JUSTICE JOSEPH PRAH FROM ACCRA; BABISHAI 2017 HAIKU SHORTLIST

Justice Joseph Prah is from Accra, a poet who believes in poetri-evolution by a vibrant generation.


 

What drew you to enter for the competition?
 It is just one driving force, an urge to be part of a continental history African haiku poets are once again inscribing down for posterity. I personally belong to the school of thought which believes in the ground thinking that if Africa's poetriscape would continue to sustain its formidability and resilience in the face of those exclusive 21st century adversities, then keen contest of this caliber must often be organised to unearth the latent talent in young but vibrant generation; a class of poets more poised to the teeth to introduce what I always refer to as poetri-evolution.

  Do you have a particular personal story with haikus?
Great question! Where do I start from? My word! Let's say at the early part of 2015 I wonderfully met a crop of haiku geniuses with exceptionally creative prowers to write the art! I sincerely got jerked up to the art and since reached the resolute decision to practice it myself. In fact, the rotational tenet on which Ku is fundamentally hinged is what comes to me as a matchless fascination which the  likes of Ezra pound, Robert Frost, Kofi Awoonor and Wole Soyinka may have missed and are still missing entirely during their writing epoch.

 What do you feel towards the shortlist in general?
Honestly, as a keen haiku analyst in Africa, I am summarily excited the historical register of Afriku poets is evidenty stretching on and on. The shortlisted Afriku poems show an incredible gamut of wisdom which, in my view, is undeniably equal the girth of the Golden Boabab. Those are topnotch literary crystals worth mounting in a gallery any season. Every icon who successfully migrated through thorough scrutiny onto the shortlist has proven to be an African and not an Africant in practising the ancient Japanese poetry.

  What motivation do poets need, to keep writing, in this ridiculously competitive world that vies for their attention?

You see the active stimulant that could spur poets on to pursue a sustainable poetry career is factually relative. However, our individual variances can be tailored into one pursuance to work out for the common good of the continent. It will be necessary for key players like Pan-African Writers Association and their contemporaries to cajole many home-bred poets to frequently use the quill. These associations should do more than they are currently doing to encourage young African writers write for the libraries and the world beyond. Currently, their gesture toward Afriku is absolutely nothing to commend.

 Aside from that, it would be incumbent on every one of us to bring his or her own cream to the table! What do I mean by this? You see, when you come to the writing bench and it is literally crowded with various intellect, you have to do meticulous brainpress up, and this is what many of us especially African novelists, dramatists and poets have to do to jostle our way into the writing universe. Let us cash on a particular style of writing, surf through the debris of subject matters and themes and select the most suitable ones that have the steam to attract readers within and beyond our horizon( Africa). We must ready ourselves to write about our past, present and future solely for the continent, and explore the more the Afromodern matters so pertinent to Africans.

   If your 2017 submission was food, what would it be?
Wooow! You guys are really there! Hahah! Akple and okra soup with fried "keta schoolboys" hearings. Thank you.

Read his haiku here:

harmattan mango
the first ripening
in the midday sun

We at Babishai, congratulate him again. The winners will  be announced at the #Babishai2017 Poetry Festival dinner on Sunday 6 August at Humura Resort, Kitante Close. Cards are on sale at 40,000/- Call +256 703147862.
The full festival programme is here.
 http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/17/babishai2017-poetry-festival-programme/

The full winning haikus are here:
http://bnpoetryaward.blogspot.ug/2017/07/the-babishai-2017-haiku-shortlist.html

KUADEGBEKU PAMELA FROM GHANA; #ABISHAI2017 HAIKU SHORTLIST

Kuadegbeku Pamela Angela is from Ghana, committed to literary causes and her radar is out for literary landmarks. She pursues writing as a stable career in future. She says that if her haiku were food, it would be fufu and lightsoup. Read more about this enchanting poet.


