Through the Eye of a Needle
by Lebogang Lance Nawa
(Protea)
Lebogang Lance Nawa’s earlier prose work have shown how he can weave a text into several layers of meaning, and this success has set him apart from many. His poetry is also a breath of fresh air. This is not the kind of poetry one can fuse with hip-hop and present to a group of urban youngsters who appreciate rhyme and twang rather than the beauty of words and a message. (Though one of the poems, The Earth I Know is a Woman, was adapted into a song by the celebrated Vusi Mahlasela.)
The title of this book comes from the gospel of Matthew, who quotes Christ as saying that it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. This is also the title of the longest poem (32 pages) in the book, a poem that captures the social malaise in our society. In this and other poems here, Nawa probes issues of African leadership, freedom and revolution.
Nawa’s day job is that of a top local-government official, though, and one has to wonder whether that fact has anything to do with the neglect, in these poems, of some vital issues. Poverty and corruption, for instance, are issues that have been conveniently left out of this collection. If the reader has access to the poems Nawa wrote for the now-defunct Staffrider and Tribute magazines, one can spot the difference in the kind of issues explored.
In other places, he takes a more intimate, personal approach, treading on the thin ice of sexual issues while exploring manhood and womanhood. The poet’s softer and more sincere side can be detected in a poem he wrote for his wife, Classified Love.
Nawa sprinkles his English poetry with Sepedi, which is indicative of his earlier exposure to traditional poetry in his native village of Marokolong, near Hammanskraal. This tradition is evident when he refers to senior poet Keorapetse Kgositsile as tshwene e leriba (a baboon with a protruding forehead, used as a family totem of the Kgositsiles) in the poem Ode To a Pilgrimage. Nawa also uses the beautiful term senakangwedi (a small but very bright star) in his poem Moments of Being.
The poet has paid tribute to other poets and musical greats besides Kgositsile: Lesego Rampolokeng, Sandile Dikeni, Ingoapele Madingoane, Vusi Mahlasela and Mzwakhe Mbuli. Reading Ode to a Pilgrimage, in particular, it strikes one that Nawa’s relationship with Kgositsile has been a fruitful mentor-protégé relationship, in which both have high regard for each other.
With the recent passing on of Modjadji, the rain queen of Balobedu, one feels that Nawa’s poem God Save the Queen would be relevant. Unfortunately, this poem was written for the queen of England.
Nawa is a poet whose relevance did not fade with the dawn of freedom. The issues he has dealt with in Through the Eye of a Needle are very contemporary. The way he finds his way around words is so remarkable that one cannot help but stay glued to this book.
Sabata-mpho Mokae is a literary critic on Kaya FM 95.9 in Johannesburg. He is on air with Buyile Mdladla every Monday between 11am and noon