MARIA KAKINDA BIRUNGI; INTROVERT AND EXPLORER OF LITERATURE

MARIA KAKINDA BIRUNG  is an unabashed lover of literature. Her poem, 'I am not sorry anymore,' was amongst the Top five in the #Babishai2016 poetry competition. Here, we explore more about her literary life.

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If you had a choice of only one sentence in the world to describe yourself, what would it be?

A selectively curious girl who revels in introversion and sporadically explores literature.

What are some of your sources of inspiration?

Experiences, not necessarily my own but other peoples’. University has so far been a pool of encounters. My interaction with more people has been helpful especially since people have varying versions of what they consider to be reality. Sometimes the versions are not dramatically contrasting but are often revealing.

When it’s difficult for me to write, I try to read books especially fiction. I have a habit of re-reading parts of books that strike me the most. I do that a lot with ‘The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born by Ayi Kwei Armah’ and ‘Tar Baby’ by Toni Morrison.

In your #Babishai2016 shortlisted poem entitled, ‘I am not sorry anymore’, you express, through the persona, an unveiled discontent at the hypocritical and changing worldviews towards women. Why was this poem important to you?

There’s a certain pressure that comes with youth. For women, it is to look and act in a certain way. Apparently there is a norm to which we must submit and even then our response should be measured.

But I think deep down each of us is struggling with some existential reality to which its ultimate fulfilment eludes us. And I always think about how amazing it is that sometimes you look across the street and see a lady or gentleman, very well put together. Even I, am a culprit. I am not saying that there is no need to apply reason for sanity’s sake but we should recognise that within each of us there is a storm. My professor calls it dialectics; that even when one is still, the respiratory and circulatory system are in motion. Perhaps Nikitta Gill’s quote can best summarise what I am trying to say; ‘Whilst somewhere the water is calm, in another place in the very same ocean, there is a colossal storm.’

Is it important for poets to always have an angle, as they write?

I think it is mostly important when we embark on a deliberate journey to address a specific issue, when we are aspiring to be agents of change. But there are times when poets are writing to discover themselves, to find answers within themselves to questions which they have constructed. And even then, the questions are never definite.

What are some of your favourite poems?

In no particular order;

Five Stations for Various-Richard Ali

Take over-Melissa Kiguwa.

The Kingdom of Gravity-Nick Makoha.

Quarantine with Abdelhalim Hafez-SafiaElhillo.

The poems in ‘Salt’- NayyirahWaheed.

What do you think a poet should do, when readers respond violently to their work?

I think that a poet in writing not only aims to express him/herself but also to illicit some sort of emotion from the reader. The poet’s control is and should only be confined to what is written and how it is moulded. The greater adversity would therefore be no response than any response at all. A non-response may presuppose that one’s work is detached/pretentious, you name it. A violent response on the other hand may reflect truths and what is a greater aspiration than truths’ revelation?

As poets, how can we separate our work from our personal lives?

I think our personal lives inform our poetry and as a result our poetry is more honest. But if we must separate our work from our personal lives, we could immerse ourselves entirely in the events of our lives. What I mean is that we would have to be ‘entirely where we are’, making a deliberate choice to fully experience something. If we must say words or do actions or respond to certain things at those precise moments, then we should. Because poetry is very reflective and sometimes when we write, it is in response to what I would like to call a ‘subsequent reaction’. We are going back in time and saying, “This happened and I did this but I would have liked to do that.”  Or “I felt like this but I should have felt like that.”

This would then be accompanied by editing the poetry and extracting those things that we think we’d not like the whole world to know.

Our third Babishai poetry festival runs from 4-6 August, starting with a poetry trek across Mabira Forest, Poetry@Mabira. Will you join us?

It would be lovely to join you and I hope to be there.

How best can poetry be celebrated for those who find it elitist?

I think that people who find poetry elitist should first recognise that writers are human and not superhuman. Sometimes the expectations of the public on the writers is superficial. That because one is a writer (poet), one should always be reasonable and very, very dignified. Yet poets struggle with the same things as you. From personal crises to ‘simple’ things like vocabulary. But I think that perhaps it is a cycle. That sometimes the writers also sub-consciously emulate these expectations. So personal, ‘face to face’ interaction with the poets would be ideal.

In Uganda, one cannot fail to recognise that there has been a re-emerging focus on poetry in our indigenous languages, almost like a shift back to those days of folk-lore and storytelling. This has helped poetry become more relatable and encourages a wider group of people to come up with their own creative ways of poetry.

