African Poets of the Week Compilation

African Poets of the Week Compilation

I've been negligent in my Poets of the Week the past few months so I thought I would do a little organizing and put together all of the poets that I've featured in the past.  I've included them below.

That Spring in 1994: Recollections on Rwandan Genocide
My recollections on Rwandan Genocide.

Poet of the Week: Muhammed Al-Faituri (Sudan)

Poet of the Week: Noémia de Sousa (Mozambique)

Poet of the Week: Mbella Sonne Dipoko (Cameroon)

Poet of the Week: Muhammed Bennis (Morocco)

Poet of the Week: Fatima Mahmoud (Libya)

Poet of the Week (and one of my all-time favorites) Ashur Etwebi (Libya)

Poet of the Week: Makuzayi Massaki (Angola)

Poet of the Week: Khalil Mutran (Syria/Egypt)

Poet of the Week: Jofre Rocha (Angola)

Poet of the Week: Jorge Rebelo (Mozambique)

Poet of the Week: Gwendoline Konie (Zambia)

A brave poet of the week: Abdirashid Omar (Somalia)

Poet of the Week: Frank Chipasula (Malawi)

Poet of the Week: Joseph Miezan Bognini (Cote d'Ivoire)

Poet of the Week: Baralong Seboni (Botswana)

Poet of the Week: Khaled Mattawa (Libya)

Poet of the Week: Everybody dreams of kissing you (Okai from Ghana)

Poet of the Week- Jean-Baptiste Tati Loutard (Congo)

Poet of the Week: Al Saddiq Al Raddi (Sudan)

Poet of the Week: Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo (Madagascar)

Poet of the Week: Manuel Monteiro (Angolan National Anthem)

Poet of the Week: Niyi Osundare (Nigeria)

Poet of the Week: Wole Soyinka (Nigeria)
In the Small Hours 

Poet of the Week: President Leopold Senghor (Senegal)

Poet of the Week: Hassan El Ouazzani (Morocco)

Lawful Magic

Poet of the Week: Rapper/Poet K'naan (Somalia)

Poet of the Week: Ali Houssaini (Moroccan National Anthem)

Poet of the Week: Moufdi Zakaria (Algeria National Anthem)

Poet of the Week: Leopold Senghor (Senegal)
Black Woman

Poet of the Week: Leopold Senghor (Senegal)

Noliwe 

Some of my favorite poetry books:

Poet of the Week Muhammed Al-Faituri from Sudan

Poet of the Week Muhammed Al-Faituri from Sudan.
    
Al-Faituri writes in a way that catches ones attention instantly and totally.  I only wish I knew arabic so that I could read it in its original form.  


To learn more about the Al-Faituri (also spelled Al-Fayturi), read this:
Dismantling the History of Slavery and Colonization in the Poetry of Mohamed Al-Fayturi and Langston Hughes 

A Scream

I understand Death's contract
and the finite ends of life:
however long a man lives
he lives only to die.
At the end, every scream
pours like a river into silence
but the most dazzling star
is that which shows the caravan its way
when moss has covered our memories
and grief runs wild though the house.


         
         Incidentally, you should read the following article on the difficulties of writing in another language.  I've including a snippet to whet your appetite--his insight is also useful for native English speakers as they seek to understand other languages:

Writing English as a Second Language by William Zinsser

I once asked a student from Cairo, “What kind of language is Arabic?” I was trying to put myself into her mental process of switching from Arabic to English. She said, “It’s all adjectives.”

Well, of course it’s not all adjectives, but I knew what she meant: it’s decorative, it’s ornate, it’s intentionally pleasing. Another Egyptian student, when I asked him about Arabic, said, “It’s all proverbs. We talk in proverbs.

LINKS:
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2012/05/african-poets-of-week-compilation.html
http://afroasianwriters.webs.com/muhammadalfaituri.htm
http://www.jpanafrican.com/docs/vol1no9/DismantlingtheHistoryofSlaveryandColonization.pdf
http://theamericanscholar.org/writing-english-as-a-second-language/

Some of my favorite poetry books:

Poet of the Week from Morocco: Muhammed Bennis

Muhammed Bennis was born in Fes in 1948.  He has published eleven books of poetry, 4 books of essays and has translated books from French into Arabic.  He currently lectures at the College of Literature and Humanities in Rabat, and is the director of the House of Poetry in Morocco.

I love his line in the poem below: Love is the mood of similiar souls.













Love is Eternity's River

Nothing but rivulets
communicating,
this is love.
I am the one who says
the parts of various selves become alike,
who says, wthin opposites harmony lies.
I have tried this and seen that,
so take what you know
about me and about women.
Love is the mood of similiar souls,
the secret of the collar around your neck,
the secret on vanishing in you.
O self
of lightweight worlds
I am the one who says,
what has taken hold of the self
will only perish with death, and you.
Fly high, high
into tattooed space, strive
with your dove collar,
long for the calling of water.
O self
that's how you are
one cloud nudged by another.

Translated from Arabic by Fady Joudah.

FUUO Past Poets of the Week:
http://fuuo.blogspot.com/2012/05/african-poets-of-week-compilation.html

Some of my favorite poetry books: