YAKEEB: #BABISHAI2018 SHORTLIST

 Yakeeb is a writer resident in Lagos, Nigeria. His work has appeared and is forthcoming in a number of literary journals including Ynaija, Arts & Africa and others, and he collaborates with other creatives on various projects across genres. He is currently looking to publish his completed chapbook manuscript. 

Courtesy photo

 Q:        What was the process of writing your particular poem, Unholy Sermon Notes?

 A:        It is one of those poems that drops on you like bird poop, maybe in this case, it was a gift from God. The poem was written during a Sunday service that I felt very disconnected from.

Q:         What does poetry mean to you?

A:            Poetry for me is a portal to alternate universes, you can be in yours or get lost in someone else's. That encapsulates it all for me. To dig deeper is to examine the process and the emotions, I'll leave that to the academics.

Q:    What are your five year goals with your poetry?. 
 A:            Mastery of the art form, enough to teach it. A chapbook and a full-length collection that is special to nearly everyone who comes across them. Also, I intend to travel more so I'm able to write from a wider range of perspectives.

Q:         Which African poets are you keen on reading?

A:            I'm playing catch up at the moment in regards to poetry written by Africans, but I've spent some time reading Dami Ajayi & Efe Paul's poetry and I really like the themes they explore. I recently came across poems by Niyi Osundare, Gbenga Adesina, Bernard Binlin Dadié and Jonathan Kariara. I intend to gradually delve deeper and I'm excited about what I'm yet to discover.

Q:    What are some of the challenges you face with poetry?

A:            As a reader, there are times when I wrestle with the patience of taking it all in. There's also the issue of insight, you want to be sure you're in tune with what was expressed by the writer of the poem. As a writer, sometimes, the words that come to mind while writing or attempting to write do not genuinely describe what I feel. Also, navigating the layers of vulnerability can be tedious.

Q:         Is there anything of importance you would like to share with literature teachers, who are reading this?

A:         From a general point of view, passion is enticing. I think you're very likely to bring the best out of students when you teach with love. I recommend watching Dead Poets Society, a 1989 movie directed by Peter Weir.

Q: Any parting remark?

A: I'm thankful to The Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation for providing a platform that promotes literature in Africa. I'm honoured to be on this list alongside these wonderful poets.

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You may read the shortlisted poems here:
#BABISHAI2018 SHORTLIST

The #Babishai2018 poetry festival details are here:
#BABISHAI2018 POETRY FESTIVAL

#BABISHAI2018 SHORTLIST: GRACE SHARRA (MALAWI)

 Grace Athauye Sharra, 31, hails from Ntcheu District in Malawi. She holds a Diploma in Education and teaches languages at Mitundu Secondary School in Lilongwe, Malawi.

Courtesy photo

She is a poet and short story writer. Her works have appeared in many local and international publications. Her poem, We Wear The Mask, features in a book titled Malawi a Place Apart by former Norwegian ambassador to Malawi Asbjorn Eidhammer published in 2017.

In The Familiar Stranger and Other Stories: An Anthology For Junior Secondary School, Grace has a poem titled Sacred Vows and a short story, The Anointed One published by CLAIM Mabuku Malawi in 2013 and is now the textbook for English Literature. Her short story Guilty appears in The Grafted Tree And Other Short stories edited by Sambalikagwa Mvona. It is also in Call It Fate and Other Stories edited by N. Mwangupili and T. Mgunda published by Bookland Malawi.

Tomorrow Will Come, features in War Drums Are Beating, by Alfred Msadala published by Acin. Other poems and a short story are in Poetry For Senior Secondary School and Mphamvu Ya Kondaine Ndi Nkhani Zina (nthano) by Chancellor College Publication in 2013.She has also published in local newspapers and magazines.

Q:     What was the process of writing your particular poem, My Letter To 

You?

