature to portray everything that epitomises the essence of his songs. By reflecting his own life experiences, he presents us with little snatches of life so that each song may have universal meaning. It is this universal meaning that enables all readers to find something in a poem that sings to them.
Each poem is complemented with a photograph that mirrors and encapsulates the feel of the poem. They are all images of simplicity and beauty and, like the poems, each also uncovers a little snippet of life.
Poetry and pictures lead one to simple aspects of the human experience; each feeling and concept is linked with nature and gives us a sense of our synchronicity with the universe.
The poem Ruxanna, where Banoobhai indicates how even the strongest of love felt for a person is connected with the steady beating heart of nature, is especially captivating.
"i promise i will write you a love poem if you have not seen yourself in everything i write about, not seen yourself in the blue of the sky or the pain I may or may not have written about…"
The accessibility of the poems allows for anyone to be touched by them, no matter what life has tossed your way. We recommend that you discover the songs for yourself – because, as the Song of Creation sings: "There is only one song and no other song…the song that exists in your mind."

PILGRIMAGE FOR MUSLIMS AND THE REST

The Mecca Diaries by Rayda Jacobs
Reviewed by Naseera Amod Omarjee, a fourth-year English major at Rhodes University.

Hajj is one of the five major pillars of Islam. It involves a pilgrimage to Mecca, the site of the Kaa’ba (the direction in which all Muslims pray) and the completion of various tasks.
This pilgrimage is compulsory for every Muslim who is physically and financially able. Jacobs’ book explores the preparation, the actual Hajj and the aftermath. Although the book is focused mainly on laying down the facts, Jacobs conveys not only the actual physical pilgrimage, but also the emotional, mental and spiritual journey that Hajj entails.
She begins the book describing her niyyah, or intention to undertake her pilgrimage. The intention is the first step, possibly the most important, and Jacobs explains the emotional impact that her decision made on her with clarity and poignancy.
She then explains the build-up, ensuring that there are no debts to settle and asking for forgiveness from all those you believe you have wronged, a basic cleansing of the soul.
She then describes her journey, first to Medina, the Prophet Muhammed’s (Peace be on Him) final resting place, and then to Mecca, where the Hajj begins.
Jacobs captures the experience with incredible accuracy. She describes every feeling and every experience, from the multi-racial crowds to the spiritual impact of the Hajj.
In giving an accurate description of a journey very few people are fortunate enough to experience, Jacobs creates empathy in the reader with incredible skill. It is accessible to both Muslims and non-Muslims and is an interesting and exciting read.

LAUGHING, CRYING

Nadine Botha: ants moving the house millimetres (poetry)
Grahamstown: deep south, 2005.
Reviewed by Marike Beyers from the National English Literary Museum

In ants moving the house millimetres Nadine Botha brings a wry voice, commenting on serious issues in an off-beat and often startling way.
The poems deal quite directly with modern urban life and an off-centre experience of the self. They give a playful and sometimes flippant grin at notions of belonging, of finding meaning in work and relations which can be only incidental. The poems deal with personal experience, observed sardonically -- "we do not contain our actions/but rather observe them as thought."
Word-play, humour and a sense of the absurd are interwoven in the poems, often lightening a subject that might otherwise have been mired in despair or shocking. For example, she describes the introspection in love relationships as "Self-prying abilities of (s)talking". It is also apparent in titles of poems that relate to the poem by association, commenting on the theme of the poem in surprising ways.
The poems deal with a woman in everyday city life without glamorising work as a way to attain a sense of community or an integrated meaning. The narrator speaks with the same intensity of the (ir)relevance of looking for an alarm clock, driving on the highway and encounters with lovers. Her approach in addressing matters relating to sexual relations and desire is unconventional in its frankness, even opening a poem with "I can’t stop thinking about sex." However, these relations or encounters are not separate from "You can sit alonest in a big city./In your room you are nowhere".
The poems come back to one on rereading in their questioning and exploration of being, of experiencing and trying to find ways of wording this in a language witty, wry and aware of its own limitations in forgetting and shaping the reality written about – "Knowing nothing while doing it".

INTO THE MAZE OF THE UNKNOWN & UNTOLD

whiteheart: prologue to hysteria byLesego Rampolokeng
Published by Deep South
Reviewed by poet Sonwabo Meyi

"But the "pot", jeepers creepers mandela’s slippers…"
I first met Lesego Rampolokeng’s poetry at a writing course I attended at Rhodes University. I got addicted & influenced & the effect still lingers alive inside me every consciousness. This new one is a book of prose. It starts in haze, gets hold of your every living part & lets your mind ride a maze. It picks up momentum & you swim along the poetical rhythm of the drum & bass while the dj scratches the record until it bleeds red yellow green blood. Lesego is the master of telling the untold and writing that which has never been written before.
He invites us to travel alongside him towards the deepest bowels of his memories & the images he has captured with his eyes are real. There is also sexuality synchronised with a devilish bliss.
As in all of his books, he does not fail to show disgust & rage towards the political systems of the world. Moreover, the rap & rhyme intertwined with the vivid images cause your whole internal system to shiver.
This book has made me believe that Lesego has a photographic memory. The words come at you like grotesque radical images straight into your imagination making you very afraid excited educated & emancipated all at once.
This one will attack infinite spaces silences through lengths & breadths of time.

2005-07-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

BUZZ OFF, AND RUNNING!

by Jenna Viljoen

he Daily Dispatch-sponsored Young Reader Buzz workshops are up and running at Wordfest, with extra places being made for the many primary school children wanting to attend.
At the first in a series of five workshops held on Monday morning in the St Peter’s building on Rhodes campus, teacher Felani Dolombekhaya told WordStock that initially they could not cope with the demand.
Yesterday, Afrikaans teacher Rodrique Coetzee said a plan had been made to accommodate more children, so that 10 kids from each of four local primary schools could attend.
This means 40 eager children from St Mary’s, Grahamstown Primary, George Dickerson Primary and Samuel Ntsika are being provided with books by Wordfest and are being taught how to look after them correctly.
Pictured here are some of the kids learning that "Die boek is altyd beter as die fliek!" with teacher Rodrique Coetzee.

2005-07-05T19:15:00.000-07:00

Don’t glower in the tower, get your feet dirty! says Jeff

by Lauren Hills and Michelle Ryan

The atmosphere buzzed with anticipation and admiration when Jeff Opland took the lectern to launch his book The Dassie and the Hunter at Wordfest yesterday.
The crowd was so large that the Launch Pad venue was abandoned in favour of Red Lecture hall which was still packed.
The comment came from the MC that this was the first time that a predominantly Xhosa audience got “emotional when a white person has spoken at Wordfest”.
Jeff removed his microphone at the start of his talk, a gesture that spoke of the comfortable and relaxed rapport he had going with the audience.
This was going to be a classic call-and-response encounter!
Jeff said that in the process of writing his book about the Xhosa praise poet David Yali-Manisi that David had “claimed” him.
This meaningful friendship had allowed Jeff to “remove myself from Western literary mindsets” and engage with Xhosa praise poetry in its most honest form.
The audience hummed and murmured intently in agreement with Jeff that too many English writers are critiquing African culture from a Western vantage point -- “They don’t appreciate it for its own sake.”
Jeff said he got furious with academics who called Xhosa literature “incoherent” without understanding the language.
“Writers should get out of their ivory towers and get their feet dirty in the soil of Africa,” he said with exuberance.

2005-07-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

Say goodbye to me, dammit!

by Jenna Viljoen

"People are always bitching and moaning about life until they’re told, ‘sorry, you’re dying now!’", said Peter Fox yesterday when he launched his book Dying: A Practical Guide to the Journey at Wordfest’s Launch Pad.
Putting a positive spin on death, Peter was dressed in a shirt patterned with smiling fish and funereal black suit pants and shoes.
He feels that Westerners are too "morbid" about the notion of death.
He tells about 11 people at the launch – half of them scholars from the local Mary Waters High – that the work came after a lot of "late night scribbling".
He says: "What freaks people out, are the inch-by-inch steps of dying".
The book tries to help the dying as well
as those close to them.
"I guess I can call myself a midwife."
He gets frustrated with the Western notion of death as "morbid", and people’s refusal to speak of death as a process. It’s a mindset he came face-to-face with on 3Talk with Noeleen last week when he appeared on her show.
Talking about religion, Peter says atheists ask him not to "get too religious with them," but also want him to pray for them.
"They want to play both sides".
An audience member quips: "It’s as if they want to make a deposit (in Heaven’s bank account)."
The book’s editor, Grahamstonian Priscilla Hall, says: "(The book) provides a launch pad for dealing with death, much like the one (launch pad) we’re in now!"

2005-07-05T19:10:00.000-07:00

Concise, distilled

by Chris Buchanan

As a medium of communicating inner thoughts, poetry is usually read in smokey rooms to a select few fans of the genre who drink red wine and intellectualise the meanings behind the prose. This is the poet’s platform and it allows them to express their art and directly communicate the message to an audience.
There are some poets, however, who prefer to leave their work published in books for their audience to read and digest within their own interpretations. Sarah Johnson is such a poet but will be revealing some of her persona later today when she does a reading from her first published collection of poems entitled Personae.
Sarah uses different characters, many of them biblical, to lend a human element to her stories within a spiritual context, thereby fulfilling her definition of poetry as, "the distillation of expression and expressing something as concisely and as emotionally as possible".
Her interest in poetry began with the rhythmical innocence of nursery rhymes and she uses biblical characters who are portrayed as two dimensional in the Bible but are open to interpretation and development. A passion for music fuels another inspiration for her poetry, not from a lyrical point of view but from the music itself. She’s a self confessed Beatles maniac and appreciates them for the fact that they defined the genre and the distinctiveness of their music enables the listener to pinpoint where they were in their careers when they wrote a particular song. Rufus Wainwright is another musician who provides Sarah with inspiration with his rock, ballad and operatic influences. Wainwright, the Beatles and poets Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, Douglas Livingstone, Robert Frost and Jane Wright are her ‘Desert Island’ choices for reading and music and she’ll also read any novels she can lay her hands on which makes sense, having studied English and linguistics before a Masters in creative writing which she now teaches at UCT.
"I find the literary genre of poetry intimidates students most because they feel they need a key to unlock the code of interpreting the work." Having said that Sarah is positive about the future of English at university level with the first-year course at UCT currently double the size of last year’s class.
Sarah’s next poetry collection will take longer to publish because, she says, it will be more personal rather than speak through the voices of other characters.
"I think it will take longer to compile because you need a lot more courage and honesty to write poems as yourself."
Heaps of courage and honesty are needed to stand up and read your poems in front of a critical audience at Wordfest and that in itself is inspiration for a further collection of her work.

2005-07-05T19:05:00.000-07:00

SMS winners are in a different class!

Heyta! What fun and touching SMS poems we got yesterday! Below are the winners of the R100 Exclusive Books vouchers, plus two others we really enjoyed. The competition runs again today so get down and punch those little cellphone keys! SMS poems, prose, thoughts to 083 381 6073.

Here are our two winners:
084 703 1898: Just 4 today, im living on this earth, and 4 once today, I’ll see what it’s worth. Just for today, I’m leaving thoughts behind, just for today, I will become blind. Just for today, I’ll leave you be, just for today, I won’t let u haunt me. Just for today, I’ll see through glass, finally today, I’ll be happy in a class.

072 218 8790: "TAKE ME BACK NORTH". Where summer pulls a cloth of comfort over freezing nights. Where my stomach no longer rumbles. Breaking dawn a stimulation of laughter. Where mothers spit 2 make rain so the children cannot thirst, where fathers sweat and vomit provides food so families cannot hunger. By Phomelelo Machika

And we really enjoyed these:
083 412 5009: spires and aspiring artists. But the busk doesn’t stop here; we carry all the clan and hamlet all the way home in our heads.

083 445 1200: I’m at that stage to speak New Age, in other tongues I’m mute. Gesticulate communicate, no longer I’m astute, in Mother Tongue nor Motheresse, no longer I can use. When trying old traditional speak, communicate confuse. By Tracy

2005-07-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

LETTERS

Don’t miss this photographic gem!

Modestly displayed in a quiet corner of the Eden Grove foyer is a gem well worth your time. Kate Farrington, a Masters student in Environmental Education at Rhodes, has mounted a fascinating exhibition. She gave a group of young people from Grahamstown East an elementary lesson in photography, a camera each, and some film to make a record of their lives over the next few months. The result is a series of insiders’ views of township life. See these photos and the inspiring resolutions made by the young people in the exhibition "Ulutsha Lwethu: energise the youth in the environment with photography." You may enjoy it as much as I did.
Well done and thank you to Kate and all the young people in your project.

Mrs June Walters

Whisson pissin’ on me

Sir,
Tuesday’s issue of WordStock carried a snide review of my book, The Dassie and the Hunter: A South African meeting (University of KwaZulu-Natal Press). In response, let me say only this: After all the years of learning ABOUT Africa, it’s a pity Mr Whisson has learnt nothing FROM Africa.

