PRAISE OSAWARU FROM NIGERIA, ESCAPES SOLACE THROUGH WRITING

Praise writes because it instills calmness and confidence.

Praise Osawaru, 20, is a Nigerian writer and (performance) poet of Bini Descent. He's currently an undergrad at the University of Benin, Nigeria. He's mostly fascinated by things atypical and/or containing speculative elements, but also dabbles in realism. Most of his works are inspired or drawn from his personal experiences, often mixed with some lies or altered truth. As the only boy child of his parents, he found solace in penning his thoughts and emotions, and it evolved into

something stunning. His works (poetry and prose) have appeared or are forthcoming in _African Writer, Afritondo, Analogies & Allegories Literary Magazine, EroGospel, Feral, Kalahari Review, Perhappened Mag, Praxis Magazine, Serotonin,_ and elsewhere. He was also longlisted for _African Writers Award 2019_ and shortlisted in the _2019 Kreative Diadem Writing Contest_. He spends his time reading, binge-watching, writing, overthinking, or admiring nature. You can find him on

Instagram/Twitter: @wordsmithpraise.

Why do I write?

That question always frightens me, because people expect a profound reason as to why a person writes. I write for myself and anyone who finds solace in words. I write because it's a medium in which I contentedly express and can be myself. I write because it helps unload my prickling thoughts and instills in me calmness and confidence. I write because I've experienced something, and sharing it could help others deal with their current situation and the unpredictability of life. I write because the voyage of life can be gloomy and writing is my torch with which I banish the flirtatious darkness. I write because it keeps me, my thoughts, and my memories alive.

Why was I inclined to submit to Babishai?

I'd heard about the Award from a friend, so when I saw the call for submission for this year, I asked myself, why not? I love to experiment with my writing; always looking to try new styles and forms. And I also love nature, so I decided to submit to _Babishai__ 2020 Haiku Award.

_I'm glad I did, and that I made the longlist.

My Process in Writing My Haiku?

Firstly, I read previously shortlisted works on _Babishai Haiku Award_, then I found an African Haiku Journal, _The Mamba_. I downloaded some issues and also read, to acquaint myself fully with Haiku (I previously thought it was just 5, 7, 5 but I learned it was beyond that). Then I

meditated.

Where I live in Ikorodu, Lagos, Nigeria, there are grasses in the environment. We even have some banana trees in our compound. And I often like to come out of my home, stare at the surrounding, and gaze at the sky when I'm ruminating. Mostly to get some air from excessive indoor

time.

So, I was outside on the porch, and it was windy. I saw the trees subjected to the blowing wind, and the idea was birthed. But I was also faced with not sounding cliché because a number of people have written about how the wind makes the tree dance. So I decided to use a different and unique language. "Song and musical" came to mind as a result of a musical I'd just watched. When you think about it; the trees reacting to the wind, it's nature's musical. It's all about seeing things

atypically.

the wind plays

every tree sways to its song-

nature's musical

What's the future of African Haiku?

Looking at the history of the _Babishai Haiku Award_ and the shortlisted works, I can say that Haiku has a place in Africa. Also, when I googled African Haiku and came across _The Mamba Journal_ I was amused. I mean, there are a lot of Haiku writers in Africa. And I believe we will keep

carrying the torch, and people will disbelieve that you can't tell so much in little words. Eventually, this 'traditional form' will sound not-so-traditional.

How are we able to share this Haiku Experience with Nigeria and with

the world?

Well, there's little motivation for Nigerian writers to engage in Haikus. I believe if there were more platforms and literary bodies and contests promoting Haiku in Nigeria, we would be able to share the

experience with everyone.

But, for now, social media is a tool with which we can reach thousands of people, and share our Haikus with the world.

Thanks.

ROSE KINYANJUI: POET, AUTHOR, TEACHER, FROM KENYA

My name is Rose Wangari Kinyanjui. I am a married mother of two girls. I was born and brought up in Kenya by Kenyan parents. I am a teacher by profession, having studied the mainstream Kenya curriculum and The Waldorf Education system and have been a teacher under the teacher's service commission and later in the private sector. I love writing because I find it the best way to express my thoughts and ideas. There is a story in everything I see, people, animals, vegetation, name it. I have authored a book, MY FATHER MY HERO, a girl’s celebration of her father living with a disability.

I had heard about babishainiwe about two years ago via social media. I began my year 2020 with a renewed mind and wanted to venture into what I had always sat back and let others do. The renewed mind drove me to take part in the Haiku award 2020 because I believed I had a story to share.