A:  It is a product of a lot of events that inspired me to write that verse. I put all my bewilderment, confusion, experiences and protests. Nothing is sacred anymore in our societies. We are no longer our brother's keeper and are ready to betray and sell our souls for almost nothing. 

Q:     What does poetry mean to you?

A: Poetry is sacred. It means everything. It is my first and truest love. It allows me to express myself in the most satisfying and therapeutical manner. You may say it sanctifies me.

Q:     What are your five year goals with your poetry?

A: To publish my book, perform at international events and reach out to as many people as I can with my work while inspiring the budding writers.

Q:     Which African poets are you keen on reading?

A: Denis Brutus, Frank Chipasula, Lindiwe Mabuza, Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva, Gcina Mhlophe and Jack Mapanje

Q:     What are some of the challenges you face with poetry?

        I.            The perception that people have based on what one writes. They always associate the persona in the poem with the author which can be frustrating to say the least.

      II.            It is hard to publish poems in Malawi.

    III     Many people do not appreciate poems, let alone poets

Q:    Any parting remark?

A: Poets are winged souls, they should never sell their voice. A poet who sells his or her voice is a sacrilegious being.

Poetry is a powerful tool that we can use to fight all evils in our society.

I am so excited for being shortlisted for the Babishai poetry competition. It has given me wings and I don't intend to fly an ordinary pitch.

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The #Babishai2018 shortlisted poems may be read here:

#BABISHAI2018 SHORTLIST

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

PRESS RELEASE-THE BABISHAI 2017 HAIKU SHORTLIST IS OUT

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19 JULY 2017 PRESS RELEASE BABISHAI 2017 HAIKU SHORTLIST IS OUT The three esteemed Babishai 2017 Haiku judges, Adjei Agyei-Baah, co-founder of the Africa Haiku Network, Mercy Ituri, a landscape designer and award-winning haikuist from Kenya and Emmanuel Kalusian, editor of the Mamba Journal, had an uphill task of selecting the shortlist of the 2017 Babishai Haiku prize. This upheaval task, with over twice the number of submissions as last year, was an evident reward, with a significant increase in the interest of the African haiku. The shortlist is filled with unwavering talent, intricate African imagery and recognizable brilliance. Congratulations to all those on the shortlist, who come from various parts of Sub-Saharan Africa. Below, in no particular order, are the shortlisted:- 1. Charlotte Akello from Uganda 2. Usman Karofi from Nigeria 3. Kariuki wa Nyamu from Kenya 4. Anthony Itopa Obaro from Nigeria 5. Ahmad Holderness from Nigeria 6. Fred Kweku Forson from Ghana 7. Acen Miriam Carolyne from Uganda 8. Kwao Jonathan Tetteh from Ghana 9. Nnedi Ezenwa Ohaeto from Nigeria 10. Alawonde Theophilus Femi from Nigeria 11. Justice Joseph Prah from Ghana 12. Osemwengie Zion from Nigeria 13.  Kuadegbeku Pamela from Ghana 14. Abubasam Fahad Mutumba from Uganda 15. Akor Emmanuel Oche from Nigeria 16. Dan’bala Umar from Ghana 17. Obaji-Nwali Shegun from Nigeria You may read the full winning haikus from here http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/19/babishai-haiku-2017-shortlist/ The winners will be announced on Sunday 6 August at the Babishai 2017 poetry festival dinner. Three winners will receive cash prizes, will be published in the Mamba journal and participate in selected literary festivals around the continent. Festival programme is here:- http://babishainiwe.com/2017/07/17/babishai2017-poetry-festival-programme/ Sincerely, The Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation Organising Committee Email: babishainiwe@babishainiwe.com Tel: +256 703147862 Twitter: @BNPoetryAward -- The Babishai 2017 Poetry Festival runs from 4 - 6 August.