Yours
Jeff Opland

2005-07-04T20:30:00.000-07:00

05 TUESDAY JULY 2005

LONG WALK IS FOR ALL

by Lauren Hills

Writing Madiba’s Long Walk to Freedom was long, but translating it into Xhosa and Zulu was even longer!
So said translators and professors Peter Mtuze and Deuteronomy Ntuli in their address to over 100 people at Wordfest’s top-of-the-day symposium speech yesterday.
The translations had taken many hours of consultation with founding President Nelson Mandela.
The crux of the process was to make quite sure that the integrity of the original work was carried over into the translated works.
Mtuze, an author of over 20 works in isiXhosa, and now a professor at Rhodes, and Ntuli, a freelance reviewer and translator and winner of about 22 literary awards, had the audience laughing when they described some of their encounters with Madiba.
Often the two translators differed with Madiba’s views of himself – such as being a "counsellor" in English – which in Zulu translated to a "commoner"!
Ntuli was highly against this and merged the English and Zulu meanings to give Madiba an even higher status!
They also noticed that Madiba made a couple of grammatical errors. "We had to be alert and a bit on the sly side to circumvent these issues."
Some cultural explanations in English had to revert back to their original, indigenous meaning, such as Westerners’ insistance on calling relatives "cousins" once or many times removed, whereas in Xhosa and Zulu culture, "your cousin is your brother or sister".
They said a word could only be understood against its background of culture and language.
"You can’t just translate it as it comes," they said.
"You can’t just grab the nearest Xhosa speaker and tell them to translate!"
English words like "horizon", "vision" and "mission" could not be encapsulated in one Xhosa or Zulu word and had to be turned into phrases.
Translations might come across as long-winded or clumsy, but they were adamant that they would "get it right rather than doing a bad job".
Prof Ntuli said he’d found it impossible to translate the "PAC" – to which colleague and fellow translator, Prof Mtuze, quipped: "Good boy! Just like me, again!"
When it came to Mandela recalling how he was once told "Jou Ma se moer", Prof Ntuli said: "I just could not translate that vulgar word! We have ways of going around this."
Ntuli came up with: "kuthikuthi kukanyoko".
Creativity was vital to the process, or the work would have become "dry". "You still have to inject your own individuality."
When Madiba used the words "many thanks" his translators felt he was saying much more than these English words were conveying and they got closer to Mandela’s real feelings in their translation.
The profs felt proud that in doing the translations, they had made a positive contribution to the people of South Africa.
"Our people can learn great history from a great man in one book."
They called on other translators to turn great world classics into South African languages.
Prof Ntuli said it was ironic that Pulitzer and Nobel prize-winner JM Coetzee’s works were translated into many languages around the world, but not in Xhosa or Zulu.
"We must start now!"

2005-07-04T20:23:00.000-07:00

Mamgobozi

BEEF AND VEG … Bring your vrot veg to the Eden Grove foyer at 1pm today because theatre producer and Pansa’s Western Cape chairman Maurice Podbrey will take the soapbox outside The Readers’ and Writers’ Cafe in Eden Grove and have a few ripe things to say! He’ ll be joined on Pansa’s Free Speech Stand by KZN theatre director and writer Jerry Pooe.

BLOOD BROTHERS… At her Sunburnt Queen launch yesterday, Hazel Crampton told the largely Xhosa audience that the records show that almost every member of the Royal family in the Eastern Cape has traces of trader or castaway blood in them!

POEM NUMBER 359 ... Poet and Wordfestino Selwyn Milborrow was so moved by one of Gregor Röhrig’s photographs on exhibition that he wrote a poem about a little girl captured by Gregor’s lens. The two artists are looking at planning a joint project for Wordfest to use Selwyn’s words to embody Gregor’s images. See page 4 for Selwyn’s poem.

FORGOTTEN YEARS ... Lebo Motshegoa had to calculate his age on his cellphone yesterday morning. Two different journalists have made the mistake of saying he was a year older than he actually is and he "just got so caught up in the mistake". He said: "I’m either 24 or 23. Wait, wait, what year was I born in?" See Page 3 to find out how old this quirky linguist really is.

2005-07-04T20:20:00.000-07:00

Reviews

A radiant ego out of 10 years of descent

In the name of Amandla by Vonani Bila
Reviewed by Robert Berold, creative writing lecturer.

In one of his poems, Vonani Bila describes himself as "a handsome jita with fully radiant aura". The cover of his new book superimposes his face onto the famous Alberto Korda portrait of Che Guevara. The back cover shows a photo of him relaxed and dreadlocked, with a radiant ego. I have the confidence, these images say, to take on anything.
Bila’s territory is the ten years of South Africa’s democracy. It is populated by neglected struggle heroes, musicians reduced to beggars, madmen and drunkards, grannies abused by their children, fat politicians, businessmen, gangsters, and prostitutes. It is a country where prostitutes talk to their friends on cellphones during sex and tell their clients to hurry up and ejaculate "Qhama! Qhama!/ Sheshisa! Sheshisa! / U ni moshela isikhati / I’m not your girlfriend / I mean business". It is also a country of political betrayal, where the ones who have lost out are the poor.
Bila is at his best when telling contemporary village tales, most of them stories of unbelievable cruelty and violence – like the husband who forces his wife’s lover at gunpoint to sit on an electric hotplate "Bums roasted like a chicken in the oven/ Fat burnt like burst potatoes". Or the portrait of the madman Mbengwa, a deranged everyman of rural South Africa, who has lost all shame, all direction. He "walks in the middle of the busy tarred road / unkept busy hair flying in the wind ..."
Bila’s village narratives, distorted with mutant weirdness, remind me of the sculptures of the Venda masters. They have the courage and quivering energy of someone who has walked through hell with eyes open and lived to tell the tale.

Now we struggle with words that detonate

these hands by Makhosazana Xaba
Reviewed by fellow poet Goodenough Mashego

Makhosazana Xaba is an ex-Umkhonto we Sizwe combatant who is now a health and gender rights activist. Well-travelled and well-read, she has published her poetry in anthologies such as So much to tell, Timbila and Botsotso. Xaba is 48 years old, with a beautiful spirit and altruism that defy her age. As an activist, she remains grounded in the grassroots.
One can only imagine how painful it must have been for a mother who was ready to lay down her own life so that both white and black boys of South Africa could play rugby together – in harmony. Xaba is just that, a humble, true-to-self, dreadlocked poet intent on changing the world. In a poem dedicated to her father titled X himself and song, she attempts to define their love-hate relationship: "His love for the bottle went through his every bit of body / destroying what love I could have had for him."
Xaba will undoubtedly be the first to protest that her politics are twisted, but the anger she often displays in her collection suggests that she’s far away from the much hyped-about reconciliation. Read In case you’re thinking of visiting the apartheid museum and you’ll be shocked by the compressed anger ticking away to detonation.
Some time ago when Xaba was in Europe a woman commented on the beauty of her hands. Xaba responded that she wouldn’t say the same if she knew the things her hands had done. Years later this interchange gave birth to the title of her first book, these hands, a masterpiece without which no library is complete.

Poems that do not join the club

Talks with the Sun by Mpho Ramaano
Reviewed by poet Ingrid Andersen of the National English Literary Museum (Nelm).

In Talks with the Sun, Mpho Ramaano writes as the suffering amanuensis of a people who have no voice. The theme of the prophetic poet is established early in this collection in the striking poem, I will write.
The first stanza promises:
"Tell me your concerns,
Tell me what eats you within,
I will not provide solutions
But, I will write."
Being the voice for the people is clearly for Ramaano a troubled and painful calling. In Kedibone, he confesses: "They say the past should be buried/but me, I remain/like an elephant once tortured." He cannot escape, he cannot rest, trying to "hide away from the world/but my consciousness sings to me" (Ancestor Ingoapele Speaks). He is driven to speak by what he sees: "We can’t shut and be silent/when people continue to suffer" (A Bleeding Nation).
His poetry depicts vividly his anguish at the perceived collapse of society, symbolised repeatedly in the stories of women who were once respected citizens of their communities, but who have slid into sullied self-destruction. Women like Sta Hlubi and Mpumi have become worn-out and wanton, with no hope and no future.
This anthology is underpinned by the sour disillusionment of a man who expresses his anger at the present government, the lack of transformation in South Africa and what he calls "the nonsense of renaissance" (Welcome Dear Friend).
"My president is busy loitering on American golf courses,/ no one can address my hunger,/ nor could anyone heed my anger." (A Bleeding Nation). In For a Forgotten Comrade, he rages against those who today "are masters and ministers,/ [while] he still remains a stinking bastard".
In Verwoerd is Black, he sees himself set against the state in his personal struggle as prophet and poet: "This poem is the enemy of the state,/ cause, this poem bears testimony".

Reluctant feminist bares her heart

Breaking the Surface by Myesha Jenkins
Reviewed by fellow poet Goodenough Mashego

Maybe Ernesto Che Guevara was right when he said that he couldn’t think of any revolutionary lacking the important quality of love.
Myesha Jenkins’s poetry collection Breaking the Surface is a long testament of love with seven chapters and countless verses. I love the book and the poet’s spirit, that’s my confession.
The gospel according to Myesha is a thought-provoking naked rehearsal of truth in a play titled LIFE. I shy away from referring to poets as sexperts because that will be stealing bread from the academics, but what can you say about a poet who writes "I have never understood / how our very difficult bodies can / fit so puzzle-piece-perfect together / in so many ways and positions / lost in the passion of sex / or afterwards / as we snuggle like kittens / or small children / sleeping" (Sleeping with him).
However it would be risky to relegate Myesha to an ‘immigrant American woman who "moved to South Africa permanently in 1993, alone at age 44", a revolutionary woman in search of an elusive African revolution, who instead found the community development sector and pimped her soul to its aims and objectives’.
Myesha’s nucleus is a scary bunch of equally creative people. Her collection explicitly mirrors that she feeds from most of them. Breaking the Surface is a book of love, agape, and its sisters and brothers. Those are the people she secretly dreams with while she shares some of those dreams with poetry enthusiasts in anthologies like Timbila and Botsotso.
Breaking the Surface is a book of reflection, the closest you’ll come to the heart of a reluctant feminist.

Deeply moving, but beware of the dassie drols

The Dassie and the Hunter - a South African meeting by Jeff Opland
Reviewed by Professor Michael Whisson.

"Nobody except an egomaniac expects other people to find his life interesting.
.... [When writing autobiography, as opposed to the man of action,] the writer brings more resources to the cover up, but the cover up is the very thing that reveals where the bodies are buried: a tumulus of subterfuge."
(Clive James: Always Unreliable. Picador, London. pp.xiv-xv. 2004)
.... he died, one day beyond his 73rd birthday, in a lonely, rapidly dilapidating mud house in a dusty valley raked by scarifying winds. And I am left with his legacy, haunted by recollections of my improbable relationship with a man whom I consider to be one of Africa’s greatest poets, a man who died unknown and unrecognised, in crippled and crippling obscurity."(p2) So ended the "meeting" of the mediaevalist scholar, fascinated by the parallels between the bardic remains of pre-literate Europe and the spontaneous poems of the Xhosa imbongi; and the passionate, imaginative practitioner of a great Xhosa rhetorical art form, whose career spanned the rise and fall of the puppet rulers of the Xhosa-speaking people -- men whose traditional status was perverted by apartheid.
Jeff Opland has written an affectionate and often deeply moving account of his relationship with David Livingstone Phakamile Manisi, upon whose remarkable Xhosa praise poetry he has built much of his own academic reputation as an expert on oral poetry. The settings - in South Africa and the USA - remind the reader of the darkest period of South African history, the harshest years of the apartheid state and the insults to human dignity which were the daily lot of sensitive people like Manisi. Out of it there rises the imbongi, brandishing his "cultural weapons" and praising the ancestors with passion, wit and flowing rhetoric - his words often rich in allusion, but also produced for their sounds alone, like music.
From a scholarly viewpoint, Opland’s accounts of their methodology in the recording and analysing the poetry are probably the most interesting parts of the book. On many diverse, but generally public, occasions, Manisi would create a poem which would be recorded. Together, he and Opland would meticulously transcribe and translate the meaningful words into the best possible English form - with explanations of the distinctively Xhosa idioms and metaphors. But, as Opland himself asserts, he is not a poet, and the results are as far from a Manisi performance as the score and English libretto is from an Italian opera at La Scala. Lengthy quotations from Seamus Heaney (pp353- 356) and Christopher Mann (pp320-324) only serve to underline this almost inevitable outcome.
The book comes to life in Opland’s accounts of the two men working together - in the field, at the ISER at Rhodes, at various conferences and staged events in South Africa and the USA, and in the diverse places where they struggled with the texts. It is also here that meaning of the title The Dassie and the Hunter is revealed. Who eventually knows more about the dassie’s cave, the dassie himself, or the hunter who studies him so carefully - and, in the context of the relationship between Opland and Manisi, which is which? There is comedy, irony (while Opland drinks his cane spirit, Manisi prefers whisky), the experiences of legalised racism in South Africa and the less pernicious "political correctness" in America, and ultimately, as the story unfolds and returns to Manisi’s death, tragedy - for this is a tale of the might-have-been, of genius stunted by circumstances.There is, regrettably, much more - for the moving story of the collaboration between the two men is lodged in a self-serving autobiography which does the writer little credit, as he seeks to justify his career moves politically and to settle old personal scores.
There are sections which seem to be no more than notes from his diary, and what appears to be the transcript of a tutorial on Wuthering Heights which he held in his study with some of his matric pupils (was his faithful tape recorder, so vital to his work with Manisi, also kept running in that intimate situation?)
Curiously, for a beautifully presented volume produced by a University Press, there is no bibliography, references are scanty and the acknowledgements are more to the persons giving permission for various items than to the publishers and the publications. There is not even a list of Manisi’s own writings and the only indication as to where those texts may be found is the occasional reference to "my own collection." It would seem that the Hunter has compacted "a ball of scrapings" (to use a favourite Manisi trope) from the Dassie’s cave for his own possession and possible profit.