Kuadegbeku Pamela Angela (courtesy photo)

What drew you to enter for the competition?
I am a keen reader in my own comfort zone and a committed fellow to any literary cause; someone who has since been on a persistent look out for a competition of this nature to rub shoulders with other literary 'landmarks'. I should say this contest is right  in defining my start point in pursuing a more stable writing adventure in the near future. I did have this conviction this contest will carve out a humble spot for me among my peers, and this was entirely the ruling interest that drew me to the competition.

 Do you have a particular personal story with haikus?

Personal story? Not precisely please. But I have come close to seeing the practise of haiku as one expressway to encasing all I have read extensively about as an African girl and an aspiring writer so to speak. However, Basho's haiku have practically left an indelible smirch on me since I have read a great deal in my pursuit of learning how to write one myself.

What do you feel towards the shortlist in general?

The shortlist unequivocally displays myriad of intellect, with all the Ku showing in their capacities the expected aha moments. It has predictably led to another insightful finding that many African poets have the necessary creative skills in their tanks to compete with the international haiku poets. How ever, as an upcoming feminist, I am someway displeased a lot of female poets have failed to find the spotlight in haiku. This is where the gender literary match is leaving absolutely a lot of our women counterparts behind. Hope they wake to the consciousness come another contest season. But am glad to be in the same run-lane with some big whips so far.

What motivation do poets need, to keep writing, in this ridiculously competitive world that vies for their attention?

It's really true the dynamics and the interplays have changed unexpectedly in the writing world. Tons and tons of literary materials are day in day out produced beyond the reading population's interest. This phenomenon is sure creating a watertight situation that holds writers at contest end to earnestly keep looking for footholds in their respective continents. This is where this quizzical question stands worth brainstorming over. For me,  it is imperative we produce literary materials that are in close correspondence with our continental demands. Our folkloric stories could be exploited and mutated into readable poems while we also focus some attention on those unforgiving problems that militate against us, giving all to originality. It should be a kind of revival campaign by all to write personally not for the mere fun but for the purpose of writing for the recreation of different reading audience for this century and beyond. I wholly believe the internet dormain can also inject some positive Adrenalines into the whole cause.Thus, the social media pages could help disseminate the brand-new poems we produce. Maybe our devotion to writing haiku could project us also into the circles of success.  What we essentially need now is some regionally based literary groups which can keep whetting the mindset of young poets to write for our print and the audio-visual media as well. These written poems must be solution finding containers than problem detecting ones. It's been too long a habit of diagnosing the pain through our writings, let's prescribe some near- good solutions now.

If your 2017 submission was food, what would it be?
That would be fufu and lightsoup! I’m salivating already folks.
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You may read Pamela’s haiku here,

moon circle
palms into palms
an armless child breaks the ring

We at Babishai, congratulate her again. The winners will be announced at the #Babishai2017 Poetry Festival dinner on Sunday 6 August at Humura Resort, Kitante Close. Cards are on sale at 40,000/- Call +256 703147862. The full festival programme is here.

http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/17/babishai2017-poetry-festival-programme/

The full winning haikus are here:
http://bnpoetryaward.blogspot.ug/2017/07/the-babishai-2017-haiku-shortlist.html

FRED KWEKU FORSON FROM GHANA -#BABISHAI2017 HAIKU SHORTLIST

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    Fred Kweku Forson from Ghana, was shortlisted for the 2017 Babishai Haiku contest, inspired by one of last year;s winners, Kwaku Feni Adow, also from Ghana.

 

Fred Kweku Forson (Courtesy  photo)

          What drew you to enter for the competition?

I knew nothing about haiku as a type of poetry until one day on Facebook I read that a Ghanaian, Kwaku Feni Adow had won a haiku contest. I became curious and began to search for the meaning of haiku and all that it entails. After reading a little about it online and a lot more of the haiku others have written especially from the Mamba, I knew I could also be a haiku poet.

The opportunity then presented itself when I read on Facebook of a call to submission of haiku to the 2017 edition of the Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation haiku contest. I didn’t waste time but began to pen some images/scenes and sounds down. I then submitted the first three haiku I ever tried my hands on and, hooray, it’s been shortlisted.

         Do you have a particular personal story with haikus?