BABISHAI2017 POETRY FESTIVAL PROGRAMME

                                                            THE BABISHAI 2017 POETRY FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
Monday 31 July 2017  
5:30pm to 7:30pm
Femrite offices, Kamwokya
Discussion of the Babishai 2017 shortlisted haikus, led by Isaac Tibasiima, literary critic and scholar from Makerere University.
Open entry

Wednesday 2 August 2017
8:00pm – 8:45pm Uganda Time
Facebook live chat with Phillipa Namutebi Kabali-Kagwa
From her face book page.


Friday 4 August 2017
Poetry@Mabira
Departure from 7:30am in Kampala for Najjembe Eastern Uganda
Trek across Mabira, lunch, poetry performances.
Fee: Two Hundred Thousand Shillings (200,000/-)
Payabale by Monday 31 July to George Kiwanuka on +256 703147862


Saturday 5 August 2017
10:00am to 11:00am
Re-Launch of the African Poetry Library
32 Degrees East/Ugandan Art Trust in Kansanga, opposite Bank of Baroda


Saturday 5 August 11:30am to 1:30pm
Poetry seminar for youth from 19-29 years,  by Mbizo Chirasha of Zimbabwe
Free entry
Register for workshops by sending 100 word bio and photo to babishainiwe@babishainiwe.com
Participants will be certified.

Saturday 5 August 2:00pm to 6:00pm
Poetry performance by leading Ghanaian poet from Ghana, Oswald Okaitei
Maisha Garden in Buziga. He will be joined by Rap Poet, Rashida Namulondo, Kitaka Alex, Caesar Obong and Wake the Poet.
Entry fee: 20,000/-




 
Sunday 6 August 2017  11:00am to 3:00pm
Launch of children’s poetry anthology
Children’s performances
Babishai champions
Uganda Museum Main Hall
Free entry

Sunday 6 August 11:30am to 1:30pm
Workshop on the craft of the spoken word, by Oswald Okaitei, The 2016 Spoken word artiste of the year, in Ghana.
Register for workshops by sending 100 word bio and photo to babishainiwe@babishainiwe.com
Participants will be certified.


Sunday 6 August 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Workshop by Kagayi Peter, leading poet, performer and trainer from Uganda
Uganda Museum
Register for workshops by sending 100 word bio and photo to babishainiwe@babishainiwe.com
Participants will be certified.

Sunday 6 August 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Babishai 2017 poetry festival sumptuous meal with sumptuous poetry
Humura Resort Kitante Close
Dinner cards at 40,000/-
Call George Kiwanuka on +256 703147862 for your card.

PRESS RELEASE -THE POTENCY OF POETRY; BABISHAI POETRY FESTIVAL ,4-6 AUGUST

5 JUNE 2017

PRESS RELEASE -THE POTENCY OF POETRY

The Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation is holding the third Babishai Poetry Festival in Uganda. It's a three-day poetry buffet from Friday 4th to Sunday 6th August in Uganda. Poets, poetry publishers, poetry performers, poetry teachers and poetry admirers, will converge in various locations across Uganda to conduct workshops and transform young minds.

In their signature style, the #Babishaipoetrynatureseries launches phase two. The team, with adventurous artists across the region, will trek across Mabira Forest on Friday 4^th August. After the success of the 2016 Poetry on Rwenzori Mountain excursion, this year there will be another trek across the green enchantment of Mabira forest.

Poets from all over the region are encouraged to participate and cultivate the practice of orature in organic spaces.

On Saturday 5 August, Tontoma Poetry Jazz will orchestrate traditional poetry performances and at the same venue,32° East/Ugandan Arts Trust, there will be a relaunch of the African Poetry Book Fund Library. Published poets are invited to read from their work and donate their books towards the enrichment of reading poetry. Maisha Moto will host spoken word performers and storytellers across the older generation to a much younger one later on that day from 2:00pm.

There will be a full children's day at the Uganda Museum on the final day, Sunday 6 August, master-classes to groom older poets and finally to close the festival, an award-giving dinner within the city at Humura Resort. Dinner cards are on sale at 40,000/-.

If you're a published poet, distributor of poetry, or bookseller of poetry, come and exhibit and market your work. Uganda needs you.