Journey of compassion right to the end

Dying, A Practical Guide for the Journey by Sue Wood and Peter Fox.
Reviewed by Martin Donnelly, psychosocial services manager of Grahamstown Hospice.

While many have written academically or personally of the process of loss and dying, this aptly named practical guide addresses a rich, vital diversity of topics and suggestions relevant to any person who is faced with a life-limiting illness, their family, carers and associated professionals. While so many fear and avoid looking at the reality which frames life, this book explores the experience and journey made by so many in an accessible and extremely helpful way.
The enthusiasm, compassion and experience of the authors is strongly felt in an openness and gentleness with which the reader is informed and led through the 15 chapters, each focusing on a different aspect. Although the text’s audience shifts between patient, family-carer and professional, each reader will draw what they need, and yet also witness and be sensitised to the issues raised for others. For example, a patient may read of how the diagnosis may be reported by doctors, or how care of their carers may be put in place.
Beginning chapters examine the receiving and giving of news of the incurable illness, illuminating the range of reactive emotions, along with guidelines for coping with this upside-down time. How on earth are we going to pay for this? is the title of the next short section which speaks to financial concerns and provides information about state and private facilities, including, of course, Hospice’s programmes of inpatient and homecare. Some reflections on managing the first days that follow, precede a rather unexpected shift to the subject of accepting death and mourning the loss of life, which are processes which may begin at this time but are usually not completed until much later. Similarly these two sections appear rather misplaced in the narrative process of the book.
A wide-ranging discussion of alternate supportive therapies both for carer and patient ensues, including homeopathy, aromatherapy, body stress release, massage, chiropractics, physiotherapy, reflexology, Reiki and acupuncture. Those who can access and afford such services will be taken with the complementary breadth of this information. Creativity in the midst of crisis further invites the reader to engage a variety of imaginative activities and techniques.
Three proceeding chapters common to everyone detail Food and nutrition, Palliative care (which is really the matrix of the book), and Practical care at home, providing a wealth of foundational facts. Again, they may have been found earlier in such a guide, but express the authors’ order. Even the crucial business of wills, living wills and other admin is not omitted, before the Final crossing comprises the physiological changes that bring death, and the family’s leave-giving of their loved one.
In closing, Texts for Reflection and Useful Contacts in appendices characterise the same generous and diverse spirit of this uplifting book.

2005-07-04T20:12:00.000-07:00

NEWS IN BRIEF

Our township B&B is fantastic!

by Lauren Hills

Township B&Bs are "so fantastic", says Wordfestino and chair of the Chris Hani Writers’ Association Sindiswa Bini.
She’s talking about her first night in Mrs Dlepu’s venue in 31 Maseti Street in the Grahamstown townships – one of many who are involved in Kwam eMakana, the homestay project launched by Premier Nosimo Balindlela last week.
Festinos arrived in three minibuses emblazoned with the project’s title, slogans and a massive picture of a Xhosa woman waving and beaming on the side.
About 140 participants in Eastern Cape Wordfest are staying at these newly established B&Bs for about R150 a night, which government is paying.
Mrs Bini says her worries proved to be unfounded. "I was so afraid of coming to this location for the first time. I was scared of robberies and whether I would be welcomed or not."
However, her hosts had been "fantastic" – they were also getting breakfast, lunch and supper.
"I have opened up my home as your own," Mrs Bini was told.

Itching to be seen and heard

by Lauren Hills

Find out who’s new and who’s hot on the South African literary and artistic scenes in Itch magazine, for sale in the foyer of Eden Grove during Wordfest.
Editor Mehita Iqani calls the creative submission journal "a tool that can be used by anyone who needs a creative outlet." The quarterly magazine combines graphic and literary expression and is "broad and inclusive", launching the work of unknown artists and writers in a medium that is free from the restrictions of mainstream media.
Check out the four different Itch editions being sold at Wordfest on discount and stand a chance to win your own collection of all editions.
Place the answer to this question: "What is the theme of the latest Itch publication?" as well as your name and phone number into the Wordstock/Itch box in the foyer, and your name could be drawn to win the prize. Entries close Thursday morning at ten o’clock, and the winner will be drawn later that afternoon.

2005-07-04T20:10:00.000-07:00

ENTLIK RE AUTNI EPHUMA EJOZI …
This means: "Actually, this guy is from Jozi". Lebo Motshegoa, who produced the first dictionary of township lingo Scamto, wrote this sentence in South Africa’s "twelfth official language" about himself. The twenty-three-year-old writer and entrepreneur speaks English, Sesotho, Xhosa, Sepedi, Setswana, Tsotsi Taal, isiZulu and, of course, Scamto, which is a mixture of all of these. He has been called "the godfather of township lingo", and through language has contributed to and epitomises our country’s urban culture. Lebo has become invaluable to the corporate world as he acts as a connection to black urban youth, but you wouldn’t guess that his slight build, dreadlocks, shiny eyes and quick, cocky mouth are the front for the shrewd mind of business. About Grahamstown, Lebo says: "Ziyawa hhiso eGrahamstown" (It’s happening here in Grahamstown), and about the girls at fest he says: "Ama curves wakho a’nswembu!" (You got nice curves!). He launched his award-winning dictionary yesterday afternoon at Wordfest. — Michelle Ryan

2005-07-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

Lovedale, still going, not yet consumed

by Lauren Hills

orkers of Lovedale Press took matters into their own hands when they resurrected the historical company after its liquidation in 2000.
The story of Lovedale Press is a story of triumph and resilience, and now the oldest publishing company in South Africa is making its mark at this year’s Wordfest.
This year it celebrates its184th year of survival through changes, expansions and fluctuations in the South African publishing industry, and it still has the unusual motto: "Between three centuries, yet was not consumed".
Lovedale Press was originally owned by the Churches of Scotland, later the reformed Presbyterian Churches, and more recently the United Presbyterian Churches of South Africa.
At the time of the acquisition of Lovedale by the Presbyterian Churches, "there was no longer an interest in publishing, and this led to the company’s liquidation", said Reverend Ntisana, current CEO of Lovedale Press.
Eighteen workers employed by Lovedale did not take this sitting down, and by 2001, under the leadership of Reverend Ntisana and with help from the Eastern Cape Government, Western Cape Government and University of Fort Hare, Lovedale Press was back in action.
Since 2001, Lovedale has "grown in terms of business, and new books in Xhosa, Zulu and English have been published and the workers are now hands on", says Foslow Zweni, who was involved in the takeover and who is selling Lovedale’s books at a stand in Wordfest’s Eden Grove foyer.
"The progression has led to new books in Xhosa, Zulu and English being published," he says.

2005-07-04T20:02:00.000-07:00

Of David and Goliath

by Chris Buchanan

hen a young Xhosa woman, Pau, asked John Bennie to teach her to write her own name, he said of the moment: "It was reducing to form this language which hitherto floated in the wind."
Thus began the transcribing of Xhosa folklore and literature which culminated in a vast amount of writing and poetry published in newspapers between the 1880s and 1950s.
Jeff Opland has been collecting Xhosa literature for years and in the early 1980s made the move across from Anglo Saxon oral poetry to Xhosa oral poetry in a book of the same name. Another book, Xhosa Poets and Poetry, published in 1998, cemented his interest and academic pursuit of Xhosa literature in the form of Anthologies of Xhosa Literature and South Africa Folklore and Xhosa Literature.
Jeff’s latest book is an account of his 29-year association with Themba Imbogi, a poet and literary figure who specialises in praise singing or unpremeditated chant.
"He came into my academic world and I ventured into his rural world," says Jeff, "and this story then became a personal account, not an academic study."
Jeff says that Xhosa literature was a one-on-one experience with the poet or praise singer and their audience. It was only since 1837 that missionary papers started to publish written literature, which was never as powerful as the oral form. From the 1880s to the 1950s the independent Xhosa newspapers published literature for adult readers. Most of what was published in books was targeted at scholars so very little adult literature can be found in book form. According to Jeff, the Xhosa independent newspapers are an older institution than their Afrikaans equivalents. But more interesting is that through the newspapers Jeff has managed to track a female Xhosa poet who published over 90 poems, and in fact was a thorn in the side of the authorities, as well as the liberation movements with her vehement critical expression. Very little archive of Xhosa literature exists but Jeff has a large collection which he uses to assist in masters and doctorate studies by students, but he says that African language departments are shrinking, with more and more African students opting for European language studies.
Jeff’s academic career has taken him from local universities to the University of Toronto, Yale and Yassar College in New York State. He was born and brought up in Cape Town, but no longer lives there. He is now a UK resident near Guildford in Surrey where he reads books, ferries kids to and from school and plays with his granddaughter. And what might his desert island book choice be?
"William Faulkner’s Go Down Moses is the one and I’m a jazz fan when it comes to music, but when I really mature I’ll get into Bach." He’d also like to take up watercolour painting since art runs in his family along with fighting and madness. The Oplands can be traced directly from biblical David, so conflict within the family is part of the deal, although there is little that reveals this genetic inheritance in his writings or thoughts.
Jeff recalls many conflicts as Director of Social and Economic Research here in Grahamstown and feels that allowing himself to tell a more personal account in The Dassie and the Hunter, he can place the emphasis on a personal journey with a great literary figure of the Xhosa nation, rather than write it as a literary account of pure academic value.
As they say in the classics, "Truly here is God’s plenty".

2005-07-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

Poets who move from the hip and lip

by Jenna Viljoen

hen Timbila poets were photographed for WordStock yesterday, they encouraged each other to move their bodies from their hips because "that’s what most of the works are about!"
Five of more than 400 South African poets published under the Timbila label are launching their books at Wordfest and doing poetry readings as part of the National Arts Festival fringe programme.
Vonani Bila, Myesha Jenkins, Makhosozana Xaba, Goodenough Mashego and Mpho Ramaano are grateful to Wordfest for its support in their launches but feel that they deserve a place on the arts festival’s main programme as "poetry belongs everywhere".
After their first performance to a disappointing audience of four, the troupe wore long faces and looked weary, but remained hopeful, saying they were
"committed poets" and not just "doing a monkey dance around the stage!"
Vonani and the other poets believe they "live" their poetry, and are trying to "create poetry communities", despite the lack of respect they think the education authorities have for the art form.
They are vocal about love, sex, and politics -- especially when it comes to the government’s support of the poetry movement.
Vonani says "most poets are poor and homeless, so we should be treated by the government as pensioners and the homeless are, and be given hand-outs!"
He quickly back-tracked, saying: "not that we are useless. We are following a passion."
See the five Timbila poets launch their books tonight at seven-thirty on The Launch Pad in Eden Grove

2005-07-04T19:53:00.000-07:00

eclipse
(a poem without pretence)

you with sunblock in your eyes –
are you the moon poets write about
or an orphan from africa
or just a child abused
in corners not spoken of

are you the tree that lost its leaves
to autumn’s penetrating hands
now left with emptiness
and twisting of wire
in your tummy

maybe you are just a child
carrying the beauty of us
in you

oh how i wish i could tell you
of the love i carry for you, child
with the weight of words
in your silenced voice

©2005 Selwyn Milborrow

2005-07-04T08:06:00.000-07:00

HEARING BUT NOT LISTENING

by Michelle Ryan

hristopher Heywood chuckles when his book is described as having had "a tumultuous reception in South Africa" at the launch of A History of South African Literature yesterday.
Heywood’s book has been attacked by reviewers in the press for its gaps (for example, failing to refer to South African literature after 1990), for factual errors, and for treating all the literature to come out of our country as a single entity.
In defending his book before six academics, Heywood likened his critics to football players who are sent off the field with a red card.
"They bite, scratch and claw at my clothing, but they fail to grasp the heart of this book, which is that South African literature, culture and society is creole."
As a speaker, Heywood is engaging, amusing, even charming.
He discusses the superiority complex of Capetonians, Julius Caesar’s astronomers and his aversion to the metaphor of South Africans as hybrids because it makes him think of mules that are "sex machines" because they can’t produce any offspring.
Disappointingly little, however, is said to defend the errors in the book, other than that Heywood welcomes complaints from his readers in writing.
He justifies the selection of the 105 authors he deals with in the book by stating that only the authors who saw through the façade of supremacy and discrimination prevalent in South Africa’s past are included.
When it comes to reading the book, Heywood recommends that it should be treated as James Joyce’s Ulysses: a book on a serious subject, but "full of jokes".
"I’ll have to write a new book one day," he concludes, "to set the people straight who have got it wrong about my book in the press, but without attacking them. I don’t attack people who get it wrong."
Wordfest’s Chris Mann said the "true critics" of the book appeared not to have bothered to come to the talk.

