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<\/p>\nThis month GAPA is especially proud to speak to Mbizo Chirasha – an acclaimed poet from Zimbabwe who focuses his work on human rights, and holds a secure place in the African arts scene.<\/p>\n
Mbizo is an\u00a0exiled Zimbabw\u00e9an performance poet, writer, publisher of blogs, project expert and social justice activist. He has been active in many organisations and has been published on more than 400 platforms.\u00a0He has run\u00a0 and\u00a0 founded\u00a0 a number\u00a0 of initiatives including the Young Writers Caravan (2004-2006), This is Africa Poetry Night (2006), African Drums Poetry Festival (2007-2008), and the GirlChildCreativityProject (2011 to present), Mbizo is the current Resident Coordinator\u00a0 of the 100 Thousand\u00a0 Poets\u00a0 for Change- Global (USA) and the\u00a0 Women Scream\u00a0 International Poetry Festival (Domican Republic).<\/p>\n
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Can you tell us in a few words about the campaign you just launched?\u00a0Is there a particular context that gave you the idea for it?<\/strong><\/p>\n The Zimbabwe\u00a0 We\u00a0 Want\u00a0 Poetry\u00a0 Campaign is\u00a0 a strong\u00a0 intiative on CREATIVISM or Art Activism,\u00a0 which is a new global\u00a0 concept for using\u00a0 art and creativity as tools of resistance, positive transofmraiton and change.\u00a0 It is not a secret that Zimbabwe is under siege because of the dictatorship, corruption,\u00a0\u00a0 hegemony and kleptomania . The ruling regime has\u00a0 failed\u00a0 the masses for 20 years and people generally need new leadership. The regime thrives on violence, and abuses of human rights, media rights, and economic rights. I believe it is the duty of any sane citizen, writer, poet, media corporate or activist to speak vehemently and without fear about these vices that continue to haunt my once beloved nation.<\/p>\n What led you to tackle themes of political violence in your work?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The notion\u00a0\u00a0 of\u00a0writing, speaking\u00a0your experiences\u00a0and what\u00a0you know\u00a0is a useful\u00a0one. My first-hand experience\u00a0is that\u00a0I personally was politically\u00a0violated\u00a0for\u00a0many\u00a0years\u00a0in my country, when\u00a0we are forced to go\u00a0to rallies every\u00a0election season, our women\u00a0sometimes are raped, young people\u00a0beaten to death\u00a0because\u00a0they\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0support\u00a0a certain party. The opposition political\u00a0leader Morgan\u00a0Tsvangirayi suffered several\u00a0injuries through\u00a0political\u00a0violence. Tsvangirai,\u00a0opposition politicians, resistance movement\u00a0 leaders, poets, writers, artists\u00a0have suffered the brunt of\u00a0political violence\u00a0as perpetuated\u00a0by the regime\u00a0under this\u00a0full-time dictator\u00a0Robert Mugabe. I fled the country\u00a0because I wanted\u00a0to live and tell the world about\u00a0my experiences that had\u00a0become tough\u00a0in 2016\/17. I am still\u00a0haunted. I know I\u00a0have full information\u00a0of what is happening.\u00a0 I\u00a0was\u00a0tailed\u00a0most\u00a0the evenings\u00a0by\u00a0details\u00a0that proved\u00a0to\u00a0be of\u00a0political alignment\u00a0in nature. I was nearly\u00a0abducted\u00a0near Forth street\u00a0sometime in January, I was nearly\u00a0killed\u00a0at a\u00a0house I stayed at in Harare, I was nearly killed in\u00a0another suburb while\u00a0my friend was in another city. The Zimbabwean\u00a0system does not\u00a0want\u00a0critics, they\u00a0want praise singers.\u00a0 As we\u00a0speak\u00a0right now\u00a0the regime has since launched a serious\u00a0social\u00a0media bombshell\u00a0through the establishment\u00a0of the Ministry of\u00a0Cyber security, Threats Detection\u00a0and Mitigation\u00a0in a bid\u00a0to silence voices and oppress citizen media – if that\u00a0is not political violence then\u00a0it is something\u00a0else.<\/p>\n What relation do you see between politics and poetry? Do you feel a responsibility as a poet to speak out on political issues?