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Poets tackle human rights
John Mokwetsi, The Standard (Zimbabwe)
February 10, 2008

http://www.thezimbabwestandard.com/viewinfo.cfm?linkid=14&id=8331&siteid=1

Zimbabwe Poets for Human Rights (ZPHR) says it will "try to develop, educate, transform and advocate for the respect of human rights using performance poetry as the main medium".

About 15 poets converged at the US Embassy's Public Affairs Auditorium last Tuesday to present poems and to discuss their presentation, with a strong audience in attendance. Poems presented focused on specific rights ranging from the social to the cultural, also exploring the human condition under the present tough economic environment.

Among the young upcoming male and female poets were Fungai Machirori, Jongwe Wezhira, Rhyme Apostle, Police State Poet, Batsirai Chigama, Prince Tendai, Ticha Muzabazi, Mutumwa Pave, Elizabeth Muchemwa, Michael Mabwe and Shoes Robson, the event organiser.

The discussion was facilitated by Farai Gwaze, a filmmaker based in Durban, South Africa.

Robson, Takunda and Mabwe presented a rendition of the poem maOperation nemaCommission whose theme centred on the now common development where every sector of the country is now governed by either an operation or a commission.

The trio told Standard plus the poem was inspired by loneliness. "We gave loneliness a platform and its speech became poetry," says Michael Mabwe.

Cultural rights were dealt with by Anesu Katerere, known as the Guerrilla Poet. He recited a poem, God's Call, in which he sought to invoke divine intervention in addressing the current economic and political crisis.

Katerere said: "I believe the problems in Zimbabwe, like the liberation struggles in the First and Second Chimurenga, have a spiritual attachment. "

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