2005-07-04T07:57:00.000-07:00

Of David and Goliath

by Chris Buchanan

When a young Xhosa woman, Pau, asked John Bennie to teach her to write her own name, he said of the moment: “It was reducing to form this language which hitherto floated in the wind.”
Thus began the transcribing of Xhosa folklore and literature which culminated in a vast amount of writing and poetry published in newspapers between the 1880s and 1950s.
Jeff Opland has been collecting Xhosa literature for years and in the early 1980s made the move across from Anglo Saxon oral poetry to Xhosa oral poetry in a book of the same name. Another book, Xhosa Poets and Poetry, published in 1998, cemented his interest and academic pursuit of Xhosa literature in the form of Anthologies of Xhosa Literature and South Africa Folklore and Xhosa Literature.
Jeff’s latest book is an account of his 29-year association with Themba Imbogi, a poet and literary figure who specialises in praise singing or unpremeditated chant.
“He came into my academic world and I ventured into his rural world,” says Jeff, “and this story then became a personal account, not an academic study.”
Jeff says that Xhosa literature was a one-on-one experience with the poet or praise singer and their audience. It was only since 1837 that missionary papers started to publish written literature, which was never as powerful as the oral form. From the 1880s to the 1950s the independent Xhosa newspapers published literature for adult readers. Most of what was published in books was targeted at scholars so very little adult literature can be found in book form. According to Jeff, the Xhosa independent newspapers are an older institution than their Afrikaans equivalents. But more interesting is that through the newspapers Jeff has managed to track a female Xhosa poet who published over 90 poems, and in fact was a thorn in the side of the authorities, as well as the liberation movements with her vehement critical expression. Very little archive of Xhosa literature exists but Jeff has a large collection which he uses to assist in masters and doctorate studies by students, but he says that African language departments are shrinking, with more and more African students opting for European language studies.
Jeff’s academic career has taken him from local universities to the University of Toronto, Yale and Yassar College in New York State. He was born and brought up in Cape Town, but no longer lives there. He is now a UK resident near Guildford in Surrey where he reads books, ferries kids to and from school and plays with his granddaughter. And what might his desert island book choice be?
“William Faulkner’s Go Down Moses is the one and I’m a jazz fan when it comes to music, but when I really mature I’ll get into Bach.” He’d also like to take up watercolour painting since art runs in his family along with fighting and madness. The Oplands can be traced directly from biblical David, so conflict within the family is part of the deal, although there is little that reveals this genetic inheritance in his writings or thoughts.
Jeff recalls many conflicts as Director of Social and Economic Research here in Grahamstown and feels that allowing himself to tell a more personal account in The Dassie and the Hunter, he can place the emphasis on a personal journey with a great literary figure of the Xhosa nation, rather than write it as a literary account of pure academic value.
As they say in the classics, “Truly here is God’s plenty”.

2005-07-04T07:54:00.000-07:00

Poets who move from the hip and lip

by Jenna Viljoen

When Timbila poets were photographed for WordStock yesterday, they encouraged each other to move their bodies from their hips because “that’s what most of the works are about!”
Five of more than 400 South African poets published under the Timbila label are launching their books at Wordfest and doing poetry readings as part of the National Arts Festival fringe programme.
Vonani Bila, Myesha Jenkins, Makhosozana Xaba, Goodenough Mashego and Mpho Ramaano are grateful to Wordfest for its support in their launches but feel that they deserve a place on the arts festival’s main programme as “poetry belongs everywhere”.
After their first performance to a disappointing audience of four, the troupe wore long faces and looked weary, but remained hopeful, saying they were “committed poets” and not just “doing a monkey dance around the stage!”
Vonani and the other poets believe they “live” their poetry, and are trying to “create poetry communities”, despite the lack of respect they think the education authorities have for the art form.
They are vocal about love, sex, and politics -- especially when it comes to the government’s support of the poetry movement.
Vonani says “most poets are poor and homeless, so we should be treated by the government as pensioners and the homeless are, and be given hand-outs!”
He quickly back-tracked, saying: “not that we are useless. We are following a passion.”

See the five Timbila poets launch their books tonight at seven-thirty on The Launch Pad in Eden Grove

2005-07-04T07:52:00.000-07:00

SMS US AND WIN!

SMS poetry competition. SMS your poem, prose, thoughts to 083 381 6073 and stand the chance to win a R100 Exclusive Books voucher – and have your wining entry published in WordStock! We have two vouchers to give away daily. Entries must be no longer than 320 characters (roughly two SMSs).

2005-07-03T20:28:00.000-07:00

GENERATION OF DREAMS

By Lauren Hills

Only the best come to Wordfest!
Generations' director, star actor and script writer Mxolisi Hulana ("Zakes Mthembu") rounded off a glorious day of culture, celebration and language, language, language!
Aspirant scrip writers in the packed audience could not contain themselves and Mxolisi's down-to-earth but electrifying speech soon became an an intensely enjoyable question and answer session.
There was a wonderful irony to the discussion between this creator of this pioneering urban mass theatre creator and his audience of 100 festinoes, most of them in top-fashion traditional Xhosa outfits.
Mxolisi, dressed in a simple working man's black leather jacket and blue denim jeans, spoke – like his number one soap opera characters – in a 50-50 mixture of English and Xhosa.
It was an entirely appropriate and wonderful closure to a day filled with performances of original Xhosa praise poetry and literature.
There was a reall sense of vibrancy and energy in the room.
After all, Generations is South Africa’s number one SABC soapy earning R40m a year and a viewership of millions, including viewers from neighbouring countries.
Set in the cut-throat world of advertising, Generations is a dynamic drama of feuding families, business conflict, and reflects aptly on issues of daily life in South Africa. Mxolisi said of his scripts: "All nations need to be addressed."
This meant he had to be “sensitive enough to send a message to all.”
Generations is the use of Xhosa and English in the soap went beyond language to give expression to Nguni culture.
“A good script becomes a dream” he said.
To keep the viewer in the dream, switches from language to language had to be seamless.
“You need to meet what is being said with the pictures you employ.”
"The audience has to be committed and participate. They will see the difference between the characters and identify with them. In this way, the audience is actually writing for you.
"The audience should feel: 'This is a lovely. Don't wake me up.'"

2005-07-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

Mamgobozi

DIS 'N HELSE STRAF ... Publicist Relda Donaldson was feeling a bit worse for wear yesterday morning after she and husband Mark took Max du Preez for drinks and a three-and-a-half hour chat last night. Relda is full of admiration for Max, and she says his visit “made her year.”

STRUGGLE ON HOLD ... The foyer was full of colour and noise before the crowd headed off for the march yesterday morning. Head of EC Wordfest Mandla Matyumza, standing aboard the Free Speech Stand, was poised the send the crowd off on their joyous march – when his cell phone rang! And he answered it!

BEACONS ARE SWEET ... Chris Mann’s "Word Beacons" are up in the foyer with their imposing extracts from Xhosa and English poems, Sesotho proverbs, and Nelson Mandela’s Treason Trial speech in English and Zulu. Chris says he didn’t want to include his own initiatives in Wordstock, but we think the stands add a nice literary feel among the other more visual exhibitions.

CHILDMINDING 101 ... Wordstock staff’s list of duties got a new addition yesterday morning: baby-sitting! The delightful dimpled group of kids from Butterworth spent a few hours in the WordStock lounge, asking Lauren Hills countless questions and posing for her camera while their teacher attended the isivivane parade. They’re so on-the-ball, they read this whole paragraph back to us perfectly. Teacher Patricia must be doing a great job!

POEM NUMBER 359 ... Poet and Wordfestino Selwyn Milborrow was so moved by one of Gregor Rohrig’s photographs on exhibition that he wrote a poem about a little girl captured by Gregor’s lens. The two artists are looking at planning a joint project for Wordfest to use Selwyn’s words to embody Gregor’s images.

WRONG CELL ... Apologies to Mzwandile Matiwana for calling him a former Robben Island prisoner in our caption. He spent time in St Alban’s prison, PE.

2005-07-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

Speak for yourself, Christopher Heywood!

by Michelle Ryan

Christopher Heywood’s A History of South African Literature has caused controversy among literary critics and experts.
Published by the renowned Cambridge University Press, the blurb of the book calls it “the first critical study of its subject”. This impressive claim was refuted by Stephen Gray in June 10’s Mail and Guardian, and he cites studies on the same subject by Michael Chapman, who himself expressed outrage at the claim.
Other faults of the book found by Gray include structural errors such as Heywood’s writing about Guy Butler before Roy Campbell, who died more than forty years before Butler, and errors of fact, such as the confusion of Chris Mann and Peter Horn to form a non-existent poet called “Peter Mann.”
Both of these would be clear to Grahamstown local readers and lovers of literature, as would the changing of Nelm's name to the “National English Language Museum”.
Philip John, lecturer at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and freelance book reviewer, wrote on the LitNet website that reviews such as Gray’s “cannot be seen as anything other than damning, or at least, extremely embarrassing.”
John also refers to a review of Heywood’s book written by Dr JC Kannemeyer, who described Heywood’s writing as an “(emigrant) Africanist dialogue”, and thus made it clear that Heywood is in fact not writing as a literary historian.
It is difficult to say whether non-academics would realise any of this about the book, but, ironically, it seems as if Heywood’s idea of his readers seems to exclude the everyman.
Flaws immediately evident to this reporter include, for example, the reference to the author of The Story of an African Farm by Heywood inconsistently as “Schreiner” in some places and “Olive” in others.
Discrepancies such as these in a book written in a highly formal and academic tone are strikingly obvious.
All interested in the subject matter and anyone who has read the reviews is highly encouraged to attend and hear the author’s point of view, when Heywood launches his book today at eleven o’clock in Eden Grove Red, and defends it from negative reviewers.

2005-07-03T20:22:00.000-07:00

Doing the Wright thing by RL Peteni

by Jenna Viljoen

AHEAD OF ITS TIME ... Professor Lawrence Wright, head of the Institute for the Study of English in Africa, handed over copies of RL Peteni's book Hill of Fools to Peteni's daughter, Thandiwe Mafanya, yesterday afternoon. RL Peteni died in 2000 and his only novel, written some time back, was the first to be written by a Xhosa speaker in English. The book deals with themes of human universality and the dispelling of the "sectionalism", a state Peteni believed people should “grow out of”.
Prof Wright launched the Hill of Fools exhibition yesterday in an attempt to gain recognition for this magnificent but “underrated author”.

2005-07-03T20:20:00.000-07:00

HLALA PHANTSI! -TAKING THE WORD TO THE STREET

by Jenna Viljoen

Storm clouds rolled in along with the Isivivane street parade which saw about 60 people arrive at the Drostdy Arch an hour late.
Spirits were not dampened though and the crowd shuffled and danced from one foot to another -- a tradition believed to have been started by Makana so many years ago.
The first seven people to arrive immediately began to fill the time -- and the cold morning air -- with their own poems and prose!
Shooting straight from the hip in I’m an African Woman - Nolenge Mxhosa", aspiring poet Lindiswe Mfenge told listeners: "It’s strange that the only thing you notice about me that’s African is my butt,” and, grinning, "I love my big Xhosa butt!"
The Eastern Cape Wordfestinos took to High Street flanked by police vehicles, waving placards in English, Xhosa and Afrikaans, encouraging onlookers to "tickle their language lobes" at Wordfest.
Beaming smiles added more light to the crowd of literary activists who were looking absolutely fabulous in vibrant beaded traditional dress and bright jewellery. (We can't wait to find out what those spoons around the neck mean!)
They also held simple cardboard placards proclaiming: "Sakh'u Mzantsi Africa Ngosiba" (We are uniting South African traditions).
Only four white faces were seen in the crowd.
The energy was catchy as bystanders were happily drawn in to join convenor Chris Mann in mastering Xhosa chants!
Back at Eden Grove, the activists placed their works in the "cairn", an upmarket B&B –styled laundry basket. Quite a few people looked quite torn about having to part with their beloved pieces!
Dressed in skins and thrusting a spear, poet Zanenkcubeko Siphombara took it upon himself to keep the crowd rallying with his bold and energetic cries.
Later, Red lecture theatre vibrated with passionate impromptu performances from Wordfestinos -- in Xhosa and English – while others danced and clapped in the aisles.
The performers clearly enjoyed having their voices heard: many didn’t even bother with the podium and just let rip from where they were seated in the auditorium.

2005-07-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

Reviews
During the duration of the festival, several authors will be launching their new books. Here are two of them.

