Words on… Poetry Africa 2023, with Featured Poet, Eugene Skeef

By Africa in Words on 7 October , 2023 • ( 0 )

AiW note: We’re delighted to share a range of new “Words on…” Q&As in collaboration with Poetry Africa.

The 5th October marked the start of this year’s, the 27th, Poetry Africa festival:

Poetry Africa is an annual international poetry festival curated and presented by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban each year during October. The festival features Spoken Word & Publish Poets in performances and dynamic engagements which includes panel discussions, campus and school visits, poetry exchanges, book launches, open mic sessions and the ever popular slam jam competition. The 27th edition of the Poetry Africa festival will extend performances to Johannesburg and Bloemfontein.

Taking place from the 5th to the 17th October across the three South African cities (Johannesburg, Durban and Bloemfontein), the theme for the 27th edition of Poetry Africa is VOTE4POETRY: MORE THAN WORDS, drawing on centuries’ long traditions to celebrate poets whose voices offer new directions that look to the “reclaiming of a more optimistic future”.

Furthermore, each year Poetry Africa honours a leading South African poet whose voice upholds South Africa’s Constitutional Democracy and is a reminder about the values in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We’re honoured that our first Words On… Poetry Africa Q&A this year is from Featured Poet, Eugene Skeef.

EUGENE SKEEF is a South African percussionist, composer, poet, educationalist and animateur who has lived in London since 1980. He also works in conflict resolution, acts as a consultant on cultural development, teaches creative leadership and is a broadcaster. As a young activist he worked alongside the anti-apartheid leader Steve Biko and co-led a nation-wide literacy campaign teaching in schools, colleges, and communities across South Africa. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and has served on the board of directors of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO). He is on the advisory committee of Sound Junction, the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music’s award-winning interactive multimedia educational project. In March 2005 Eugene performed with his Abantu Ensemble at Buckingham Palace and was presented to the Queen as part of the historic Music Day to celebrate the diversity of culture in Britain. In June 2008 Eugene and Richard Bissill’s, Excite! an orchestral commission by the LPO, premiered at the Royal Festival Hall at Southbank Centre, London. Eugene is the Artistic Director of Quartet of Peace which uses music to bring about peaceful resolutions to conflict and poverty, with a special focus on young people. In 2010 his collaborative project The Battle Of The Wordsmiths, with writer Tunde Olatunji and producers Blue Hippo Media, was shortlisted for the PRS New Music Award.

AiW: Thanks so much, Eugene, for talking with us. Could you tell us a bit about your involvement with Poetry Africa this year?
Eugene Skeef: I am this year’s featured poet. I am required to deliver the keynote speech at the festival’s opening as well as conduct workshops, lectures, and masterclasses, during which I will use poetry, music, and other related art forms.

Could you also let us in to a bit about your (other) work — your writing and/or any other kinds of work, roles, or the more general and different sorts of professional hats you wear?
As well as being a poet, I am also a music composer, percussionist, educator, broadcaster, and conflict resolution consultant. My work in all these different formats has taken me around the world in diverse community, cultural and academic contexts. I am also a Professor of Practice at the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation (CERT) in the Department of Education at the University of Johannesburg, where bring my skills in areas of creative education, human rights advocacy, social justice, and community engagement.

What would you say is the best investment you’ve made in your professional self / selves, and/or the most valued advice you’ve received about navigating your industry (or industries)?
The best investment I’ve made in my professional self is expressed through the
braided strands of self-belief, respect for humanity and nature, and valuing the
benefits of deep listening through creative immersion in the power of the arts as
the root of social transformation.

What’s the strangest, most significant – outrageous, even – thing you yourself have done, or would do, because of, or for a book (text / story / poem/ piece of writing)? Is there a serendipitous, interesting, perhaps even uncanny book / text related thing that’s happened to you? Perhaps a happy, weird accident that has occurred around books that you can share with us?
When I was a young activist and poet in the Steve Biko-led Black Consciousness Movement (BCM), I was the great man’s driver as well as the artist who drew the original clenched fist power symbol. During this period, I was also relied on to obtain copies of books that we needed for our political education and inspiration, which were banned under apartheid laws. I used to procure books by James Baldwin, Eldridge Cleaver, Angela Davis, Frantz Fanon, Aimé Césaire, Amilcar Cabral and other radical writers, through creative means. I would circulate them in our roving BCM library, with no physical address. It was through this resourceful improvisation that the award-winning South African author Mandla Langa got to read his first James Baldwin novel, Go Tell It On The Mountain.

What are the most ethical and/or heart-lifting changes in practice in your working life that you’ve seen happening across your industry/industries recently? Is there anything you would like to see become more visible and celebrated going forward?
Without a doubt, the single most impactful shift in South African writing is the emergence of younger writers who have decided to write in their mother tongues. This, coupled with the increased commitment to translate seminal books by African writers from European languages into indigenous languages, is what I would like to see more of. I would also love to read more books by younger writers that poetically tackle taboo subjects such as the blight of gender-based violence, the unjustified targeting of young Black males as scourges of society, and intolerance of difference among us as Africans.

Finally, how can our blog, books, and online communities best offer support for your work with African writing?
By owning my books, as well as inviting me to read my work and participate in convocations where we explore the principal themes contained in my work as an African writer.

For the full programme and more about the Festival, please see the Poetry Africa website: https://poetryafrica.ukzn.ac.za/.

Tonight’s event (Oct 7th), in Johannesburg, is COMPLETELY SOLD OUT!! – we’ve just learned…

…one in the popular Poetry Africa tradition of the Poetry Performance, ‘An International Poetry Extravaganza’, where 6 poets will take to the stage for a live performance – it starts at 7pm, at UJ Arts and Culture venue.