Any parting remarks?

I would like to thank the team of Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation for giving an opportunity to African emerging poets to interact and learn from each other.

Thank you Maria

I AM NOT SORRY ANYMORE.

 I am not sorry anymore, world.

The internet you shoved down my throat

And the grotesque knowledge you dropped

Onto my stunting spine taught me that

To be a woman, my forte would be,

Not a sharp mind but a sharp tongue.

That I had to spit-

Lewd and rude from pretty lips with lipstick mounted on them.

It is you,

You who taught me that-

Woman was acronym for; War Over Males ANew!

That we had adopted new tactics against men.

The strength of womanhood placed on a weighing scale,

Would be measured by the kilogrammes of

How many pillows I had lain on

And how many men’s mattresses had dipped with the weight of my body.

That the coveted for trophy would be presented to me,

With the measure of how many drops of tears my cup of vanity had collected,

And how many hearts my overgrown fingernails had scoured.

Isn’t it you who taught me-

To scrub the melanin off my skin?

For the fire in me would be revealed

Through the beauty of my newly acquired light skin.

Isn’t it you who whispered

That my femininity was evidenced by

The number of Instagram followers

Who unlike the disciples to Jesus, would hang onto the gospel…

Of the edges and curves of my body

And the wit of a sexually induced mind?

How dare you change your mind then?

And tell me that the price of femininity had changed…

That I had to grow the branches of a discerning mind and heart…

That ladies like Maya Angelou and Malala Yousafzai…

Had taken the mantra from the hands of women

Whose nudity and sexuality was weightlessly carried through

The air for all to see….

How dare you turn your back on me

Seeking to un-teach all the things;

That you had buttressed into my being?   

Kakinda Maria Birungi

Uganda

CALL FOR BABISHAI HAIKU 2017 SUBMISSIONS

#Babishai2016 Poetry Festival Guest-L-Ness The Lioness

Every week, we’ll be interviewing our #Babishai2016 Poetry Festival guests. This week, it’s L-Ness from Kenya. Her session is for children. Babishai Poetricks is in for  a treat. L-NESS alias Lioness is a Poet, a Femcee, a Hip Hop Cultural Specialist, and one of the top lyricist and performance femcees of Hip Hop in the region. 

L-Ness, courtesy photo

Her first album is titled SIMANGWE 2011 and the theme is ‘’Don’t Stop the Music’. One of the songs in this album is being used by Music Copyright Society of Kenya as their campaign theme song against piracy and artist exploitation.

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

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

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

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

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

Courtesy photo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They should expect to:-

a.      Learn performance techniques with active participation from their side.

b.      Connect traditional ways of storytelling with current methods of creative writing and performing poetry.

c.       Learn about our traditional instruments, their origins, materials used to make them, functions and roles.

5.      Why was it important for you to accept our invitation?

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

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

6.      What are the two main subjects you find yourself constantly writing about?

a.      Women empowerment because it is through Woman that society gets empowered, everyone in society is related to her as she is somebody’s daughter, someone’s sister, somebody’s mother, someone’s aunt, somebody’s sister-in-law, someone’s grand-mother, another person’s first cousin or distant cousin. All those connected to her therefore, need to be empowered. So Woman empowerment boils up to Family empowerment and hence total Society empowerment.  Society is made up of families and that is what make our continent.

b.      Socio-Political Issues because leadership affects how we develop or under-develop as Africans. We are very hard and smart working citizenry but are being dragged behind by social vices like corruption, income inequalities, tribalism and nepotism. These are leadership related issues.

7.      How do you feel towards art for social change?

Art for social change must be greatly advocated for because:

a.      It is the job of the writer to observe and put out, as a wake-up call to what is going on.

b.      Poetry gives people true solutions.

c.       We can incorporate our own empowerment in poetry instead of depending on foreign aid.

d.      Social progress is attributed to freedom and empowerment of the woman, and social decadence is directly associated with a decrease and lack of that freedom, yet, women are naturally talented and gifted in the arts.

e.      Society suffers from dilemma of equality, the dilemma of difference and the dilemma of identity. Poetry and other arts create adversity in the middle of diversity.

f.        There is over-emphasis on African problems, thus poetry and the arts builds confidence and showcases raw talent and original ideas, as positive aspects of the African society.