You're invited to blow those little pigeon holes wide open

The Sunburnt Queen
by Hazel Crampton.
Reviewed by Keith James, mountaineer and Kingswood College English head

I’d first heard of Hazel Crampton through a friend whose neighbour she’d just become, and then another who’d known her for the two decades since university days: both knew that I had more than a passing interest in Eastern Cape history, and they told me that she was writing a book about a castaway girl on the Transkei coast during the early colonial period.
I was gripped by the notion, having seen the remnants of many wrecks along that coastline myself: I’d walked its length several times, done first ascents on some of its sea-cliffs, and camped at several of its most paradisical spots, over a period of three decades. With these credentials, when I met her soon after, I persuaded her to let me read the book’s first chapter, which she had just finished. It blew me away with its engaging mix of personal and historical narrative.
The story of Gcuma, or Bessie, a seven-year-old English girl, castaway after a shipwreck in Lambasi Bay (north of Port St Johns) in 1737, and her adoption into the Tshomane clan of the amaPondo, is compelling enough in itself. Contextualised within the child-centred Pondo culture of the time (one of the reasons why the slave trade emanating out of Mozambique never took hold in the Eastern Cape), the story emerges against the backdrop of hundreds of wrecks during the 16th to 18th centuries, and literally thousands of European and Asian castaways being absorbed into the gene pool of the Wild Coast inhabitants during this period.
A couple of years passed. Hazel had moved on to Cape Town, but my thirst for the rest of the story lingered. Imagine my joy when I got hold of a copy within a week of publication! The first glance was auspicious: it was fat, and well-illustrated (by herself), with a funky cover to boot. Its real substance far exceeded the promise of its exterior.
Crampton hasn’t just told the story of Bessie. That story springboards into others, weaving elements of other mainstream historical concerns like trade, war, the cattle-killings. Her research is impeccable, and her footnotes and addenda run engagingly parallel to her main text.
The true appeal of this book lies in its openness: Crampton is not servicing any historiographical or ideological agenda. She is not an academic historian by profession (though she should be). She is not a wannabe politician (although she was an MK warrioress). Her quest in this book is more personal: to explore the nuances of historical side-streets and seeming cul-de-sacs.
The story of Bessie is a conduit into connectivity – with the geographical and socio-historical landscape: its aesthetic is not to tell the reader, or indeed lecture (as so many such texts do), but to invite the reader into an expanded understanding. The book defies the dreary political correctness and reductionism of much contemporary revisionist history – it blows those little pigeonholes wide open.
Her exploration of Xhosa, Tembu, Mpondo and settler genealogy shows that we are all much closer than we might have thought. She shows, for instance, how Mdushane, the real hands-on hero of the Battle of Grahamstown or Egazini in 1819 (rather than Makana – its PR agent), was descended from Bessie. She even dares to speculate that maybe Madiba’s clan is too.
Despite the academic rigour underpinning the text, it is not a dry read. Crampton’s style is compellingly diverse – her account of shipwrecks and treasure-hunters, her exposition of character, subvert the stereotype of ‘a history book’.
She’s confident of the solidity of her research and this enables her to give herself space to play with register and point-of-view without trivialising her subject. She is, after all, an artist in the film industry by vocation, and accordingly, she uses style as a texturing element to highlight and shade her material where appropriate. As the reader, I was invited to delight, to analyse, to contemplate, to empathise, to speculate, to critique – what more could one ask of such a text?
I would contend that The Sunburnt Queen is as important a contribution to my understanding of the Eastern Cape as Ben Maclennan’s A Proper Degree of Terror, Jeff Peires’s The Dead will Arise, Noel Mostert’s Frontiers, and Tim Stapleton’s Maqoma have been.

Scamto rises from the street to live in adland

Dictionary of Scamto
by Lebo Motshegoa
Reviewed by Kanyisa Ndyondya, fourth-year Rhodes journalism writing and editing student

Living in a country as diverse as South Africa requires one to have anunderstanding of the eleven official languages, all of which the Scamto dictionary celebrates.
It also allows one to have access to the ‘twelfth’ unofficial and complex language - ‘tsotsi-taal’ - used by today’s youth.
Scamto is a street language that combines local languages, such as Xhosa, English and Afrikaans. Scamto began in Soweto when tribal groups were forced to live together under the apartheid regime.
Published by 24-year old advertising executive, Lebo Motshega, the dictionary has taken off so much that now it's being used in music, advertising and marketing.The dictionary reflects the reality of modern life in South Africa, better knownas ‘Mzantsi’. Many of the words in the dictionary focus on things that arepopular among South African youth.
There are slang words for important things in a youth's life, such as ‘raincoat’ which is a condom: so you will definitely be alert when your boyfriend states that he won't use a raincoat. You should run the other way!
Most words are taken from the words used by elders in the past. These are terms such as ‘form one’ and ‘form five’ which refer to Grade 8 and Grade 12.
One user of the dictionary was quoted as saying: “It’s an internal document that media planners can use to better the environment and culture of the consumer.”
While the dictionary contains derogatory words such as "sfebe" which means a promiscous person, and "sex charo" which refers to a womaniser, it will be a useful tool for anyone in the media.
Many journalists often have to interview sources who only "camta" (speak scamto), and they are often faced with the difficulty of translating the material, but with the new dictionary in the shelves, life is about to be easier.
If a person comes to you selling pirated things, they will say they are selling "uM'dubolo", which is translated as something that is unlawfully made, stolen or sold.
This dictionary will definitely break the boundaries among South African youth. The so-called "Model C" can now look at the dictionary and communicate easily with their "kasi" (township) counterparts.

2005-07-03T20:11:00.000-07:00

CAN'T STOP THE POEMS!

by Lauren Hills

Ndyebo Mququ is a young poet who has been turning heads throughout the Eastern Cape, and now he's making his mark at this year’s Wordfest.
Wearing a jacket emblazoned with the word "author" -- from his sponsors, Shell -- this confident young writer is very clear about his identity and the message he wants to impart.
The Eastern Cape Technikon student is proactive about life and what is happening around him. He acts and reacts bravely through his written and spoken poetry and spontaneous words of wisdom.
“I get emotional and inspired. Most of it just happens on the spot”, says Ndyebo.
He is not shy to have his say, and goes against the passive and complacent stereotype of the youth of today. He has been known to interrupt public gatherings to passionately speak about issues important to him.
At the end of a speech by the Eastern Cape Technikon's principal and vice-chancellor last year, Ndyebo rose from his seat and gave an impromptu speech on the role of students 10 years into democracy in SA.
“The Eastern Cape government was mesmerised by my praising antics,” he says, and since then he has often been invited to express his opinions and to give the government some insight into the concerns of the youth.
Ndyebo has performed at University of Fort Hare, University of Transkei and the newly amalgamated Walter Sisulu University.
He has also used the written word to make his point in his book of Xhosa poetry entitled Amazwi Ombulel or “words of compensation”, celebrating former students of the University of Fort Hare who “struggled for the liberation of the black man”.
Experience Ndyebo’s praise and poetic talents as part of the Eastern Cape Wordfest programme when he reads some of his poetry tomorrow evening from 7.30pm – 9pm.

2005-07-03T20:09:00.000-07:00

This lark has been mulled and spiced in the labyrinth of life

A Lark in the Labyrinth
by Cathal Lagan
Reviewed by fellow poet Norman Morissey

This book of poems has about it the simplicity that comes only from a long-mulled seasoning suffered by sensibilities shrewd and reverent and humorous and bravely humble.
Which isn't to say it is a simple book. The central metaphor of the collection – larking in a labyrinth -- treats a wide range of Cathal Lagan's experience and a complex attitude towards life with a flexibility that makes each poem a new reflection upon a richly-varied span of encounters with people and places.
At times, the labyrinth is the people and situations Lagan knew in the Ireland of his youth: the sectarian schisms of Catholic and Protestant that made such absolute distinctions between people that telling a girl the town you came from could be like saying goodbye without another word.
It represents a place and a society that makes a character call the snow-bound, "priest-ridden" land beyond a kitchen window "Like Dr Zhivago without the sex!"
Yet boys dance by starlight in hobnail boots, imitating Fred Astaire for the craic (fun) of it; memories of family and parents and local tragedies surface as benedictions and living roots with what has made Lagan what he is. One facet of the lark is the winging of the human heart amongst its joys and its pains and its sanctities.
At other times, the labyrinth is the South Africa – old and new – Lagan has made his home. It is the tangle of apartheid, where a visit to a ruin left by the forced relocations of folk from Port Elizabeth's South End a la District Six finds an avocado growing in the bedroom of a friend self-exiled in Canada. (Lagan, as the local priest, was the last person to be shuffled out of South End.)
Or it is the enigma of the present, with youngsters "matriculating onto the streets", or the brilliantly-survivalist ways of the vagrants who use the grounds of the church of which Lagan is vicar as a refuge, and who tax his charity and warm his sense of humour with their skills at getting dop money against the harshness of each night.
And there is also the thread of Lagan's deeply-humanist sense of the presence of God always there in the labyrinth of His world, the Lark Himself wandering its windings, lifting above it to drop back again to the streets of life like the bird itself, that lays its eggs on the bare ground where one feels Lagan finds his highest spiritual values to be completely at home. A more incarnated spirituality would be hard to find: Lagan's meditations in this book on folk from the lore of the Bible deserve a review just to themselves, as they follow their own turns of the Labyrinth.

2005-07-03T19:54:00.000-07:00

Universal cleft

Baakens
Brian Walter, The Lovedale Press, Alice, 2000.
Reviewed by fellow poet Norman Morrissey

The Baakens Valley cuts Port Elizabeth in two, a deep, steep rocky rift with the stream running through it that first gave Algoa Bay (Baia da Lagoa, the bay of fresh water) its importance to the first Portuguese navigators – who put up a beacon there that became the "baaken" for later Dutch followers. As one of Brian Walter's poems says, the lagoon "became mapped in the minds/ of thirsty seafarers".
The valley – as a rift dividing the geography of a community's space, as a rune cut into South African history, and as a natural finger stuck into a growing city's pie – makes it fertile symbolic ground for Walter's meditations in this book.
He grew up on its edge and explored the valley from his earliest years, so some of the deep feel he has for the world beyond the constructs of human society have their roots there. A school field trip to set up "a class aquarium" from the stream leads to the discovery of the "sudden monster" of a dragonfly larva killing a tadpole, leaving "fear-changed sight", and added to the lessons of flora and fauna was a glimpse "from the valley lip" of lovers in a glade, and his turning from the sight, "for my shy, young heart/ was not unalert to that natural snare/ of loveliness".
So even the Fall into the sweated brow of adolescence and manhood took one of its first stumbles at the lip of that great feminine cleft. Still further, the personal history of the place carries "out/ of my childhood ken" into a present that for its moment "is the everyday" in which a "pilgrimage" through the valley in company with a fellow poet becomes "a traipse ordinaire. Busily mundane".
But a poem like "Fairview Odyssey" catches another divide the valley naturally draws to Walter's mind: his "young time", and "the river valley/ (across) where all the coloureds would stay".
Baakens becomes a "buffer zone/ and border" while "Our side of the river was neatly knit of new/ suburban names". Then "That side (was) stripped./ They picked all orient and coloured out, split/ blood knots, bleached the best land, and left/ undone that rough and ready tapestry of home".
The Baakens Valley becomes a symbol of all the neatly-efficient inhumanity of apartheid, a gulf in history as abiding as its own rock in Walter's memory.
And the valley is also a mythic cleft, a place where the soul descends to discover its ancestry and its destiny. A mysterious "you" haunts some of Walter's excursions down into this Underworld, a sort of Virgil to his own role as Dante. Without any pretention or mystification, the Baakens Valley also becomes a portal for that journey of the soul into Night in which it can discover itself.
Walter has "mapped" it for "thirsty seafarers" of a new generation.

2005-07-03T19:18:00.000-07:00

Patricia finds a place

by Lauren Hills

Friends in Rhini came to the rescue of Butterworth teacher Patricia Dlulani who arrived unnannounced at Wordfest together with five nine-year-old pupils – and a play - on Saturday.
"They weren't even on the programme!" said Worfest East Cape convenor Mandla Matyumza, whose tricky and tough job it is to try and settle everyone into the event.
Patricia contacted local teachers who gave her and Onela Mgogi, Nolukanyo Matibane, Siphenathi Mkhalali, Songezo Siphuka and Bulumko Maphukatha beds for the night.
The group was also given a spot on the Launch Pad to do their play.

2005-07-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

SUNDAY
2 JULY 2005

CLOSER THAN WE THINK

by Jenna Viljoen

C’mon Max and Xolela – you like to be political foes on stage, but really there’s no real personal animosity here!
We sat through your symposium speeches – one on saying our identites are tainted by the racist past, the other saying Afrikaners were their own worst enemy and often battled to define themselves beyond the fact that they were Africans and wanted to be nowhere else!
We are talking about Xolela Mangcu, an Africanist political analyst, and Max du Preez, well, a lekka true-blue struggle Afrikaner writer and journalist.
About 30 Wordfestinos attended the first evening symposium debate Changing South African Identities.
Xolela and Max sit right next to each other in the audience, furiously adding notes to their speeches during each other’s addresses, but chuckling and jibing like old public gabbas!
Xolela, turned out in a stunning black lounge suit, lilac collared shirt, silver tie with red and gold pin stripes, Max in a light cream linen jacket and a thin green vee-neck Tee – what a lekka picture of two fine fellows!
Xolela quips: "Max is the best example of what he criticises... Get past (your) own insecurities about the ANC and black society. You are being ungrateful!" (Chuckles.)
Max, however, hits back saying: "Ubuntu is like a virgin on the Rhodes campus. You hear about it but never see it!"
He says: "Explain Africanism, Africanist and African! What the hell is it?"
Max says one of his book’s says it all – he is a pale native!
He’ll never forget how he was told by an old Kroonstad China that although he was white, his heart was black.
In Max’s rigid Afrikaner upbringing, this meant that he was "full of sin".
"This doesn’t work for me!"
The symposium ends with Max saying "That’s cool…"
Xolela replies: "I’m impressed, Max. You are using black language."From the back comes an Afrikaans-accented exclamation: "That’s actually English!"
Max du Preez says he is dead against censorship, but thinks racist fundamentalists should not be given a platform anywhere, expecially at Wordfest.
"Don’t ban them or lock them up, but don’t do their dirty work for them."
Chatting to Wordfest earlier in the day, we can tell you that Max has in his mind rich intellectuals who live in golf estates, drive fast cars and charge the earth for their public appearances.
These people ought not to be given the chance to spread their views and gain intellectual respectability.
That’s Max du Preez!
He says he wants to talk about ideas and the changing of Afrikaner identity, stuff that comes from the heart not the head. These are the Afrikaners who have a definite place in our democracy.
And yet, he picks up so much insecurity among South Afrikaners – especially when it comes to Afrikaans.
In this cultural digging around, Afrikaners are "the worst enemies of their own language".
Afrikaners are struggling against "a loss of power and prestige, an expression of frustration at being marginalised".
There is a general lack of accurate historical knowledge about Afrikaners and of "progressive Afrikaner leadership". He wishes more Afrikaners had come to last night’s debate to speak their minds on "the real issues". He’s got some keen thoughts about Afrikaner youth. They are thriving in post-apartheid South Africa, but it’s a "pity that most of them don’t bother any longer to contribute to the debates among Afrikaners".
Max does not believe white South Africans should be encouraged to start "talking, eating, dancing and dressing like black people".
"They do that already." He tells Wordstock that his relationship with Xolela is like this: "We normally embrace when we meet and then beat each other up ..."
He says the debate is "good".

