Launch of Jamala Safari’s The Great Agony and Pure Laughter of the Gods at The Book Lounge

Jamala will be in conversation with Lauren Beukes, author of the award-winning Zoo City, on Thursday 2 August at 5:30 for 6:00 PM.

See you there!

Jamala Safari at the 2012 Franschhoek Literary Festival

What a fabulous time I had at the 2012 Franschh

oek Literary Festival! Thanks for the FLF team for the invitation. My gratitude to the wonderful and enthusiastic audience, you listened carefully and passionately, and interacted with me with great interest– much love. I enjoyed the company of Elaine Proctor (Rhumba) with whom I shared the discussion table as we were interviewed by Meg Vandermerwe (This Place I Call Home).

The Great Agony and Pure Laughter of the Gods

Dear readers, I would like to introduce you to my debut novel " The Great Agony and Pure Laughter of the Gods" coming out in July 2012. The novel is being published by Umuzi, a South African branch of Random House Struik. This is story will stay with you!

Risto Mahuno’s agony is what happens to his sweetheart Néné, to his cousin, and to himself. In the east of the Congo, where the border with Rwanda is also the border between life and death, the boys are abducted and forced to become soldiers, the girls raped. Far too much happens for 15-year-old children. Néné is claimed by the warlord, Risto’s cousin killed, and Risto, his eyes already dead, is beaten to the brink. His fate flings him south, on a fraught journey by foot or whatever ride he can get, to Mozambique, where he arrives with even less of himself left. And yet the gods are laughing, for Risto’s journey back holds promise of love, peace and family. Risto’s story is based on real experiences.

Somewhere in Somalia

Somewhere in Somalia
A child stretches on the ground
It is not a sandy beach of Copacabana
But a hot, burning soil
Heated by the rage of a blazing Sun

I count 24 rib bones
Then almost 206 bones of his whole body
There is no muscle
I can’t find veins too
They are glued to his dried bones

Aside a vulture watches
In vain the body tries to move
The body tries to cry
There is no voice
Because there is no breath

© Jamala Safari, 26 July 2011

poem: Alive

Alive

So many times you bury me
in the coffin of your cynical mind
your poisonous tongue burns
my fragile bones in stigma of its slanders

Even though each dawn I kiss the golden
lips of unborn day, rays twinkling
on the mountain top above breathing seas
i awake in the grief of aching bones
but still I am alive –still I breathe

I breakfast my bitter pills
spiced in syringe injections
to hold the little life I share with
virus colonies –HIV-AIDS


still, you bury me with words of your mouth
but if only you would listen to my testimony
and walk on my side with open eyes
your cursing words would turn into blessing wishes

I inherited the sword of death in my flesh
orphaned in human wars of desire and love
though I carry the shadow of death within me
i am still on in the heroic marathon of life

I live in slogans and chants of men and women
with no stigma over HIV and AIDS
i am the twilight of hope in nocturnal eclipse
the comrade of spiritual and scientific battle
i am the resurrected miracle of human faith

Jamala at the Empty Tin Can Reading season 2

at the Empty Tin Can 2 reading:

Enjoy it!


Portrait of African wisdom


I seat down caressing
The skin of the universe
It heart beats and blinks
Through the canvas portrait
Of a Surma old man
It is a naked soul of a pure life

The old man’s face rekindles
The emotional birth of time
Millions wrinkles on his face in
Millions paths to hidden treasure
Earthed in journeys crossed
And battles fought and won

I try to deeply touch each line
Feel each tear of his eyes
Touch each smile of his face
It is a flesh of a soulful quest
Buried in sight of crossed centuries
That thrills the pace of my blood

It is a wheeze of an African wisdom
That yells on each facial hump
That roars in each façade I touch
A soothing breathe of savannah wind
Shaking coconut trees on African shores
That transcend in blinks of the old man’s eye

The man is a colour of history
With a skin of fermented years
Layer of ripple marks of Kingdoms
And Africa breathes in his nostrils and
Africa sings and speaks through his mouth
It is a portrait of African wisdom
That stands like a baobab in a savannah