I have a great concern over the depreciating environment. Cryptically, I look at the moral decay that suffocates, justice, upholds impunity and embraces the "NEW NORMAL" of oppressing the poor, the orphan and the window. Truth has been choked beneath the garbage of those with bulging pockets. You breathe when they decide.

Africa is full of poetry. Haiku style is what needs to be embraced and encouraged. It can be taught alongside literature in school. I believe Haikus have a big place in the heart of Africa only if we get to hear them more, understand them more and embrace them as a way of expression and a form of writing.

For us to share this experience with Kenya and the world, we will need to have the experience first as writers/poets. I believe writing is not only geared towards making awards but also being educative and improving self-confidence in freedom of expression. Like an artist behind an easel with paint and brush, so is a poet with a haiku on their lips. We can also have forums to sensitise people through teaching workshops, open cafe entertainment/festivals for the young and old. Perhaps, stakeholders can convince the educationists to consider incorporating this in the curriculum.

DEVIS THE TRANDFORMATIONAL POET, FROM UGANDA

Devis the poet is a Poet, playwright born and raised in Makindye, Kampala.

He started poetry with Milege Uganda, and later joined a poetry community in Makerere University called Kelele @ Makerere. Following that, he founded a group of Poets with his friends, Wake and Kira Waibi, called POTTERS CLAY. He has performed on all major poetry platforms and major arts festivals around the country like KITF, BAYIMBA FESTIVAL OF ARTS, MILEGE WORLD MUSIC FESTIVAL, among others. He is a member the pioneer Tebere arts lab (class 2019)

As a solo act now, he has held two one-man shows in one weekend called the 2018 LINES AND RHYMES, and he is an author of a chapbook titled, DOOMED KIDS.

This is why he writes:

The transformation from wanting to be the best poet there is to wanting to be a great leader in my poetry community. To inspire the poets that look up to me by giving them an example that hard work and moving out of comfort zone, is key to every poet's/artist's success. In this particular case, it was "you cannot win, unless you are you are part of the game."

When I saw the call for the #Babishai2020 haiku award, I knew I had to submit, but with new work. Every morning, after reading all sorts of haikus, I would go for a run or walk, hoping to find something to write to about, then I would head home to freshen and go pick my little nephew to take him to his grandmother's then I would return to settle and write. In the taxis back to baby's grandmother (my mother) we would sit next to the window, when there was traffic we would watch everything steadily because the taxi would be moving slowly, but when it was moving fast, it was a tug of war trying to make him sit properly. The day I wrote the haiku, the old lady seated next to us asked why I can't hold the baby properly because he was making her uncomfortable, and I told her I am doing my best but the trees cannot stop running past us, and am I scared there is nothing I can do to stop them. When I got back home, it’s the haiku I wrote.

In the future, as long as competitions and awards like Babishai keep happening and having continental dialogues about the works, we as Africa are going to have a common understanding of an African Haiku.

In the future, Babishai can take it beyond the award, extending it in schools, performance spaces, having working workshops and having winners as Ambassadors for the movement.

#BABISHAI2020 HAIKU LONGLIST

It is with great pleasure that we announce our #Babishai2020 haiku longlist. The Chief Judge, Kariuki wa Nyamu, who also won the 2017 haiku prize, agrees that it was with careful deliberation that the list was made, with such astounding and unparalleled talent. He shall share more, in an extended interview.

To all the poets on the longlist, warm congratulations. It's always a pleasure and paradise, to read from such highly imaginative work, and again, thanks for bearing with us as we navigate how to excel and make positive impact, in online spaces. 

Let's continue to extend out creativity from within, to spaces where we can make a difference.

Below are the top ten haiku winners, of the #Babishai2020 haiku prize.

total blackout...

street lamps glow with

mating fireflies

Name: Ali Znaidi

Country: Tunisia

.......................................

the morning rain falls

endlessly hugging thy sleep

frozen ideas die

NAME: Andrew Herbert Omuna

Country: Uganda

.......................................

the wind plays

every tree sways to its song–

nature's musical

Name: Praise Osawaru

Country: Nigeria



.......................................

my child's eyes

can still see trees run past

our small moving car.

Name: DEVIS THE POET
Country: UGANDA

.......................................

bitter kola

grandpa breaks into

a new tale

Name: Ahmad Holderness

Country of origin: Nigeria

Country of residence: Nigeria and United Kingdom


.......................................

delicate mounds

parting soil in the night

to die out soon

Name: Akello Charlotte

Country: Uganda

.......................................

garden opera

in the moon's spotlight

a frog leads chorus

Name: Justice Joseph Prah

Country: Ghana

.......................................

suffocated roots

peep out of garbage dump

where is fresh air?