2005-07-02T19:47:00.000-07:00

Mamgobozi

HEAD FOR THE WOODS ... Rhodes University’s popular vice-chancellor Dr David Woods loved Tony Grogan’s book Tony Grogan’s Eastern Cape so much that he bought at least four of them at Wordfest yesterday!

FOR THE LOVE OF THE DEBATE ... Max du Preez described himself as "a connoisseur of rugby" before rushing away from Wordfest yesterday to "exercise my Afrikaner identity". Watching rugby was Max’s way of warming up ahead of last night’s debate with his much appreciated Africanist foe, Xolela Mangcu. Ag, we know Max just really smaaks the game! He even wrote a splendid book about it.

CRIME FEST ... A Tanzanian was arrested in Grahamstown yesterday for possession of crack cocaine, with one crack crystal alone worth R2 000. Criminals were also present at a long-standing restaurant venue on Friday night, pilfering bags and cellphones. They were aided by the low ambient lighting and intimate seating arrangements. It’s such a dilemma.

OUR SECRET FESTIVAL CHILL SPOT ... WordStock staff are taking their break away from the hustle and bustle of Wordfest at Oatlands Prep’s Festival Cafê. You get a great view of the Village Green from the deck and you are above the camels! Mamgobozi loves their original, self-generated sticker "Make tea, not war". Writers and artists are involved in the venture – and it shows in every detail -- with profits going to a great South African public school. Remember, you heard it here first!

2005-07-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

A 21st century Khoisan man

by Chris Buchanan, owner of Reddits Books and sports columnist in The Grahamstown Shoppa

Jethro Louw and Iain Harris recognised a need for people to see the real lives behind the poorest of South Africans and started to shuttle tourists to Jethro’s home in Kalkfontein for a true experience.
Coffee Beans Routes was born, and with it a unique method of personal contact between people through poetry, music and the sharing of each other’s own souls.
For Jethro it’s a matter of perception – how you perceive the world around you and how you are perceived in the context of that world.
The problem, he feels, lies in the fact that people never allow a perception of themselves to be revealed because they are afraid to express themselves truthfully and cut through the shit.
"The shit", says Jethro, "needs to be confronted, churned, mixed with the sand and seen as the challenge. Avoiding the shit is avoiding the challenge and the truth.
"The truth blinds people. And artistic expression, like poetry, makes the truth digestible."
A further aim of Coffee Beans Routes is to cross the divide that heralds the unknown. Both Jethro and Iain are sons of preacher men, but the one lives in a ghetto while the other lives in a middle-class suburb.
Both are harassed when they enter each other’s neighbourhoods – Jethro by the authorities because he is of Khoi descent and is missing his front teeth, and Iain by the inhabitants of Kalkfontein because he is white and a perceived source of money.
"We took a Korean and a Texan into the townships and they were clicking away with their huge cameras without any fear of their surroundings. As soon as we entered a pizza joint in a classy suburb, our guests were told to watch their cameras and felt immediately threatened by the perceived fear of the restaurant owner."
Jethro says it’s because we are shaped by our surroundings and to change shape is an experience-driven mechanism, and a journey that we must want to take. He says we have to connect with our fellow people and take something of them away with us to shape our evolving personas.
This he does through his poetry, revealing his soul to his audience and maybe taking a piece of them into his soul.
Says Jethro: "We are made of the ingredients that are given to us by our parents and experiences and we, in turn, are the ingredients of the community in which we live."
A major element to Coffee Beans Routes is to create wealth among the community in a way that teaches people to do it for themselves, rather than allow the prescriptive and bureaucratic approach of the government to cloud any enthusiasm they might have.
At the centre of this initiative is using expression to make the connections and to create the wealth within the informal sector.
Because poetry needs time, patience and sharing, Jethro loves to walk which provides that connection between himself and the people he meets, but also allows him time to contemplate his place within the general ether and how the connections he makes can enrich his own experience.
I sat with Jethro and Iain under the trees on a chilly but sunny morning in Grahamstown. With them a new connection in the form of Ayanda, who was their Grahamstown guide and who clearly had made his connections with this poet and his friend.
Jethro used his numerology skills to tell me I was a good listener, a natural teacher and would always be blessed with money. I was touched by the sincerity with which he told me this, but I was more touched by the convictions of this walking poet from the ghetto.
I hope that one day, I might tell him as much about myself as he has revealed to me about himself – and so complete the connection between our two souls.

"I don’t know who I am
21st century Khoisan man
Melodies from a string and can
Flames the heart of a make-shift band"

2005-07-02T19:41:00.000-07:00

Dassie and Hunter launches on Tuesday

by Lauren Hills

Praise poetry is like Xhosa beadwork, each bead joined to form the whole. It is spatial rather than linear," explained Jeff Opland, one of the world’s most renowned scholars of izibongo, at his lecture in Eden Grove Red yesterday afternoon.
Izibongo, or Xhosa praise poetry, is a spontaneous creative reaction, a "powerful oral portrayal where each poem is refreshingly unique and nothing is produced in advance," said Jeff, who has been living outside of South Africa for nineteen years.
He is launching his book, "The Dassie and the Hunter: a South African meeting" at Wordfest on Tuesday morning, and his lecture provided a glimpse into what his book will hold and informed listeners about the complex spontaneous art form that is izibongo.
The praise poetry often takes the form of a succession of praise names, an accumulative creative response to a person or situation. It can be used to rebel, praise, criticise or reflect.
"The praise poet is always political," said Jeff, "and like the political cartoonist, he is the outspoken critic", one with the artistic licence to powerfully question situations and perform these poetic reactions with exuberance.
His book gives insight into the life of extraordinary praise poet David Yali-Manisi, who performed the first poem in praise of Madiba.
Before Mandela had even been imprisoned or charged, Yali-Manisi perceptively described him as "earth’s tremor," a "gleaming road."
Jeff read this poem, which he had translated from Xhosa and was written at the height of South Africa’s political unrest, to his small audience, capturing its power and vividness.
"Like a jazz improvisation or great story told," Jeff reflected, "the power of this praise poetry is in its ability to express the emotion of the moment."

2005-07-02T19:39:00.000-07:00

Raiders of the lost word – buzz off!

by Lauren Hills

The beautiful word is at war against the insidious and often violent video game.
The word is being brought down by the digital dirt and in need of revival.
"The youth today are bombarded by visual culture, and with TV, cartoons and video games constantly on offer, reading and writing is in desperate need of revival," says Norty Walters, director of youth development for Wordfest.
Help is at hand in the form of a ... wordshop!.
Wordfest is enticing young minds to have fun with the written word at Wordfest this year.
Johnnic’s East London-based Daily Dispatch is sponsoring The Young Reader Buzz, a daily workshop (with lunch!) seeks to encourage reading and writing among young people.
Buzz starts today and 10am and runs until Friday at this time.
Norty says they want the youth to play with words and this way, get them to understand why reading is such a joy.
Local teachers will be reading great children’s fiction to the kids, and will also allow them to do some silent reading of their own.
Words from the page will "come to life" when the kids play games based on the readings.
Buzz has attracted much excitement from local primary schools. Eighty scholars from George Dickerson, St Mary’s, Samuel Ntsika, Fikizolo and Grahamstown Primary schools are scheduled to attend.
At the end of the week each participant will be receiving a book from Wordfest and the Daily Dispatch.
Aspiring writers in high schools will also be finding their own voices. The most promising creative writer at the workshop will be awarded and published in Writing is Fun, a Rhodes University publication which is being brought out in association with the Institute for the Study of English in Africa.

2005-07-02T19:28:00.000-07:00

A ‘lovely bitchy struggle’ exists against patriarchy

by Jenna Viljoen

Eighteenth century female writers come to the forefront in a play described "as a lovely, bitchy confrontation".
So says Janet van Eeden, the writer and director of The Savage Sisters.
Janet says that the play reaches out to an intellectual audience as it explores the lives of our earliest feminist authors.
Austen, Wollstonecraft and Burney’s individuality and differing approaches to the feminist movement are combined with a common desire for equality of women.
While many in the audience know Austen through interest and study, few know Wollstonecraft is regarded as the very first feminist writer and Burney,
whose desire to "scribble" after
transcribing her father’s notes, led to her anonymous publication in 1778 that was widely received.
The crux of the production lies in the condemnation of frivolous writing as Janet delves into these complex characters’ struggle to put text to thoughts. This conflict arises as a product of the times when women were facing powerful patriarchal restrictions against embracing the inner writer and putting words on the page.
Those interested in writing, or feminism, or both can watch The Savage Sisters every night of the festival at the B2 Arena in the Monument, and view a snippet of the production at 11.45 tomorrow in the foyer of Eden Grove.

2005-07-02T19:26:00.000-07:00

All the wobbly bits that give festival its fizz!

by Michelle Ryan

South Africa’s fans of literature and fun began arriving on the Wordfest scene yesterday from as bright and early as nine o’clock, and from the prime voyeuristic position of the Wordstock newsdesks, staff were able to put together a summary of most of the day’s events.
Tony Grogan was helped with the setting-up of his exhibition by his wife Jenny, and as a result his was among the first to be erected. He was then helped with the launch of his latest collection by Rhodes vice-chancellor David Woods, who introduced Tony to his crowd of fans and who left Eden Grove with a pile of the artist’s impressive glossy hardcover books.
After his launch, everyone in the foyer viewing the exhibitions or registering for the EC Wordfest rapidly helped themselves to the sandwiches and cake intended for the audience of the launch, and rested their hungry selves in the Wordstock newsroom lounge.
Shortly after, one festino took the liberty of using Wordfest publicist Relda Donaldson’s computer as if it was a computer lab. After sending Wordstock staff on a hunt of Eden Grove for paper, he proceeded to print out flyers for "a play", with the ever-patient Relda hardly batting an eyelid.
We were more amused than irritated, and think this free-for-all behaviour when it comes to Wordstock’s instant offices proves that we can successfully produce journalism in the public eye.
We’re glad to have such a visible niche in the excitement that is Wordfest, even if it means answering countless people’s questions about where they can spend the night!
Amid the chaotic vibe that was the foyer, Max du Preez appeared relaxed and well-rested as he strolled, hands-in-pockets, through the exhibitions. This is a pleasant surprise considering he arrived in Grahamstown last night to confusion at his hotel: apparently there was no room at the inn, but Relda, who was poised in front of her TV for her weekly infusion of Friends, tore herself away and, like a good pro, raced to sort everything out and got Max his bed for the night.
At noon, Mike van Graan rode into town to launch his play Hostile Takeover, which takes a few potshots fires a few slugs go at black economic empowerment, and was seen briefly outside the Launch Pad beforehand but not again.
Jeff Opland, who appears on the Wordfest programme a couple of times was more conspicuous throughout the morning. (See page two for a review of the lecture he gave yesterday on Xhosa praise poetry).
Registration for EC Wordfest got off to a slow start, with only nine out of 140 guests having registered by noon, but by last night so many had arrived that they were dossing on the floor with their blankets, bags and katoenda.
Wordstock is keen to report fully on this fest-within-a-fest, separate from the main Wordfest programme, which is an important innovation in the development of local writing.
The only sad absence from yesterday’s programme was Brian Walters and his Ecca group. They were to have run the 10am workshop on editing but called to say they had "two flat tyres outside Fort Beaufort".

2005-07-02T19:21:00.000-07:00

Reviews
During the duration of the festival, several authors will be launching their new books. Here are two of them.