© Jamala 2009

The traveler’s memory

The traveler’s memory

Tell me tortoise-like travelers
Where do you hide your heartily eyes
When you crisscross lands and shores
Of spicy tales and wondrous melodies

Do you seat on the riverside
Inhaling the breath of whispering
Rivers and lakes of showery tales
Depicted by the ancient ones

Or do you roam like a lost buck
In green pastures grazing
and swallowing each story
Its flesh and bone as purely offered

When you kneel beside the grinding maize stone
Pounded like maize with the chronicle of the ancestors
Holding dearly each words of their mouth and
Keeping them in the secret corner of your heart

Do you see in their story their pure heart
Untainted, unstained, pure like their water
Coming out of magical rocks and stones
And like snaking pathways in green fields

At the harvest celebration feast
When spirits are undressed
Naked, revealed to your eyes
save and cherish each moment dearly

Tell me hibernator travelers
Looking for sunrays in thatched villages
Where do you hide the wisdom of
these mysterious African roads

In clamorous songs of shepherds
In ritualistic melodies of these young spirits
aspirant to manhood and womanhood within them
echo the voice of their gods and goddesses

do you hold each bead of each story and song
in your palm to make a string of souvenirs
a necklace of undying moment and treasure
then keep it in your heart where no thief can reach

listen each day to the voice of your heart
when it rewinds each footstep of your journeys
at the rendezvous of souls because each bead
of story and song carries the spirit of the ancestors

... think again when you buy these electronic devices...

During fifteen years of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo more than 6 million people have lost their lives, rape has been used systematically as a weapon of war, thousands of youths have forcibly joined rebel and war lords’ armies, natural resources have been and continue to be plundered by TNCs and foreign governments, over 1 million people are internally displaced and thousands have become refugees in the neighboring and farer countries.

Coltan, a precious mineral found only in the East Part of Congo is one of the root causes of the endless war in Kivu;(East OF Congo) It is a vital ingredient for mobile phones, laptops, pagers and other electronic devices.

So think again when you buy these electronic devices; where is the money going? Why these companies involved in the production of these electronic devices can not take it legally in the Congo and allow the country and its people to prosper peacefully?

Message du 6 Septembre à Baxter Theatre, Cape Town

Baxter Theatre, Cape Town, 6 Septembre: Evénement organisé par la Diaspora Congolaise, Cape Town

Message de Jamala Safari suivi du poème Un silence torturant

Message

Je me tiens ici aujourd’hui, pas pour vous raconter l’histoire douloureuse de notre cher pays ; l’histoire qui est gravée dans nos mémoires comme des empreintes Hontatots sur des grottes de Kalahari et qui coule dans nos veines comme le Tanganyika dans les bains de rift valley mais je me tiens ici pour vous demander juste une seule question, que faites-vous ou bien qu’avez-vous déjà fait pour stopper la peine que cette même histoire contenue à propager sur le cœur de notre peuple ?

On est en 2009, 13 ans de guerre et que quelqu’un du Kivu dira sans contradiction 15 ans de guerre. Mains combien de fois l’image de la R D Congo a déjà fait le titre majeur des journaux internationaux ?

Plus de 6 millions de morts, d’innombrables cas des violences sexuelles inhumaines et des milliers d’enfants soldats, une crise humanitaire sans précédente comparable a la deuxième guerre mondiale ; mais le Monde entier est muet et aveugle. La crise du Darfour attire plus l’attention que les massacres au Congo ; le génocide du Rwanda est plus pleuré que les génocides du Congo ; bien sur que toute vie humaine est sacrée et chère, mais quelle est la valeur de la vie d’un Congolais ?

C’est à nous chers frères et sœurs, compatriotes Congolais de pouvoir élever nos voix.
La guerre est là et elle continue à tué nos frères et sœurs, et chose grave c’est une l’arme étrangère munie de la baïonnette qui meurtrie notre peuple. Au kivu, on pleure, en Ituri on pleure ; nous restons l’espoir de notre peuple.

