Barry Streek
The rich
just clicks a computer mouse
he calls that
an honest day’s labour
The following are some extracts from a most extraordinary book, Of Money, Mandarins and Peasants: A collection of South African poems about poverty, launched in Johannesburg this week.
Last year, the South African NGO Coalition (Sangoco) and Homeless Talk ran a national poetry competition under the theme of “poverty”.
The response was enormous: more than 900 submissions were received and an independent panel selected 55 entries for the book. The book was officially unveiled in Johannesburg by former South African ambassador to Paris and poet Barbara Masekela.
The poems were written by people from all over South Africa who shared their experiences and perceptions of poverty, injustice and their expectations of the future.
The publishers say the collection “retreads the path of Sangoco’s historic poverty hearings. It aims to bring issues of poverty into the public eye and to hear what ordinary citizens are thinking and feeling. Its very existence makes a statement -poverty is still a huge obstacle confronting millions of South Africans, and for all the plans and proposals, many people have seen little progress in their living conditions or prospects.”
Many of the poems are particularly moving, such as:
The sun has thrown you and me a ray of hope
But you let it slip away like a jellyfish
In poverty I will wait in the earth
Like a diamond waiting to be discovered.
I imagine our little angels
Eating this red dust as food,
Eating stones as bread,
And drinking tears as tea.
My life is like a house on fire
And my heart is dark when the sun sets
Gcina Mhlophe, in the foreword to the book, wrote: “The fact that this project turns our attention to the plight of millions of our country men and women is in itself to be commended. And then the articulate directness, the poignancy and the power of the poetry is so impressive.
“Time and again I was moved to ‘water my clothes with impotent tears’. I paused and found myself saying some words out loud; they demanded to be spoken: ‘rain is my shower … plastic is my blanket’; ‘my heart is dark when the sun sets’; ‘despairs, sorrows, pains and hardships’ as the retrenched worker returns to his unsuspecting wife and children, and hunger moves in with them.”
The publishers say that one of the aims of the competition was to profile the talent and creativity of South Africans. “As is true of most countries, it is often difficult to find outlets to publish poems.”
Moshe More, Sangoco’s deputy director, says: “Issues of poverty and disadvantage still plague our society and must be kept in the forefront.
“The problems and heartaches of the poor
people of our country must be brought home to all of us, and greater commitments need to be made – by both government and by individuals – to do what they can to eradicate poverty and discrimination from our society.” Mholope concludes, “The articulate directness, the poignancy and the power of the poetry is impressive. This book is here to shake all of us who read it, to look not only at the poetry but to search in our hearts for the light which shines within. We can learn from these poets, and a good number of them really can stand on their own amongst the country’s best.”
One of the poems, chosen for special mention by the judges, is by Twadi Domane and called The Winds of Change @ 0KM/H. It concludes:
Why then? the old man asks himself
Why is it that four years ago they came and made the same promises?
Why is it that they came and told us that we will have running water?
Why is it that they told us that we would have electricity in our homes?
Why is it that we were told our culture would be enriched and respected?
Has that got anything to do with the votes we cast four years ago?
Or maybe it has a lot to do with votes we will be casting next week
ENDS