22 April 2009

ABCsF by Lebo Mashile

It takes just 26 letters to create a universe The world is dismantled and then reassembled Through the lens of a pen and verse I’ve lost myself in books And then found myself in wordsA prison of silence would be far worseI’ve walked through the lives of individuals Whose eyes I’ve never known I’ve been to cities, villages and country sides

Lebo MashileThe poet, performer, actress, author, presenter and producer, Lebogang Mashile, the daughter of exiled South Africans, was born in the U.S. in 1979. At the age of sixteen years she and her parents returned to their home country. It was while she was studying Law and International Relations at Wits University in Johannesburg that the desire to work as an artist took hold of her. In her work as a life skills facilitator for adolescents – focusing on topics like gender issues, teamwork and sexuality – poetry has been her preferred medium. Mashile regards its expressive power as the most effective tool to bring about those changes in mental attitude that are needed in the aftermath of the socio-political changes in post-apartheid South Africa.

Her lyrical and gutsy poems also speak about life in the new South Africa. Issues such as the diversity and unity of the “Rainbow Nation”, the status of women, violence and the fragility of individuals are all treated with a sense of urgency and humour and retain Lebo’s ‘no holds barred’ signature style. In 2006 Mashile was awarded the prestigious Noma Award for Publishing in Africa, the premier prize for African literature.

Whose skies, to me, have never been shown It was in this solitary cell That my greatest strength was honed I saw that my mind was just a shell Its abyss simply a hole And the hell of a heaving heavy heart Is still my friend Every story has its place History never ends The writer is a visionary architect God child at play On a canvass of memories She lies naked between the covers Her own lover Her own worst enemy Navigating between extremes Both the judge and the judgedThe vile despised and attacked The unashamedly beloved The unassuming friend who’ll tell your businessWhen you’re not in sight She pulls the minds out of stillness In the cavern of the night South Africa is a fractured mirror A paradox of schizophrenic selves Who do not talk to one anotherWho fear each otherWho revere each other Who loathe

PPENPublic Participation Education Network

22 April 2009

Pretend And try to blend in With each other

This is the time when you can become The greatest substance of your dreams Unless you live in a shack And don’t speak English And don’t know what this poem means

Tell me how it’s possible for people Who walk on gold to not know how to readTell me how publishers who’ll never taste their tongues Can comprehend the words that these people need?

Because they’ve never been scared of stories The ones who uttered the very first The ones who’ll hand them to their children Calling out the rivers of their self worth The ones who’ll write a narrative in the earBut who won’t call the ear a page The ones who’ll rhyme without pens And perform without a stage

I’m just a colonized African Who breaks down the Queen’s EnglishUntil Sesotho understands it Still I wonder if trials and translationsCould help them traverse my landscape

South Africa is an old fashioned muttWho knows how to sing And knows even better how to cussWho knows how to piece together prayers When she’s almost out of luck Who knows how to laugh hard When the tears have run her into a rutWho knows that race is a farce Every body’s f*#!@d And when the welts and wounds Demand healing salve Words are just enough

NOW YOU’VE READ THIS, GIVE SOMEONE ELSE THE CHANCEF Write your name for those who can’t

www.campaignforeducation.org/bigread(If you can’t get online, use the page at the back of this book)

“The enemy isn’t really clear in the way it was before. It’s an incredibly sensitive, complicated struggle with many dimensions, but the site for that struggle is inside. ... The language of poetry comes from a place where that transformation has to begin, that sort of intuitive, creative, spiritual searching place that will be the fuel for any kind of transformation process.” Lebo Mashile

PPENPublic Participation Education Network