Je remercie la Diaspora Congolaise pour cette merveilleuse initiative, elle vient bien sur de suivre d’autres événements sur la RD Congo qui viennent de se terminer. J’étais l’initiateur et coordonnateur d’un événement intitule “one day to remember the forgotten war of Congo in the context of the Great Lakes region”.Qui s’était tenue a Herzlia High School, et je remercie tous les Congolais qui s’étaient donné le courage d’assister et de participer. Il y eu aussi la projection du Film documentaire « the greatest silence » que Maurice Mbikayi et les gens De l’organisation DRCSA ont organise ici à Cape Town. Et d’autres que je ne cite pas.

Nous avons maintenant des espaces sociales (Twitter, facebook,Netlog,…) sur internet sur lesquelles nous pouvons exprimer nos idées et passer les messages, utilisons-les pour véhiculer les messages de notre pays.

Nous ne resterons pas juste dans des polémiques musicales insensées, choses qui n’avancent pas notre musique mais plutôt la tuent.

Réveillons-nous et soyons plus patriotes qu’avant en se levant bravement pour revendiquer notre espace héroïque dans l’histoire Africaine.

© Jamala Safari 2009

Un silence torturant (Torturing silence: to the 6 million dead in the DR Congo!)


Ecoutez dans ce silence
Le son innocent de souvenir
Au calvaire d’esprit et de Cœur
Sur des pistes sans pitié, inoubliables

Ce silence témoin d’une baïonnette ravageuse
Au silence muet, pénétrant doucement
Ces corps candides, fils et fille,
Père et mère, l’un après l’autre

Ce silence torturant, ce silence mutilant
Me conduisant à ces fosses communes
Ces vallées-tombes au silence dévorant
Des cimetières aux croix innombrables

Fils et fille, père et mère, l’un après l’autre
L’un sur son cou, l’autre sur son ventre
Couchant dans les fosses communes
Ce silence qui me tue,
ce silence de ces 6 millions des Congolais tués

© Jamala Safari 2008

“One Day to Remember…The Forgotten War of the DR Congo in the Context of the Great Lakes Region”

PRESS RELEASE

Asylum Seekers, Refugees and South African Youths Gather in Cape Town
To Remember the War in the DR Congo

“One Day to Remember…The Forgotten W ar of the DR Congo in the Context of the Great Lakes Region” is the title of an raising event organized by Unity for Tertiary Refugee Students (UTRS), NPO in waiting, in cooperation with the United Africa Society (UAS) of Herzlia High School and the Congolese Diaspora in Cape Town, held on 23rd August 2009 from 9:30 to 4:30 at Herzlia High School in Cape Town. The main objective of this event that took place on the International Day for the Commemoration of the Abolition of Slavery, was to remind the world about a modern day humanitarian crisis, the story of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the root causes of the ongoing conflict through a full day awakening which presented it from a regional perspective.

The Great Lakes Region has witnessed over the past decades a series of conflicts which have unfolded in Burundi, DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda oftentimes with a domino effect. During fifteen years of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo more than 6 million people have lost their lives, rape has been used systematically as a weapon of war, thousands of youths have forcibly joined rebel and war lords’ armies, natural resources have been and continue to be plundered by TNCs and foreign governments, the education and health care systems have collapsed, over 1 million people are internally displaced and thousands have become refugees in the neighboring and farer countries, including the Republic of South Africa. In spite of this, the ongoing conflict of the story of the DR Congo hardly ever makes it to the media. The crisis is rendered silent and is forgotten by the world.

The event was particularly wanted by the South African Holocaust Foundation and the Congolese community of Cape Town. Several experts contributed to a panel discussion, including Kathryn Sturman Head of the Governance of Africa’s Resources Programme at the of the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA), Charles Obol, Chief Operating Officer at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, Marian Matshikiza, Great Lakes Project Leader at the Institute for the Healing of Memories and Tom Butcher, the author of the book Blood River, A Journey Through Africa’s Broken Heart. Refugees and asylum seekers from the Great Lakes shared their personal stories of living in war, persecution, flight and how the became asylum seekers and sought refuge in South Africa. All participants were invited thereafter to share traditional African food from the Great Lakes region and enjoy the performances of refugee artists from the Great Lakes who showcased the cultures of their home countries through poetry, dance, drama, song, instrumental music and visual arts.

