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The house that words built
Comrade Fatso, Poetry International
May 01,2008

http://zimbabwe.poetryinternationalweb.org/piw_cms/cms/cms_module/index.php?obj_id=11660

A House of Hunger. Hungry for freedom. Hungry to be heard. Hungry to fill the room with words. This is the House that we, as poets and spoken word activists, built two and a half years ago. Today, The House of Hunger Poetry Slam, Zimbabwe's first poetry slam, has grown from a handful of poets performing to each other to a cult event overflowing with performers and audience members alike.

When we laid the foundations for this house in 2005 there was no vibrant, urban poetry movement to talk about in Zimbabwe. Apart from the country's oral poetry icons Chirikure Chirikure and Albert Nyathi, there was no spoken-word scene. We decided that a new movement would take root and grow one Saturday a month at the Book Café, Harare's alternative cultural oasis. Poem by poem the House grew. Young, angry, political youth found a space for their anger through poetic activism. The House of Hunger became a freedom space in a town oppressed, and amongst the young, creative and frustrated. And what better name to define ourselves with than ‘The House of Hunger' - echoing the title of the well-known novel by Dambudzo Marechera, Zimbabwe's late anarchic cultural icon.

The House of Hunger poetry slam became a vehicle with which to parody aspects of Zimbabwe's social and political life. Judges chosen from the audience to adjudicate on the poets' performances are always comically warned that the rowdy crowd can overturn their judgments. Boisterous audience members frequently poke fun at the judges alluding to the ruling class's tendency to dismiss and threaten the judiciary - "you make your judgment and we overturn it" and "We know where you live!" Meanwhile the slam master, the event's MC, stokes the subversive flames by encouraging the slam to be as participatory as possible. Alluding to the country's history of stolen elections, the slam master will whip up the crowd by saying that people can award the poets whatever points they want "but it is our culture to rig the results. We are a sovereign state!"

The poems in this edition of Poetry International Zimbabwe reflect the diversity, intelligence, creativity and political awareness that has become the slam's staple diet. G.O.D. Obori's rhythmical Shona poetry has gained him a place as probably the most respected emerging Shona language poet. His poem ‘Mweya Toyi Toyi' speaks of current hardships and calls for the spirit of ‘toyi toyi', the spirit of struggle, to re-emerge. The piece is proof of his ability to merge deep Shona with hip-hop rhythms and his knack for blending revolutionary social commentary with traditional spiritual beliefs. In ‘Lost for Words' Mybruthazkeepa employs a soulful hip-hop style to give birth to his street philosophies on how the word has been bought and sold in a world of commodities where freedom of expression lives in a gated community. Meanwhile his piece ‘Everything Remains the Same gives clever insight into people's everyday oppression in Zimbabwe and how individual acts of defiance can lead to co-ordinated resistance. Ticha Muzavazi uses repetition in his Shona poetry and his folksy-style poems are always replete with humour and forms of social commentary. Outspoken is a popular rising poet on the Zimbabwe poetry scene and his poem ‘Everyday People' demonstrates his hip hop-influenced style and steady rhythm accompanied by clear calls for uprising. ‘His Freedom Train' is an intelligent poem that looks at the failed Zimbabwean journey from independence to oppression and is undercut by an incisive class analysis of the situation.

Zimbabwe's house of stone may be crumbling. But these are the young, rebellious poets that are picking up the debris and building a new house. With words and wisdom.

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