Palestinian spoken-word artist and poet Rafeef Ziadah will join Malawian author Upile Chisala Motswana poet TJ Dem South African artist Lebo Mashile and 18 other poets from across Africa and the globe at this year’s Poetry Africa Festival (PAF) in Durban South Africa. The festival – now in its 22nd year – is hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Center for Creative Arts (CCA) and takes place in Durban South Africa from 15 to 20 October 2018.
“Our line-up this year features a diversity of poets with a range of voices” explains curator Siphindile Hlongwa of the CCA. Each of those voices is also articulating their various struggles for freedom and dignity.
For Palestinian refugee Rafeef Ziadah poetry has been an important way to tell the story of her people and their struggle for liberation. “My experiences and those of the majority of Palestinians have been shaped by dispossession and exile enforced by Israel’s settler colonial regime…This reality is the backbone of the poetry I write” explains Ziadah who first shot to fame when her poem “We Teach Life Sir” went viral on YouTube.
A shared history of colonialism and dispossession that links Africans to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation is what makes Ziadah’s inclusion at this year’s Poetry Africa Festival so significant.
Poetry Africa’s extensive week-long program features performances readings and book-launches seminars workshops poetry competitions open mic opportunities campus and school visits.
The festival will also host a week-long praise poetry workshop led by Zulu history custodian and praise poet for King Goodwill Zwelithini BM Mdletshe. “It is our hope that this will be the beginning of many more workshops that celebrate our cultural heritage not only of the Zulu people but of Africa as a whole” explains Hlongwa. “The bigger picture is to eventually open this up to cater for the various African languages across the continent.”
Source: Afro-Palestine Newswire Service