8.      We look forward to hosting you. Any concluding remarks?

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

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

PROFILING BABAJIDE MICHAEL (NIGERIA) #BABISHAI2015 SHORTLIST

   BABAJIDE MICHAEL OLUSEGUN:

Hails from Ibadan, south west Nigeria and has lived for 22 years. His a graduate of B.A Literature in English from the Obafemi Awolowo University. Is an aficionado of everything literary but a novice to everything the literary muses inspire daily. Gives voice to his poetry in public places and has been published in various literary journals, in Catholic Independent and with Anthology in Honour of Late Dr Maya Angelou from the Platform of Hinovelty as the most recent. Has written with the language of every genre of literature and he has several manuscripts yet to be published: poetry and drama and prose fiction.

Likes to eat, talk, play basketball, read and watch anything adventurous, magical, and fantastic. Is currently a corps member in the service of his Fatherland in Kogi State.         

His shortlisted poem is below:

Diz Poetry      by Babjide Michael Olusegun  (Nigeria)

Diz Poetry go come in many many styles

Since Diz Poetry dey com Uganda

Diz Poetry godey dub reggae reggae free

But Diz Poetry don dey use hin beat

Diz Poetry gat many manytinz to say

So Diz Poetry know know which one to say

Diz Poetry fit no make much sense

For Diz Poetry no come to impress

Diz Poetry fit look- within- personal

But Diz Poetry may dey –without- political.

               Diz Poetry will be so long in longitude

               For Diz Poetry will be very versed in latitude

               Diz Poetry will burst into rhythmic tears

               For Diz Poetry was writt’n with wilderness’s words

               Diz Poetry is speaking from Africa

               As Boko Haram blows up North-East Nigeria

               Diz Poetry won’t call on Cupid

               For Diz Poetry is lonely not blind and stupid

               Diz Poetry is not from “Dis Poetry”

               Diz Poetry is only like “Dis Poetry”.

Diz Poetry 4 lov use Gangan’s mouth

Diz Poetry sef 4 lovdanz with Sekere’sileke

Diz Poetry 4 talk of libarti

But Diz Poetry sef don enta captivity

Diz Poetry won halasom poets

Since Diz Poetry owe demobonge respect.

As I hala: Maya- Angelou- Zephaniah- Neruda, Rudyard. NiyiOsundare-

And Johnson in d States plus Okotp’Bitek for izSong of LawinowitJumokeVerissimo.

May I sharpali say: Una go watch Diz Poetry like say na Play on Words

Cos Diz Poetry dey flow wit watery meanings in stanzas of 4 by 10.

               You may wanna ask

               What Diz Poetry is all about

               Or is Diz Poetry simply all about nothing?

               Never mind, Diz Poetry has no answers to these

               For Diz Poetry gonna slip through my heart to thee

               Diz Poetry might make you laugh

               And you may wanna push Diz Poetry aside

               But Diz Poetry’s two and three

               May make you wanna give it a chance

               Cos Diz Poetry is simply free, M.A.D and booing your mind.

The #Babishai2015 winner will be announced furing the poetry festival from 26 to 28 August at The Uganda Museum, Kampala.

PROFILING SALAWU OLAJIDE #BABISHAI2015 SHORTLIST (NIGERIA)

 

Salawu Olajide is a B.A Literature degree holder from the prestigious Department of English and Literary Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He is presently a postgraduate student of the same Department. He has published strings of works on Saraba Magazine, Stony Thursday (Ireland), Kalahari Review, ZODML, among others. He currently works as a freelance reporter and digital writer for The InfoStride. He enjoys listening to dadakuada music at his leisure time. When he was asked: ‘what piqued your interest in poetry?’ He answered, ‘the nothingness of its everything. Once I am grabbed again in my inside lab, I begin to experiment with those verse-able words.’

His shortlisted poem is here:

                        WOMEN LOVERS by Salawu Olajide (Nigeria)

                        
 

She first said her biology was failing, and then her look, then her smile, then her feeling, then her heart. We look at each other on the rocking chairs. Listen, she says. The tube of her mouth holds something venal and serious. We long for each other. Finally. The finally comes as if it is the only intended word in the middle of the phrasing. She has a way of meaning her adverb. Did you moan on each other’s thigh ‘cept for sex? She says nothing but a nod which means yes. The sun seems to be gossiping through the window, I unhinge the curtain and let darkness swallow us. There are things they must not know. I whisper some calmness into her heart. She adjusts her gown and shows the part of her breast where she last kissed her. It is as if I have never loved before.

The winner will be announced during the #Babishai2015 Poetry Festival, 26 to 28 August at The Uganda Museum.