For more information on the festival, dinner cards or book exhibition, please contact

The Festival Coordinator

George Kiwanuka

Tel:+256 703147862

Email: babishainiwe@babishainiwe.com

Website: www.babishainiwe.com

Twitter: @BNPoetryAward

WHERE WE'VE BEEN AND WHERE WE'RE GOING #BABISHAI2016, #BABISHAI2017

Babishai Poetricks is an adventure toolkit that encourages children to maximise their creative potential using poetry, creative illustrations, movement and sound and inter-personal communication.

Storytelling time

Every child has something to say

 This programme, under the Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation, was launched on June 16^th 2015, on The day of The African Child, to promote new spaces for children aged 4 to 12. Having visited and facilitated in many primary schools in Uganda, the Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation noted a significant lack of African poetry for children. Babishai Poetriska is a toolkit divided into eleven adventures that emphasizes the use of the five human senses as a wholesome way of describing and articulating, builds on team-work and introspection to develop children individually and with others.

The busiest times are during the holidays. Over the Easter Weekend, Friday, Saturday and Monday, there were nine children who underwent the training. Ranging from 3 to 10, we articulated the five senses, compared colors to emotions, improvised with kites to determine the power of wind and had an impromptu spelling bee. This coupled with story-telling and composing their own poems, gave the children a real Babishai experience.

Daniella,one of the trainers

During the Babishai Poetry Festival which will take place from 24-2 August 2016, we will have an entire day for primary school children to perform in poetry and theater and hold a pan discussion, presenting their case for poetry.

We partner it hike-minded organizations like Malaika Educare, which is one of the largest mobile children’s libraries in Africa. With over on thousand children’s books for children in various towns, they ably deliver books to individual homes on a weekly basis.

This year on June 16^th, The Day of The African Child, we will launch the Babishai Poetricks Leadership Academy for African Children Living in Africa. The main pillar of this academy is Creative Leadership Through Creative Readership. The target is African children from 4 to 12, living in Africa. We will be using the Babishai Poetricks toolkit, which is a proven workable creative method of nurturing the leaders that Uganda and Africa need.

Babishai Poericks time

The Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation, founded by Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva, a writer editor, poet, long-distance swimmer, actress and leadership trainer, coordinates annual poetry competitions for Africans. This year, they introduced the Haiku competition, dubbed Babishaiku, they publish poetry by Africans, coordinate creative children’s programs, business programs, annual poetry festivals and poetry mentorship programs.

Observation

This year in June, Babishai is leading a team of creative explorers to the foothills of Mt. Rwenzori to hold a poetry session, launch a poetry collection and have a wide barbeque spread. Poetry on The Mountain is another annual event which Babishai will share with her audiences and friends.

The Babishai 2016 Festival runs from 24-26 August in Kampala. #Babishai2016

The Babishai 2017 Festival runs from 7-9 June in Kampala.  #Babishai2017

SOME #BABISHAI2015 PEOPLE HELPING TO PUT THE FESTIVAL TOGETHER

PROFILING NICK MAKOHA (UGANDA) #BABISHAI2015 SHORTLIST

Nick Bio:Nick represented Uganda at Poetry Parnassus as part of the Cultural Olympiad. A former Writer in Residence for Newham Libraries. His 1-man-Show My Father & Other Superheroes debuted to sold-out performances at 2013 London Literature Festival and is currently on tour. He has been a panelist at both the inaugural Being A Man Festival (Fatherhood: Past, Present & Future) and Women Of The World Festival (Bringing Up Boys). In 2005 award-winning publisher Flippedeye launched its pamphlet series with his debut The Lost Collection of an Invisible Man. Soon to publish his 1st full collection The Second Republic from which his poem Resurrection Man was shortlisted for the Flamingo feather poetry competition 2013.He was a joint winner of the 2015 African Poetry Brunel Prize.