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, it has come a time in Zimbabwe when stagnation is not an option but a sign of failure, the fact that we are poets and that we need to be silent is a big mistake. We can\u2019t rot while we watch, we need to call out for bandages and medicine, we need sanity in Zimbabwe. The old man is silencing our voices. Remember poets like Langston Hughes, who made great significance in the quest for change. They effected a perception shift in America through their black consciousness and renaissance writings. Renaissance is one greatest epochs of achievement in history of America that corrected the vices of slavery and racial perceptions. Creativism and Activism are very important concepts for positive transformation, change and resistance. We are adding up our voices against a totalitarian oligarch that is running the bureaucracy of the country in private restaurant meetings, bedrooms and kitchen cabinet gossips. An oligarch that is running the nation in a colonial model, an Oligarch that thrives on kleptomania, violence and looting. Our poetry shall speak and we will never stop, killing the flesh will never stop our voices. As long as dictatorship is present in Zimbabwe, creative resistance will remain.<\/p>\n In an\u00a0article<\/a>, you invited “young Zimbabwean artists to speak from wherever they are”. Do you see the Zimbabwean diaspora playing a big part in your project?<\/strong><\/p>\n They are big players in this kind of campaign, they know everything about our homeland, they are happy with the news of gory events taking place every day, they send money to their kith and kin and that money rot in banks or disappear sometimes. They are many in the diaspora who want to be living in their home country, but the biggest challenge is the messy political economy of this country and other negative factors. These include overstayed leadership, victimisation and violence all these are syphilitic opportunistic infections of a totalitarian Napoleonic regime led by Robert Mugabe. The diasporas have Zimbabwe at heart, but they are failed by the home system -many of them are both political and economic refugees and they wish one of these days to be home again. We have a number of them contributing to our Brave Voices Poetry Journal, Word Guerillas Protest Poetry Journal, and Poets Free Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n What goal do you hope to achieve with your campaign?<\/strong><\/p>\n This creativism concept seeks to bring sanity in Zimbabwe, politically, economically and socially. The campaign seeks to add voice for the redemption of the majority of suffering Zimbabweans. We need the respect of human rights, media rights, citizen rights and political rights. Zimbabweans need to have Freedom of Expression. We need a new administration that is dipped in democratic leadership ethics, in order for this authoritarian Hitler-Goebbels style of dictatorship dangling its grinding axe in villages and urban streets of Zimbabwe to be stopped.<\/p>\n Following the recent political developments in Zimbabwe, GAPA is proud to publish Mbizo’s poetry.<\/p>\n Madame, when the sunrays spark through the rim of hills flanked by our poverty, scratching villages of peasants,<\/p>\n Madame, Toyi-toyi to Nyazvidzi streams and vomit your disease, your anger, vomit your dread and hatred laced heart into the water that your anger helps the river to laugh and reeds to dance,<\/p>\n Madame , i see you smashing kindergartens with your corruption tired, sanctions smitten, ambition gloved hardy, gritty like sand palms,<\/p>\n Madame, i see your anger ridden slogan descending over the cascading, smoky presidium rondavel leaving others to lick burnt scars,<\/p>\n Madame, i see you wielding your slogan like hammer chiseling mercilessly the flesh of the state,<\/p>\n Madame, your mouth is a bitter pot where honey will not drip, your words stink war like in Baghdad,<\/p>\n Madame, your loose verbal saliva laced with acid burnt the hopes of the villagers,<\/p>\n Madame, we lost our country in your foul cracked lips and our dreams in alleys of your seething anger,<\/p>\n Madame, your dance is a magnet to paparazzi and your vitriol is fodder to pen wielders,<\/p>\n Madame, sit down next to the streams, vomit your ambitions and your disease \u2013 hatred,<\/p>\n Madame, children and daughters await a better and a new song from you, Sons are tired of baboons alike laughing at your rants and careless vengeful, fistful slogans,<\/p>\n Madame, when the sunrays spark through the rims of hills flanked by our poverty, scratching villages of peasants, trot to the river and vomit your anger, when at night shadows will be your company during the day crocodiles will be your sentry.<\/p>\n Dedication to the First Lady of Zimbabwe after the\u00a0South African diplomatic gaffe<\/a>\u00a0in August 2017<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This month GAPA is especially proud to speak to Mbizo Chirasha – an acclaimed poet from Zimbabwe who focuses his work on human rights, and holds a secure place in the African arts scene. Mbizo is an\u00a0exiled Zimbabw\u00e9an performance poet,… Continue Reading
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\nMadame (satire)<\/h4>\n