Act of bravery in a time of tribal intolerance

Marhambu ya Nhloko
By MM Marhanele, published by Timbila Poetry
Reviewed by Goodenough Mashego

Our apartheid masters made indigenous language literature available in the school curriculum and banned it outside the school environment.
Once out of school, poetry disappeared. Thus, it is refreshing to see a book like Marhambu ya Nhloko, a book of traditional and contemporary poetry, written entirely in xiTsonga.
One would expect any poet born in 1947 to write about Hendrik Verwoerd, BJ Vorster and PW Botha, instead of what fills the newspapers today. But Marhanele, a seasoned author of over 25 books, is right up to date, writing even about Al Qaeda in Pentagon na WTC, "ya xitumbelelani yi lwiwa swi twala/ pentagon a wa ‘ngi u lo hlangana na saha. / WTC na yena a hohloka/ tanihi mpambani wa xihoncana…/ hi siku ra 11th September 2001…/mbhayimbhayi rito ri huma e-Afghanistan, / Osama Bin Laden a tidyela ebo: /"mina a ndzi yena yaloye"/ Bush yena a ku tshetsherhele: /"nyakhandle hi tiva wena."…/
This 138-line rant is actually a walk in the dark that Marhanele undertakes in his search for the Illuminati.
Bad news, the poet fails to find the super-world government that causes all the ills he writes about.
Nhenha ya Holofani (Joel Risimati Marhanele 1919 -- 2002) is a praise poem written in an obituary mode with a twist of hero-worship.
It is similar to the SePedi poem, Mahloko ba Mokopane and the Spanish posthumous epic narration Sala y Gomez.
Marhanele explores so many different subjects in his book, the collection ends up providing a favourite theme for every poetry reader.
Marhambu ya Nhloko never fails to disappoint me.
It is a rich commentary that unfortunately will only reach xiTsonga speakers.
Nevertheless Marhanele’s act is bravery in a time when tribal intolerance seems to be on the rise.
Verwoerd and Vorster will be turning itchingly in their graves about this collection.

Ocean of emotion flows from an iBhayi prison cell

I Lost a Poem
by Mzwandile Matiwana
published by Deep South
Reviewed by Andrew Martin

Lost a Poem is the voice of Mzwandile Matiwana of Kwazakhele, Port Elizabeth. Matiwana, up until recently, served time in St Alban’s Prison for robbery.
While in prison, he had several poems published in South Africa’s leading poetry journals. This is his first collection. That said, I Lost a Poem is not just a book of prison poetry. It is more of an emotional and spiritual exploration of humanity both inside prison and out.
In 19.30 Man he says: "I felt dirty of grime / and wanted an ablution / to cleanse me of / my sin and crime."
These lines aptly sum up the main theme of this volume -- the need to find our souls amidst poverty, crime and violence and the darkness and ugliness
that creates. A deeply felt concern for humanity also comes out strongly in Melancholy – "And my soul longs to sing / in a thousand secret whispers / A song / to all the sad people in the world."
Matiwana also writes about love, friendships and the physical and emotional separation from his loved ones. In Your warm hands he writes "Your warm hands / are constantly caressing the chain / so cold inside my soul." Powerful lines.
After reading this volume, I think Matiwana has the makings of one of those really annoying poets that somehow make the writing of poetry look easy. The simplicity of the language that he uses and his ability to draw deeply from his everyday life is enviable.
Paging through the book, there is hardly a misspent word in any of the poems. Writing with such economy is an accomplishment for a first volume. I sincerely hope that one day he finds the poem that he lost.

2005-07-02T19:19:00.000-07:00

Butterworth nine-year-olds do their play but battle to stay

by Lauren Hills

Butterworth teacher Patricia Dlulani and five excited Grade 3 pupils arrived at Wordfest yesterday after a three- to four-hour trip from Transkei, only to discover that they might not be able to perform.
This disappointing news was made worse by the fact that there was a misunderstanding over their accommodation for the night.
At one stage, it seemed as if the group of nine-year-olds would not be able to perform their play because, although Patricia was on the programme, Wordfest East Cape organisers had not banked on Patricia bringing along five kids and a play!
The play advocates the integration of English into Xhosa-speaking schools as a way of economic advancement.
Patricia appeared highly upset by the misunderstanding, saying the Progressive English-Medium School group’s message was important.
"The children are going to die of disappointment if they are unable to perform." Fortunately, Patricia and her kids were given the chance to do their thing.
At about 11:30am they gave an excited performance at the Wordfest Launchpad. They impressed and amused an audience of about 30 festinos with critical comments about "Tony" Bush and his American politics.
With fists in the air and shouts of "Freedom!", they advocated South African democracy.By 2pm Patricia was still not sure where she and her pupils would be staying, and said that she was "angry that she would have to make her own arrangements in the location".
* Patricia started the school four years ago to equip Xhosa speakers in the area with second-language English. Although people in Butterworth "joke about my school as ‘English-medium in the bundus’, the reality today is that English enables economic empowerment." This education should start early, she said.

2005-07-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

Toss a stone, give a groan ... the
isivivane street parade will inspire a poem

by Michelle Ryan, news editor

If you’re one who loves the word-arts, clap your hands.
Or join those who will march
On Sunday morning from Drostdy Arch,
Escorted by a fleet of police vans.
An isivivane is a pile on which travellers toss a stone:
But to mark your passage down High Street
To the sound of fellow enthusiasts’ feet,
Instead you’ll leave some writing of your own.
Your poems, books or stories
As mementoes will be kept
And after rejoicing in literary glory,
You’ll move to the launch of WordFest.
So don traditional clothing (if you like) and gather round at nine:
This parade for writers and readers is bound to blow your mind!
.
* A Shakespearian sonnet nogal! (OK, so the rhythm isn’t iambic pentameter, but what the hell, the rhyme scheme is there, prof! – Ed.)

2005-07-02T06:10:00.000-07:00

OUR WONKY, WONDERFUL MIRROR
Xolela and Max duel over the S'effrican identity

By Jenna Viljoen
"There is neither a blind embrace nor a schizophrenic abandonment."
This complex collection of words is a phrase out of Xolela Mangcu’s address, which he will give this evening at 5.15pm at the Wordfest Symposium (Eden Grove blue) when he duels with outspoken veteran journo Max du Preez about South African identities.
Political analyst Xolela is still working on his speech -- and has little idea of what Max is going to say.
It's not the first time they have traded words and ideas and Xolela is sure there will be "a good debate!"
His stance is that there is still a division between different South African identities, especially between black consciousness and a contrasting white identity.
These identities are fluid, he says, and tend to evolve rather than remain static. But the problem with identities in post-apartheid South Africa is that it is impossible to start with a clean slate -- identities cannot simply be erased.
Xolela questions whether identities in themselves should be considered a good thing or if they are more of a hindrance to the "transformation" process in South Africa.
He specifically mentions white association with apartheid and a "resilience to completely let go of the past".
This he contrasts with a black yearning for an identity which was intrinsic to the struggle. It's still a vital endeavour.
All is not lost. Xolela has faith in the new generation of young South Africans. They will find "new ways of seeing".
* See tomorrow’s WordStock for a report on Max’s side of the debate. Max, we tried to find you but we think you were on the road! Max is one of South Africa’s most renowned authors, and the editor of the famous Vrye Weekblad.
His no-holds-barred approach to controversial topics has earned him fear, loathing and respect!

2005-07-02T06:00:00.004-07:00

THROWING A LIGHT ON THE PAST

by Chris Buchanan

This is an account of an artist who had a knack for storytelling, found a subject that was both inspiring and largely untold, wrote the book and revealed a legend in local history that epitomises the cross cultural heritage of South Africa.
You won’t find the story of castaway Bessie in the history text books but it’s a true story of a little girl who found herself ashore in a strange land and was adopted by the AmaPondo. Hazel Crampton’s The Sunburnt Queen is the true story of this little girl and her children and children’s children told within the context of how so many South African families are unaware of their possible roots.
“It’s a simplistic South African story that our children were not taught,” says Hazel and she’s received a fantastic response to the book across the board.
She says that maybe South Africans are prepared to face their deeper history at last and her intimate research took her throughout the country in a “concertinaring of time and generations through word of mouth. The further back you go in time, the closer you get to the truth and it was the grandson of Bessie who was most accurate in the telling of the story”.
There were, however, thousands of castaways in SA with so many ships having run aground. The difference with Bessie is that she married into the royal line of the Amapondo, which is why her story lives on as the most known of the ‘yellow people with blue eyes’.
Hazel’s connection with the Eastern Cape goes back to Canon Norton but she was born in Pietermaritzburg and studied fine art at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. She spent 2001 and a large part of 2002 with her sons in Grahamstown while researching the book which saw her and the kids bashing through the region in a 4X4.
An unknown side to this author is her involvement in the military wing of the ANC as an arms smuggler from Botswana to the Gauteng corridor, Cape Town and the Eastern Cape. This was not an altruistic ambition but came from being angry at the crap the system was dishing out.
“As a white person I was also disenfranchised because I couldn’t vote for who I wanted to, I couldn’t listen to the music I wanted to, or speak to the people I wanted to. With this book I’ve tried to tell a story that more of our people are linked through bloodlines”.
Hazel says we take our freedom for granted after the ten years of democracy, citing the example of the anal report by dear Clarence Keyter when Nelson Mandela walked out of prison a free man, and how he trivialised the relationship between the race groups simply because we were in a cultural desert and Clarence stood for that cultural nothingness.
Hazel’s private life is one of reading historical accounts from the fifteenth to the twentieth century but does not have too much interest in fiction, to the chagrin of her friends and colleagues. She also loves to ride bikes, walk and swim with the kids, eat, drink and enjoy the good things in life with a clear idea of where she has come from and where she is going.
Her historical perspective on the Eastern Cape is well researched and she agrees with Thabo Mbeki that Colonel Graham was a brutal man in his treatment of the local people. Where she doesn’t agree is in the coining of the term toyi-toyi.
The esteemed editor of this publication has been accredited with first coining the phrase in the media but that seems to be untrue. Says Hazel, it was Makana who started rocking from one foot to the other on Cove Rock and began the term toyi-toyi, even coming up with the name. I suppose the media then is not the media now and we can give Mike his due on the protest dance.
For Hazel there is another writing project in the pipeline and perhaps the sowing of the seed that the story of the yellow skinned castaway with blue eyes may become a piece of visual art for future generations to see and to read about.

2005-07-02T06:00:00.003-07:00

REVIEWS

Hostile Takeover
Mike van Graan’s latest script is reviewed by DSG drama head Bauke Snyman

It’s in the middle of a veld with trees. It’s night time. A man, who is about to be executed, is digging his own grave. The hitman is sitting on a mound of sand, chewing gum. He is wearing surgical gloves, and is brandishing a gun.
This scene sounds like the opening scene for a Quentin Tarantino or Oliver Stone movie - a Post-Modern expression of violence and corruption. Alternatively, it could have been a scene from a documentary about Apartheid. However, this is the opening scene for Mike van Graan’s new play: “Hostile Takeover”, which is a Post-Modern expression of violence, corruption and politics.
It is difficult not to enter into a political discussion when analysing a play of Van Graan. As I read this play, I felt I was at a braai of journalist friends, trapped in a political discussion and each time I wanted to contribute to the conversation they were one-step ahead. Van Graan had many opportunities to use the political cliché, but each time he surprises the reader (audience) by ignoring the politically correct route and taking the way of honesty and insight.
An example of this is the word “system” which he used in the first pages of this play, most playwrights would have used this word for laborious blame shifting, but Van Graan gives his definition, disregarding any offence: “Some people get screwed so others get paid well. That’s the system.”
This is not just another play about corruption, crime, violence and politics. “Hostile Takeover” shows how immoral behaviour can be acceptable (even aspiring) if it has monetary value. As the two main characters, argue: “What’s wrong with killing people… When it’s business…”
The name of one of the main characters is Mr Green. In many Expressionist plays the characters were depersonalised identities given names like Mr Green, Mr Yellow and Mr Zero. These characters are “Everyman” types. In “Hostile Takeover” Mr Green is a kind of “everyman” who faces death and god (Nkosi, the other main character) and needs to ask certain moral questions. However, Mr Green’s morals are based on money, second economy, and that is the method and means of achieving deliverance.
I felt the characters to be one-dimensional and some of the dialogue does not serve the characters but the political discussion. Van Graan has clearly avoided all clichés when he created the hitman, Nkosi, but this has changed him into a speaking head and too far removed from reality. The style of this play is similar to that of Athol Fugard, which is very wordy and allows only the necessary actions. I feel the dialogue in the first 20 pages is interesting, from a political point of view, but theatrically it might estrange an audience. However, from the moment Mr Green finds the suitcase in the ground, the play does not disappoint and I am sure it will keep audiences tied to their chairs.

REVIEW: Tame ending for a wild story

Of Wild Dogs
Jane Taylor’s detective mystery is reviewed by Chris Buchanan, owner of Reddit’s Book Store

A young museum curator, Hanna Viljoen, is poisoned through the long-term ingestion of several heavy metals.
Meanwhile, a thousand miles away, two field researchers, studying the migrations and behaviour of wild dogs end up as the first course meal for a pride of lions. Hanna is using pictures sent by the field researchers to paint museum exhibits of the animals and these become the focal point of an investigation by Inspector Cicero Matyombeni and Hanna’s ex-boyfriend Ewan Christopher. Evidently the two researchers are suspicious of a diamond mining proposal that will eradicate the natural resources of the area and are hence dealt with and fed to the lions. There is also the question of a romance between Hanna and a co-worker whereby suspicious substances contained in grass species are being ingested to heighten sexual pleasure. This fact helps to complicate, what might have been, a clever detective mystery based on interesting scientific facts. The result is a loosely strung together saga that is wonderfully written but leads the reader into an emotional and suspense deprived dead end.