I’ve been writing poems especially rhymes at my leisure times and whenever I wrote one, I would ask my younger brother to proofread for me. I really do worry him with that. He thinks I’m very good at the poems I write but frustrated since I’m not gaining anything from it. He feels I’m wasting that talent. Because of this, he would sometimes refuse to proofread my poems.

When I wrote the shortlisted haiku, I read it to him and asked him whether he finds any sense in it but he asked me to leave him alone and that he has better things to think about. I didn’t tell him I was submitting it for a contest though. So when he read of my haiku having been shortlisted in a contest, he came back from work that evening and reminded me of how he paid no attention to me when I asked him to ponder on the shortlisted haiku for me. We all laughed over it because he was so excited for my haiku having been shortlisted.

 What do you feel towards the shortlist in general?

After going through the shortlist, I was wowed by the exhibition of great African talents in haiku. It feels so intriguing to read such images and sounds briefly penned down by fellow Africans who respectively see and hear far beyond those images and sounds.

   What motivation do poets need to keep writing, in this ridiculously competitive world that vies for their attention?

I believe the greatest motivation of every poet is from within himself, the moment you begin to see and feel something within you, and you just can’t help it but to artistically express it in writing.

But one big external motivation of every poet, I believe, is knowing that his poems have a wider audience across the world and people actually find inspiration in his poems. Therefore, poets and their poems must be given the necessary exposure through competitions and features in journals like what Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation and the Africa Haiku Network have respectively started doing, etc.

         If your 2017 submission was food, what would it be?

“Apapransa” is a Ghanaian delicacy prepared with corn flour, and that is what my 2017 submission would have been. “Apapransa” is best enjoyed when it is made to be pregnant with chops of salted fish and any other fish deemed necessary and garnished with palm oil. The delicacy is not too appetizing or attractive at the mere sight of it but, the moment you begin to take bites of it and you gently continue to masticate it, you will definitely end up grabbing the chops of fish hidden in it. This immediately gives you a different and even more delicious taste.  

When you first read my 2017 haiku submission at a glance, you may just be tempted to think of it as a mere construction of words in a sentence. Much meaning may not be seen it. But if you take your time and carefully read through it, you will end up getting the deeper messages and lessons embedded in it. Then, you will appreciate my haiku the more.

Let my haiku speak to your mind, soul, spirit and your life! 

Fred Kweku Forson Ghana, is a foridable talent. We at Babishai, congratulate him again. The winners will  be announced at the #Babishai2017 Poetry Festival dinner on Sunday 6 August at Humura Resort, Kitante Close. Cards are on sale at 40,000/- Call +256 703147862  The full festival programme is here.

http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/17/babishai2017-poetry-festival-programme/

The full winning haikus are here:

http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/19/babishai-haiku-2017-shortlist/

Follow us on Twittter @BNPoetryAward

KWAKU FENI ADOW SPENDS A LOT OF TIME WRITING HAIKU-#BABISHAI2016

  Kwaku Feni Adow, from Ghana, has two Haikus in the 2016 Babishai Haiku shortlist. He spends lots of time writing Haikus and his knowledge of the craft is admirable.

Courtesy photo

How do you define Haiku?
Haiku is that poetry which seeks to evoke nature in three (not always) brief/succinct lines, painting a picture with words where the poet is bound by the spirit of the art to show not tell. The poet is not as much allowed to intrude with his emotion or opinion. The best haiku have depth, many meanings that can be read into it when images are well juxtaposed.


What is the process of haiku writing like for you?
Writing haiku for me starts with an inspiration, a little moment of insight in finding something new in the ordinary. This mostly comes about from observation, childhood memories and from reading haiku, albeit the inspiration is only the beginning point. After writing down the words that present themselves in the moment, I let the poem lie and come back to it later, this time weighing and assessing how each word employed helps make the haiku better.


 Were you surprised at being shortlisted?
I must say that I was surprised especially that two of my poems got shortlisted.


