HIFA 2009: Lunch Is Read !!!

(Pictured above is part of the crowd at Zimbabwe Poets for Human Rights inaugural First Street Poetry Forum on 21 March 2009)
Lunch is ready! Harare International Festival of the Arts
By Tomson Phiri
Zimbabwe Poets for Human Rights will this year take the Harare International Festival of the Arts into the First Street Shopping Mall from Wednesday the 29th to Saturday the 2nd of May during the lunch hour breaks. The vibrant and hard hitting arts platform shall seek to serve poetic meals spiced with issues to deal with press freedom and freedom of speech, youth and constitutional rights. “ZPHR draws pride from sensitization of masses on aspects pertaining to their rights in a simplified and enjoyable version as weapons of mass instruction” says the Programmes Manager, Robson Isaac Shoes Lambada. The cast includes among others Lexter ‘Shagada’ Mutasa, Jongwe Wezhira; internationally acclaimed and Award winning Julius Chingono; Michael Mabwe; Cynthia the Flow Child; Sister Fire and ERS Muchemwa.

The Harare International Festival of the Arts dubbed Enligh10ment will run from the 28th of April to the 3rd of May and what better enligh10ment than enligh10ing Harare’s first street shoppers and travellers alike. As one PSP ZION a poet from ZPHR avers, “There is a gun for every Catholic nun/And for every enligh10ing book a ban” so hooray to Enligh10ment.

Detembo iri rakanyorwa naNyanduri ShoesLambada. Rakambonzwikwa ku House of Hunger Poetry Slam muHarare, Masvingo (Spirit of Great Zimbabwe Poetry Slam), Senegal, Dakar uyezve kuIndia nyangwe vazhinji vaisanzwa zvairehwa nedetembo iri. Dzimwe nguva rinombodetembwa nembira dzinoridwa nagwenyambira Takunda Mafika uyo anoridza nechikwata chake chinonzi Tru-Bantu.

TARIRO
Vanondiunzira mbuya Chiweshe chembere
Hunzi chembere mukadzi hazvienzani nokurara mugota
Vanondiunzira MaSibanda akaonda somutsvairo
Hunzi une ganda une nyama
Vanondiunzira MaMoyo anozikanwa nokuroya
Hunzi ko iwo makunguwo zvaakatya mangani akafa
Vanondiunzirazve Madhuve
Zigadzi zigobvu-gobvu zidema-dema rakanyangara zvinodzinga vapwere padare
Hunzi gudo kuipa kuipa haro asi haridyi chakafa choga.
Asi ndakati ndaredza yangu mbambande mwanasikana Tariro
Mutsvuku-tsvuku akatsvuka-tsvuka zviya zvokuda kusvika pakutosviba
Zvikanzi mukadzi mutsvuku akasaroya anoba
Guyu kutsvukira kunze mukati rina masvosve.

Tariro ana matama akakwenenzverwa semhenderekedzo dzengoda
Iro bvudzi rakati tsva tsva tsva
Pakake kasoro kakaumbwa Zame achangobva mukusvusvura
Ane meno akati chechetere sengoro dzechitima
Machena-chena akati mburetete
Seiya nduma yandakapa vatete
Vake vatete vaya vezwi dete-dete
Tariro ane chivakasure
Chinotyora mitsipa nokutarira sure

Tariro ndoda utondere
Ndoda utondere kuti unotapira setsvigiri
Kwete kuvava semhiripiri
Chiuyaka tifambidzane vamwe vari vaviri-vaviri
Ndoda utondere kuti hausi mukadzi wechipiri
Ndorangarira zuva riya tiri parwizi pataiva tiri
Ndoda utondere kuti wakakosha kudarika rengoro vhiri
Woregaka kuganza somukono wenjiri

Tariro mwanasikana tarira
Tariro mwanasikana tariro
Tariro mwanasikana Tariro
Tariro mwanasikana teerera
Ndichiteerera matauriro ako Tariro
Nakatarira yako hanzu ine mitaro mitaro tariro
Ndinonzwa kuturwa mutoro sendabuda mutirongo
Ndichitatarika-tatarika sendatorohwa netototo
Dai waiterwa mutero Tariro
Ndaitera mitero mitatu zvakapetwa katanhatu
Ndoteterera kuna tateguru
Ndiine tariro yokuti tichava nokusingaperi tose Tariro
Tariro mwanasikana tarira
Tariro mwanasikana tariro
Tariro mwanasikana Tariro
Tariro mwanasikana teerera