2005-07-02T06:00:00.002-07:00

The people are coming to Wordfest!

by Phumelele Jabavu
Festinos attending Wordfest 2005 will not only be getting the opportunity to rub shoulders with nationally and internationally acclaimed literature fundis, they will also be treated to some excellent local talent.
Wordfest Eastern Cape was launched five years ago in the advent of the new millennium as an accompanying event alongside the main Wordfest festival.
Similar to Wordfest, the Wordfest Eastern Cape is also about literature -- but written in South Africa’s indigenous languages, such as Xhosa, Zulu and Venda.
The main aim for having Wordfest Eastern Cape separate from the main festival was to focus on exposing local talent, and especially among the youth.
It was also a suitable platform for people to display their various skills and talents in front of a diverse audience.
In the previous five years, aspiring artists from around the province entertained festinos with captivating poetry, riveting exhibitions and various book readings and book launches.
This year is only different in that the standard and output is going through the roof!
Co-ordinator of Word Fest Eastern Cape, Mandla Matyumza, is optimistic about the attendance of people to the festival.
He promises festinos mind boggling activities which will start with an “Awareness Parade”.
This will be a march through town that will tell the world and his or her friend that Wordfest and Wordfest Eastern Cape are about to be officially opened.
About 200 people are expected to take part in tomorrow morning's parade and the more than 150 people will have their work exhibited by means of iimbongi (praise singers), written material, book readings and poetry.
“This year we hope the festival will be even better than the previous years as we will for the first time be having people from as far as Aliwal North and we will also be having disabled writers,” he said.
He encouraged people, especially the youth, to attend the activities and workshops at Eden Grove’s red and blue lecture theatres as well as at the Launch Pad.
“This could also be an opportunity for some of the youth to network and make relevant contacts and I will keep on encouraging them to read, read, read, read and read!”
* Phumelele Jabavu is a Border Technikon student who has been recruited by East Cape News (ECN) to work alongside Rhodes journalism students in producing WordStock. This is a first for festival media.

2005-07-02T06:00:00.001-07:00

Word, image and the power of Gregor

By Lauren Hills
Gregor Rohrig’s photographic documentary is a powerful synergy between poetry and pictures that truly encapsulates life in East Grahamstown.
“Project: Pictures for Life” is being exhibited in the Eden Grove foyer throughout the week in association with the National English Literary Museum (Nelm) and Wordfest.
When Rhodes University offered to buy the third-year journalism student’s photographs, he realised that he could make a profit off them.
However, instead of keeping the money for himself, he chose to use these powerful images to help the community he has so vividly portrayed through his photography. At the beginning of 2004, he initiated a project with the Rhodes Centre for Social Development to channel his profits back into this community.
Gregor’s series of 38 deeply moving photographs is more than a project: the individuals he photographed have really touched his life.
He has given us a sensitive glimpse into the lives of individuals in East Grahamstown, and he has captured a sense of being that is intensely honest. Gregor says he has a “great respect for his subject matter, and is grateful that the community has let him into their lives”.
Local poets Ingrid Anderson and Crystal Warren have chosen poetry created by writers in East Grahamstown from as early as the 1970s which will be on show alongside the photographs. From the Aerial and Umgquala poetry anthologies, these poems are a diverse expression of daily issues, giving a very definite sense of place and identity.
Crystal emphasises how the poetry “is an expression of a very real voice, and it is very interesting how the poetry and the photographs speak to each other.”
Ingrid says: "There is a fantastic synergy between the photographs and poetry,” and agrees that Gregor’s talent is undeniable.
This evening at five o’clock you can experience this synergy at the launch of Gregor’s exhibition along with Ingrid Anderson reading some of the selected poems. Gregor’s prints will be on order at the exhibition, and all proceeds will go to the Centre for Social Development.

2005-07-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

Mamgobozi

POO TO THE MOON!... Traders were given a festival security briefing: no dogs are allowed because of the mess they make. Next they will be banning children – our reporters noticed one little festino who felt the Village Green’s woodchip ground looked more enticing than the portable toilets! He did his No 2 thing in a stall – and then ran out into the open!

KEEP IT DOWN ... When using the public porta-lavs, be advised to take care. Many a sore head has resulted in hasty festinos misjudging the distance between roof and toilet. This applies to both walking in and getting up. Talk about an added health hazard!

SPED REDIN’ CORSE ... One fest-gent, peering at the Wordfest Programme, completely disregarded the Saturday and Sunday happenings and blurted out: “Why does everything only start on Monday!?” Obviously someone with very specific tastes!

TART SERVICE ... WordStock staff are loving the attentive service of the Writers’ Café’s good-looking schoolboy waiters. They are kind enough to bring our coffee and muffins to our workdesks, so we can work at producing this highbrow literary tabloid without unnecessary coffee or lunch breaks! They clearly take their jobs quite seriously: “Stop stressing so much, it’s only our first day on the job!” one was overheard ripping another off.

GRAUNCH ... When wandering about the Village Green, don’t get a fright if you get waylaid by the Laid Man with his dodgy innuendos and box of “Play” condoms. Don’t try to argue with this man, as he will turn any of your comments into something graphic and raunchy.

2005-07-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

Praise poets, Pallo and prose

The theme of this year’s festival is South Africa: Fusion, Fission or Fantasy.

All events are FREE and all take place in venues in the Eden Grove Building, Lucas Avenue and Rhodes campus.

Put a couple of pages of your writing into the WordBox in the bookshop the evening before if you want to attend a morning workshop.

See the WordStock newspaper in Cue each day for details of the Wordfest programme.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND ACTIVITIES IN MAIN VENUE

Bargain Books

Dictionary Project Fort Hare

Greg Rorhring Photos

Gus Ferguson’s Cartoons

Readers’ & Writers’ Restaurant

Charles Bosman Exhibition

Douglas Livingstone Exhibition

Grahamstown Poems

R L Peteni Exhibition

The Wordfest Free Speech Stand

2005-07-01T00:12:00.000-07:00

In a word...

CONDOLENCES … Mail & Guardian editor Ferrial Haffegee, who was scheduled to give a lecture at WordFest on Wednesday 6th at 17.15, is unable to fulfill her brief as her father has died. Festgoers will not be short-changed. Gavin Stewart, who steered the Daily Dispatch through the transformation years with superb skill and honour, will take her place on the Wordfest podium in Eden Grove Blue.

SERENDIPITY … 37 Degrees of Fear, the play written as a tribute to the murdered Grahamstonian Yvonne Wellman, opened yesterday almost one year to the day of the gruesome and senseless slaying. The literary-dance production was written and directed Juanita Finestone-Praeg -- Yvonne’s neighbour. The all-women show as watched -- and give big applaudse and some standing ovations by many in Yvonne’s neighbourhood. We saw the likes of Tim Huisamen, Emily O’ Meara there.

2005-07-01T00:10:00.000-07:00

Mamgobozi

SPEAK UP! … Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan gave an unexpected lecture on Wednesday night at the launch of the National Arts Festival. Journalists around town were largely unaware of this fact, and the Minister succeeded in allowing minimal coverage of the event, before or after the fact, by speaking off the cuff and using no notes whatsoever.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT … Clearly, however, audience members were so inspired by the Minister’s speech that afterwards they flattened platters of food and litres of booze in forty-five minutes.

FIVE MINUTES TO DISPERSE … This kind of indulgence is not exercised throughout town, though, as festinos discovered on Wednesday night: it seems that last rounds at local pubs are being called earlier than other times of the year.

SIES, GA! The vicious attack on a suspect in Bathurst Street by policemen – who completed his brutal acts with a raised finger and a few choice words for the East Cape News reporter who witnessed the scene (such as how he wanted to shoot the poor reporter) -- was totally disgusting. This is not the image of the police or Grahamstown we want to conveyed during our national festival or any other time.

CLEAVAGE UNITED … Many thanks to Cue for giving Wordfest and WordStock a mention in yesterday’s paper. Um, so is it true that Cue is a supplement to WordStock, or what? Wait! The editor insists that there should be no cleavage between our two papers this year.

2005-07-01T00:06:00.000-07:00

Ecca words will echo

by Jenna Viljoen

Someone wrote somewhere that to be a poet is to place words under pressure. Who better, then, to teach writers the art (or science) of editing than a poet himself.
Brian Walter and the Ecca group will hold their first creative writing workshop tomorrow (Saturday). “Words on the Page” is an hour long, beginning at 10am. Brian wants to help people develop their editing skills. His workshop is open to all enthusiasts. To save time, those attending should bring along the pre-written texts they intend to focus on in the workshop. This “enables the development of existing skills as well as gaining new editorial skills”.
Norman Morissey and Cathal Lagan will join him on the morning of the 4th. All three poets will be launching their books that night at The Launch Pad in Eden Grove.

2005-07-01T00:03:00.000-07:00

Grogan is passionate about our Eastern Cape

by Sid Penney

It’s quite a journey. From Hole-in-the-Wall in the east and Gamtoos River in the west, from Cathcart to Graaff-Reinet. Tony Grogan covers every corner of the province in his latest, richly-illustrated work, “Tony Grogan’s Eastern Cape”.
Like Grogan, I have a passion for visiting smaller towns, and spend holidays stopping off at the forgotten dorpies in the Karoo and further afield in the Free State and Northern Cape. Rich in history they may be, but many are slowly crumbling, and businesses closing. I walk through these towns, looking with great interest at people’s homes and the business districts. Grogan, too, explores these towns, but stops and sketches – magnificently so – and talks to locals.
From churches and their steeples to gabled homes, from farm workers to townsfolk, Grogan sketches them all, as he sees them – even birds, cats and sheep. His landscapes place you slap bang in the Karoo and the former Transkei, like the Tyume Valley, Valley of Desolation, Waterkloof, Gaika’s Kop and the Barkly Pass. Makes you want to get into your car and visit them all.
Grogan visits the cities as well, popping into working ports – one can almost smell the sea.
The Cape Times cartoonist is passionately fond of the Eastern Cape, despite the fact that he lives in the Western Cape. His colour drawings illustrate this clearly.
However, just wait till you settle down and read his text, the intense feeling he puts into every page. He has researched Eastern Capers and spoken to their descendants. He visits towns and farms, talks to the people, listens to their stories.
Of a typical Karoo summer’s day he writes: “The wind blows across the scorched land like the hot breath of a furnace, raising eddies of dust. A towering mountain of thick steel-grey clouds piles up in the east, filled with promise”.
He describes the Valley of Desolation near Graaff-Reinet thus: “An immense stillness pervades, and we drink in the great panorama which stretches away in all its exquisite beauty and grandeur to the end of the world”.
Negotiating the Barkly Pass near Elliot he writes: “It winds its way down the escarpment in broad, sweeping curves, affording entrancing views of weathered sandstone cliffs and great buttresses of rock eroded into weird and fantastical shapes”.
In Albany country he visits Grahamstown, Bathurst, Barville Park, Trappes Valley, Sidbury and Shamwari, among others.
If you own a copy of “Grahamstown Reflected”, “Tony Grogan’s Eastern Cape” will make an ideal, superb coffee table companion, but only after you’ve taken in its magnificent words and artwork.

2005-07-01T00:00:00.001-07:00

TURN ON YOUR MIND

Mann cannot live by cash-and-trash alone

by Lauren Hills

Turn off your TV, turn on your mind.
How? Pick up a good book!
Chris Mann, writer, and director of Wordfest, is “infuriated by the colonisation of the mind by commercially driven culture.”
His vision for Wordfest is: “Fusion, fission and fantasy”.
It’s about coming together, splitting of the atoms in the explosion that is South African literature, and imagining the impossible.
He feels that we are being bombarded by bad television adverts, mindless canned-laughter sit-coms and over-commercialised mass media.
Popular culture has become money culture. Our view of the world is becoming over-simplified and stereotyped.
Wordfest is his literary opposition to this pervasive pulp culture.
Wordfest is “part of a spontaneous cultural opposition” that encourages and celebrates reading and writing.
Since it began in 1999, Wordfest has inspired festival-goers to celebrate creative expression.
It’s grown a lot!
Lovers of words can enjoy eight days of book launches, a mobile soap box, a parade, lectures by our top humourists, columnists, journalists, poets and authors.
They will also listen to the voices of over 200 Eastern Cape emerging writers who are being helped by government to join this heady world.
Wordfest runs today until next Friday at Eden Grove on Rhodes campus.
Not to be missed are talks and appearances by journo Max du Preez, cartoonists Tony Grogan and Gus Ferguson, M&G’s off-the-planet sports columnist Tom Eaton, top historian Luli Callinicos, independent-minded Arts and Culture Minister Pallo Jordan and William Gumede who has just written a searing bio of Thabo Mbeki. There’s a lot of local excitement about photographer Gregor Röhrig’s pics and poetry. Locals know he’s a talent to watch.
Believe us, there’s too many to mention!
This festival embraces all voices, enabling both established and up-and-coming writers to be heard.
Chris says festivals like Wordfest are all the rage around the world. Writers and fans are invited to use Wordfest as a thrilling platform for new forms of multi-lingual South African expression.
The vibrant lineup of events includes the coming together of international and local writers to launch their latest books and share their thoughts and views at various workshops, poetry readings and talks.
Each day is designed to be a jam-packed experience, showcasing some of South Africa’s greatest talent, where you can meet your favourite writers over a cup of tea and carrot cake at the Writers’ Café in the foyer, and even share your own writing talent at the Open Mike sessions every evening.
Phew! It’s a mindful – and you can try getting all of that from Bold and the Beautiful!