Poetry Africa made its presence felt at DUT’s City Campus on the sixth of October. International poets Ghassan Zaqtan from Palestine and Jayne Fenton Keane from Australia addressed the issues faced by poets in the media and recited their poems to Journalism students.

Zaqtan, first to take the stage, said that the one thing that inspired him to start writing was his longing as a boy to go back home from exile. “I’ve travelled many countries but the country that stood out the most for me was Morocco because it’s multi-cultured” said Zaqtan. He added that he ventured into poetry after slang writing. Zaqtan, a journalist and a specialist in Political Cultures, recited an Arabic poem titled “the sleepers song” which was translated by one of the students. He was accompanied by Ahmed, his interpreter.

Jayne Fenton Keane, also known as JFK, opened her talk by quoting a few poets. She described Journalism as a medium of reason, and said, “My poems are for anyone”. She recited a poem titled “I’m a wordwhore” from one of her books, Ophelia’s Codpiece. With this being her second visit to the country she said, “Poetry Africa is well organised and South Africa is one of the best countries I have been to”. Keane asked one of the students to recite a poem and the reward would be an autographed Poetry Africa T-shirt. Amava Buchule took on the challenge and received her well deserved prize.

Poetry Africa is expected to continue running programmes around Durban until the ninth of October, hosting both National and International poets.

– Thina Mthembu and Nontuthuko Ngubane