This poem was written by Robson Isaac Shoes Lambada interrogating the concept of Political Independence in Zimbabwe which was gained on 18 April 1980 through an armed liberation struggle led by the current President Robert Gabriel Mugabe. Mugabe has now become a dictator and people no longer enjoy the benefits of independence. ShoesLambada is the co-founder and Programmes Manager of Zimbabwe Poets for Human Rights, the most vibrant poetry movement that advocates for the respect, recognition and observance of human rights in the face of anti-democratic situations. Even at a time when there is a new political dispensation in the form of an inclusive government between ZANU PF and the MDC, ShoesLambada still continues his struggle for the respect of human rights through the spoken word.
Sopranic echoes of silence

FREEDOM

Aggravate the complications of my bitterness
The high-pitched voice of muteness
Pricks the inner wound covering my tears
That will only dry when freedom is freed.

A whirlwind and fragment
Of thoughts entirely flummoxes my conscience
When I imagine hand-cuffed and leg-ironed freeom:
Freedom behind bars!
They fought for freedom
Were awarded freedom
Celebrated, dined and wined for and with freedom
Yet when freedom uttered her free thoughts,
Paradoxically they frantically slapped freedom in the face
And silenced her by a battery of diabolic statutes.

The inspired voice of freedom now speaks in silence
Visiting in my dreams like an ancestral instruction
I hear sopranic echoes of silence
Aggravating the complications of my bitterness.
The high-pitched voice of muteness
Pricking the innerwound
Which will only heal and dry when freedom is freed.

This poem was written by Ronald tapfuma Jongwe Known as Wezhira in the Zimbwbwean poetry circles. Wezhira is an international poet who has performed at international platforms like the Highway Africa in South Africa, UN Habitat International Youth Crime Prevention and Cities Summit, SADC Regional Youth Hearing and the Harare International Festival of the Arts. This poem is sometimes performed as a duet in collaboration with Shoeslambada at various platforms locally and internationally.

My Son.

My son when you were born
Echoes of joy where herd from all corners
For your birth my son
Was a moment of jubilation
It was a moment of ululation
It was a moment of emancipation
The world my son saw your birth as a defining moment
They saw your birth as a refining moment
Your birth my son was indeed a designing moment
Thus the legendary Bob Marley was there to sing for you my son
And Prince Charles of the royal family
Came to honor the potential king of Africa

My son when I your father saw the potential that was in you
With the consent of the nation
I handed you over to the so called first secretary……ROBERT
For he was equipped and armed with five university degrees,
Intelligence and profound eloquence and I you father
Thought you were in safe hands
My son little did I know………

My son you became the paradise of Africa
Your economic prosperity was once an exhibition of Africa’s’ potential
You were a river that flowed with excess vigor and velocity,
A river that was the backbone of Africa’s agriculture
A scenic visa for the lovers of nature
But now my son you are struggling,
Ailing and lying in your death bed
Long before your 30th birthday
And they call it BLACK EMPOWERMENT!!!!!

My son! What is black empowerment?
When unemployment is floating at 90%
Whose democracy is it when your security agents
Use weapons of mass destruction against students armed only with their brains
What is sovereignty when the nation sweats and works for tax
So that they build mansions and villas in Beijing and Kuala Lumpur
My son now you talk of the turn around policy
But why should we turn around when the only alternative
Is to go forward
Why look East when we can’t even look at
Where we are standing
What is economic prosperity?
When ten civil servants can not afford
One crate of Castle Lager….. I WONDER


My son stand up and reclaim what is yours
Forward ever backward never
For the struggle is like a catapult
Understood backwards but lived forward
You and I need to unite for revolutions are symbolic
Of the power of the united people
Let our prophets be murdered everyday
But our voices shall be heard forever and ever
Let their armed forces brutalize us
And intoxicate our eyes with their tear gas but our voices
Shall be heard forever and ever
Let us unite to dislodge the despotic forces
For we cannot take this anymore
My son ZIMBABWE