Name: Rose Wangari Kinyanjui

Country: Kenya

.......................................

ringed with its papers

and tracked like jailbird on bail

the immigrant lands...

Name: Adipo Sidang'

Country: Kenya

.......................................

in the wall

deep opening abandoned

geckoes' room

Name: Osho Tunde Matthew

Country: Nigeria

*****************
Details of award-giving shall be shared in due course.

LESSONS FROM MONKEYS; AND HOW MABIRA FOREST IS A MARVEL: POETRY AT MABIRA FOREST.

 LESSONS FROM MONKEYS; AND HOW MABIRA FOREST IS A MARVEL: POETRY AT MABIRA FOREST.

Written by Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva

A half-bitten mango, still wet, from the saliva of a monkey, lies on the ground. A half-eaten fig, with particles of dust and stones sticking to it, lies on the ground. Interdependence. Kindness. Lessons from monkeys. In 2017, The Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation organized its second poetry-nature trip. This particular adventure, titled, ‘Poetry at Mabira Forest,’ opened an entirely new understanding of how social economies are built. The forest walk guide, Hussein emptied himself heaps of knowledge about medicinal trees, Musamya River, and the marvel of the 306 sq km, covered by Uganda’s largest tropical rain forest.

Safari ants, Hussein duly warned, were a constant menace, and he advised extra caution. There were about twenty poets, academics, journalists and well-wishers in total, who set off on Friday 4 August, from Kampala City, for the launch of the #Babishai2017 Poetry Festival at Mabira Forest. Situated in Najjembe in Buikwe District, Eastern Uganda, between Lugazi and Jinja, the forest boasts of 312 types of trees, and 315 bird species. Covered by such a green density, the forest, for some parts, blocked out the sky and was replaced by an eerie yet welcoming canopy of leaves. There are tropical trees standing at heights of 197 feet, with buttress roots, and one remarkably powerful tree was the Prunus Africana, known to have the medicinal ability to heal prostate cancer and malaria. How empowering to know of the healing nature of trees, and to be honoured with such vastness of miracles. Why then would we intentionally destroy it? Are we oblivious to nature’s healing influence? Mabira Forest’s unmistakable clout continues towards the Musamya River.

Musamya River flows earnestly in the Western and Northern part of the forest, joining Sezibwa Falls, and eventually flowing into the River Nile. Musamya Falls, also named Griffin Falls, is a major site, which unfortunately has been partly ruined by the continued burning of sugarcane and dumping of waste, in the surrounding areas. Apart from promoting poetry, and performing witty and unconventional verse, across Uganda’s breathtaking landscapes, the Babishai poetry-nature series is intent on promoting environmental conservation. This trip identified several areas that were disconcerting, and that hopefully would alert all Ugandans and stakeholders as gatekeepers and stewards of the environment that we have been lavished with. The environment includes both the flora and the fauna. These include the often misunderstood nature of the monkeys.

A half-bitten mango, still wet, from the saliva of a monkey, lies on the ground. A half-eaten fig, with particles of dust and stones sticking to it, lies on the ground. Interdependence. Kindness. Lessons from monkeys. These primates leave the forest bed littered with half eaten fruit; for the sole purpose of ensuring that there is food for other animals that mostly crawl or scamper on the ground. Amongst these that benefit from the fruit, are millipedes, snails, squirrels and porcupines.

Having first taken a tour of Mabira Forest myself, in 2005, during the heavy protests over the deforestation of large parts, for sugarcane planting, I was enamoured then just as I was enamoured eleven years later. With the notes taken by the poets who travelled and the footage sponsored by the Babishai team, I was able to capture the essence again. 

As a risk-taker, with a fascination for heights, Hussein who also managed my zip lining expedition, explained about the thrill of the one-hour adrenaline-pumping ride. Cruising over, while hanging on for dear life, is as daunting as it is exhilarating. There are six zip lining ‘flight’, in total, the last covering 87 metres across River Musamya, leading to the final descent. Some more avant-garde couples, decide to ride together, leaving onlookers in awe.

The Babishai 2017 Mabira Forest nature trip, was, all in all, a once-in-a-lifetime delight, with the promise of subsequent poetry excursions across Uganda.