His shortlisted poems for the #Babishai2015 Poetry Award are below:

LHR:  by Nick Makoha (Uganda)

An airport is a room. I keep talking as if my body is elsewhere. 

In full sight of a crimson God as children we were burdens,

coffins with eyes. A professor steps into the light to educate us.

You can't kill the dead twice. Has he seen the militia slide down

a mountain like goats, or a beatingheart explode on to a barrack wall?

Even the coffee I brought back in hand luggage when poured in a cup

is an eye, a past dark itching for light.Therefore, I cannot be the memory

of your death, let me bend the waya river does, all shadow and sound,

around a hill, towards a village I once recognised. There are days

when this unplanned landscape speaks its music, above a ribbon of stars,

below a wall of torn out tents and beyond a river waiting as one would

the apocalypse. On other daysyouare a name on a list, given to armed men 

at a roadblock. Guns held loosely by their waist. Hovering as catfish

in a shallow pool. Before roads led to you, or Livingston's maps found you,

before the mountains grew their backs, before sight was tempered,

before the revelation on a skies blank page in this perfect chalice of night

you are not the first pilgrim to ask the oracle what will I become me.

If I could  stop the sky from stretching its arms across the horizon, 

or the serpent Nile opening it's mouth toward a sea, or star blinking

in a midnight constellation as god watches your wife wash silk in a stream

would I not stopped our countries screams. I have the luck of Caesar 

his robe his crown and quest for immortality but soon this course

of blue and the way it bends  will have no need of me.

                        Death-fall    by Nick Makoha (Uganda)

Before Koni, before Museveni, before Obote’s second term, before now

there was me. We were in deep Shit! Bridges couldn’t be fixed with gaffer-tape.

America stopped lending plasticine to fill pot-holes. I quit playing refugee.

Who among you was going to pay our country’s light bill?  Well? You uninvited guests

like Rome, you will know where we put the bodies in their tunics and kangas. My sins,

both real and imagined, into the trap. To my brother my rival, when he comes

don’t let him tap the glass (idiots), devise his death. You stable-god,

a month’s worth of grain for the paratroop regiment won’t purge you. 

New wives and shoes and a move to State House while we live in huts.

Home will see your troubles cursed. By the way, your Chief of Police,

into the trap. You who believed in Churchill’s prophecy. You innocents

ruled by a spinning earth, your tears will quench the barns we set fire to.

You who call your guns She.You papiermâché martyrs with north Kiboko accents.

You shadow soldiers who dig dead men from their graves. You in the motion of battle.

You who search the airwaves for the British World Service, who stare

spirits in the face but can’t stand heights, the rules say, into the trap.

I will not forgive the clan who sheds blood for party politics. Your god might.

The one with his hands up as he waves, ask the firing squad to send him

with the widowers, orphans and motherless sons, into the trap.

All you disciples of empires.Mr Men ministers who paraphrase over PA systems,

into the trap. Wrecked after five days of being held under decree nineteen.

Why riffle through your Yellow pages in search of Heads-of-state? Into the trap.

The executioner who lets you watch his navel after bare-knuckle fights, into the trap.

 You who played The Bard on screen and stage, or quoted Aristotle, into the trap.

Your second tongue, into the trap. Lumino-boy with that Yankee

dialect, into the trap. It makes no difference to me, you sun worshiper.

Name your Icarus and fly, into the trap. You who abandon your wife’s thighs

for the cradle of a servant girl, into the trap. You at The Uganda Company Limited

(Trojans), because you gave us cotton but took our land, follow me with your horse mask,

into the trap. Those who offer me your skins as a fig leaf, let me carve a map

on your backs to Ithaca. You can hitchhike for all I care, into the trap. Take your stand

with the soothsayer in her snake dress. The ones who hesitate, into the trap.

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The #Babishai2015 poetry festival runs from26 to 28 August at The Uganda Museum in Kampala.
Tel: +256 751 703226
Email: bnpoetryaward@bnpoetryaward.co.ug