Do you spend a lot of time reading Haiku, and from where?
I do spend a lot of time reading haiku. Besides the pleasure in reading haiku, part of the process of writing or learning the art is reading lots of it. My sources are online journals dedicated to publishing top-notch haiku, few examples would be Cattails, Heron's Nest, Frogpond and Africa Haiku Network.

 Which African Haiku writers do you know and admire?
Thankfully, there are quite a number of African haiku poets I know. The likes of Celestine Nudanu and Barnabas Ìkéolúwa Adélékè. It'll almost seem like a sin to not mention Adjei Agyei-Baah who to me is a haiku genius not just in Africa but in the world, evidenced of course by his numerous awards and publications in reputable journals. Again I know and admire the work of his fellow from Nigeria Emmanuel Jessie Kalusian. These two have had influence on me as far as my haiku journey is concerned.

Have you heard of the Mamba Journal, a publication of Haikus,
produced by the African Haiku Network, co-founded by one of our judges, Adjei Agyei-Baah?
I have indeed heard of the Mamba and I am happy to have five haiku of mine published in its premier issue.

How do you feel we should promote African haiku?
I believe haiku can be promoted through contests like this. Also, I believe a constant hosting and/or promoting the efforts and work of groups like Africa Haiku Network and any other Haiku Society anywhere in Africa  on this platform can expose the art to the numerous visitors. 

Any parting remarks?
I would like to say thank you to Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation for taking this step to have the very first haiku contest in Africa for African haiku poets. This is the support the art truly needs and we are all appreciative of that. To the  other shortlisted poets, congrats.

Thank you Kwaku.

The #Babishai2016 Poetry festival runs from 24 -26 August in Kampala at Maria's Place in Ntinda.

BLESSMOND SAYS THAT A HAIKU IS POETRY DEVOID OF STEROIDS

Blessmond Alebna Ayinbire, from Ghana, was shortlisted for the Babishai Haiku 2016 prize. He is evocative and imaginative, giving hilarious and thought-provoking insights into his Haiku journey.

Courtesy photo

How do you define haiku?
I define haiku as a play verse form of poetry devoid of poetic steroids, which captures a clear picture of a memorable moment in nature.

                What is the writing process of a haiku like?  
Writing haiku is so thrilling that haiku has become my true love. It reveals to you, the world in a totally new and clearer picture as you drown into nature to capture it in words. Haiku is a cousin to photography. The subject strikes the writer, like it does the photographer. Then, you expose your writing pad or your brain and let your ink or feeling make a copy of the subject on it.

                    Were your surprised at being shortlisted?
[Smiles]  Yes I was surprised, although I was expecting it. One, because I sent three haiku and one had an obvious   spelling error. So I lost  hope. The second thing is, I have read a lot of Afriku (African haiku) and have seen the great talents African haijins have. So I didn't believe that my experimental results would stand those written by people who have mastered the aesthetics of the art.

              Have you read the Mamba Journal, a Haiku publication of the African Haiku Network?
Yes I have. Mr Adjei Agyei-Baah's Facebook page was where I first chanced on this treasure. Through Facebook, I found other sources like The Living Haiku Anthology, Haiku Society of America, Ghana Haiku Society, kukai (haiku contest)  results and the list goes on and on.

           Which African haiku writers do you admire?
It's crystal clear I admire the most astute African haiku writer, Adjei Agyei-Baah. I love his Saijiki (season words). Emmanuel Jessie Kalusian, Celestine Nudanu and Ali Znaidi are also my favourites.

      

               Parting remarks?
The Babishaiku award is a bold step in the direction of promoting African haiku. Contests bring out talents and beckons the eyes of the world towards them. Also, forming national and regional haiku societies will help nurse talents in the art. In this age of technology, African haiku would just be a click away from anyone in any corner of the planet, if we breath life into it. I also want to congratulate my co-shortlistees and wish us all the best of luck. Also, I want use this opportunity to applaud the Babishai team and all African haiku writers for how far they have brought the art.

Thank you Blessmond.

The #Babishai2016 Poetry festival runs from 24th to 26th August in Kampala at Maria's Place in Ntinda, near Victory City Church.