…………………………………………………………………

www.babishainiwe.com

Email: babishainiwe@babishainiwe.com

BABISHAI AND BUTTERFLIES: ICONIC MOMENTS

BABISHAI AND BUTTERFLIES: ICONIC MOMENTS

By Beverley Nambozo Nsengiyunva

They are diurnal; active during the day, like most humans have been trained to be. With large activity during the day time, they act as agents of pollination, laying a copious number of eggs, for their own life insurance. Their eggs are often eaten by all types of predators, from spiders, ants and a few birds, therefore reducing the risk of predation, by increasing the number of eggs that they lay. While butterflies come in about fifteen thousand types of species and vary in their lifestyle, after exploring for a while, not as an entomologist, but as someone who’s fascinated by their curious nature, I unearthed (pun intended), a few images of butterflies, taken in 2014.

The Babishai Niwe Poetry Foundation, which promotes African poetry coordinated an East Africa poetry exchange programme, with a Kenyan poet, Michael Onsando, who visited Kampala for a few days. During his visit, he led discussions on the politics and aesthetics of poetry, during an evening hosted by Femrite, where the discussion varied from the potency of East African poets, to the validation sought by African literary gatekeepers, to sustainable livelihoods in poetry. It was a vibrant evening, laced with intellectual and creative discourse.

Babishai and the butterflies. Getting to that. A friend of Babishai’s and a personal friend of mine too, Tom Forrest, a retired British Diplomat, who has lived in Uganda for decades of years, with a house on Buziga Hill, overlooking one of the most breathtaking views in Uganda, invited us to a brunch. Together with Jackee Batanda, a writer and entrepreneur, and Sophie Alal, writer and winner of the 2010 BN Poetry Award, we had a remarkable time. Tom is a nature enthusiast, whose garden boasts of such a wide variety of plants and flowers, that we were immersed in it for a while. My mother, who runs a successful landscaping business, introduced me to the magnanimity of plants and flowers, and I’m always enamoured by the experience. It was here while we chatted and walked in the garden, which a few butterflies kept flitting around us.

Like any human with fairly good eyesight, we were drawn to their essence. With Jackee’s camera, thanks to her photography skills, we were able to capture some iconic moments of this butterfly. One black and yellow species was by the window sill, stately and striking. How do you capture such beauty in just a photograph? How do you sip enough of it, to quench your insatiable need for nature’s grandeur! It’s impossible. We tried, though.

It was later that I discovered butterflies never fly in straight lines, to confuse their predators. They do not want to leave obvious flight paths, as that would make them easy prey. On reading Robert Greene’s ’48 Laws of Power,’ he too recommends that we should leave a little mystery to our habits and schedules. A change in routine, puts people off-guard and you not only brighten your vibe, but also heighten your security.

I’ve seen photos and videos of heavy set adults chasing butterflies down across miles, with butterfly nets. Their indirect flight confuses the butterfly catchers, and it’s quite a sight to watch.

Lessons from butterflies: We must lay a large number of eggs; because that raises the assurance of survival. Live in such a way that even with half of your ideas, plans, or activities failed, there is assurance that your legacy will remain intact. Not because you had a million ideas, but because the predators could not reach them, or destroy them.

Lessons from butterflies: Be unpredictable. Don’t live such a monotonous and regular life, which leaves no surprises. If you’re a dancer, change the music. If you write, change the characters, and if you’re a parent, change your style.

There are hundreds of iconic moments with Babishai, which were captured in photos. I’ll be sharing more.

Thanks for reading. The various lifestyles of butterflies was information gathered from discussions with friends who love to travel around Uganda, and an article in The Eye Magazine.

Babishai edits poetry, and if you have a collection of fifty poems or more that you would like us to look at, email babishainiwe@babishainiwe.com, or call +256 751 703226.

ANNOUNCEMENT: FESTIVAL, CREATING, HAIKU

27 March, 2020

Dear Friends of Babishai, Lovers of Poetry, and Leaders in the Arts,

We are looking forward to a tomorrow that is better than today.

During this time when the world seems to be spinning under our feet, let’s keep our heads high, and remember the effectiveness of our togetherness, our creativity and our steed. In these unprecedented days with Covid-19 stretching its ugly neck in unwanted spaces, the Babishai team has agreed to postpone our festival, which was scheduled for June, 25-28 in Kibaale, by the crater lake.

We appreciate all who have reached out to us with care and advice. That means a lot, that even with your own challenges, you still think of others. The #Babishai2020 Haiku award deadline passed and the judges shall proceed with their work. The announcement of the shortlist and winners though, shall be postponed to June, until we finalize on a new date for the festival.

Please take care of yourselves and your loved ones. Keep to the prevention measures, until we kick Corona out of our lives.

Keep writing and reciting too, because people around you need the warmth that stems from a creative mind, more than ever.

Regards,

The Babishai Team