This event brought was attended by around 120 people, including refugee and asylum seekers from all over Africa, leaders of the Congolese community and Congolese associations in South Africa, secondary and tertiary South African and refugee students, representatives from NGOs, civil society organizations and refugee service providers in the Western Cape.

Contact:

Jamala Safari,
Event Coordinator

“One day to remember the forgotten war of the DR Congo: eye on the African Great Lakes Region”

“One day to remember the forgotten war of the DR Congo: eye on the African Great Lakes Region”


Almost 2 decades of war in the African Great Lakes Region; almost 15 years of war in the DR Congo with more than 6 millions have died but it seems like memory has forgotten the crisis while the silence of the entire world keeps torturing the innocent victims, people of the region.


On the 23rd August 2009 at Herzlia High School, Cape Town; students from various African countries ensemble within the Unity for Tertiary Refugee Students ( UTRS) together with the African United Society(Herzlia High), have decided to remind the world about the story of the DR Congo through a awareness event.
The event is organized in collaboration with the Cape Town Holocaust center and the Congolese community of Cape Town.
The event starts from 9h30 to 16h 30.

4 main activities on the agenda:

1. Renown national and international speakers:
   

• Tim Butcher: Daily telegraph correspondent and author of the famous book “Blood river: a journey though African broken heart”
  
• Miriam Matshikiza: Great Lakes Desk Officer of the institute for Justice and reconciliation, Cape Town
• Kathryn Sturman: From the South African Institute for International Affairs
  Center for healing of memory:
  

1. Personal stories from people of the African Great Lakes Region
   Free food and refreshment from the African Great Lakes Region
   Cultural showcase
   
2. Music and dance from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda
   Poetry and songs from different artists
   An acoustic jam session
   Painting exposition
   
   
   The event is open to everyone.
   Transport provided:
   Pick up point: 8H-9H30, Cape Town library (Opposite to the parade)
   Drop off point: 16H30-17H30, Cape Town library.
   
   
   Contact: 076 81 37 421

Smile of time

Smile of time

The day the sun will not shine for your house
Climb up to the peak of the mountain
Clear up the clouds
Find the sun in its cave
That day, you will smile
You’ll eat the fruit of your courage

Who is Jamala Safari

Jamala Safari is a Cape Town based poet. He was born and grew up in the Eastern part of the DR Congo. He holds a degree in Biotechnology from the University of the Western Cape. He has published one poetry anthology “Tam Tam sings”, 2008. His debut novel “the Great Agony and Pure Laughter of the Gods” has been shortlisted for the Citizen Book prize 2011. The novel, which is being published by Umuzi, is due in July 2012. Former radio presenter, he is fairly known through the Western Cape artistic arena. He has been on different stages in the Western Cape and part of many literature festivals; among them: The Franschhoek Literature Festival, Ithuba Art Festival, Badilisha Exchange poetry, Root Festival, etc. Jamala Safari was 1st prize winner of the 2010 Franschhoek Literary Festival poetry competition "Voices from our valley", (English) Adult Category. His work has been featured at many artistic exhibitions and used for various campaigns. Among them, Jamala’s poem “alive” which reflects on issues around stigmatization of HIV AIDS patients was used in film documentary “ A Silent Genocide” by Tantra-Zawadi, an American filmmaker as well as for HIV AIDS anti-stigmatization campaign on International AIDS Memorial in Canada in 2010. Jamala was a guest at the 2012 Franschhoek Literary Festival where he appeared together with Elaine Proctor and Meg Vandermerwe. He lives and works in Cape Town.

jamala safari: Jamala in a mosaic of poetry,dance,music and food

http://utrsafrica.org/

Jamala in a mosaic of poetry,dance,music and food

The UTRS, Unity for Tertiary Refugee Students held a cultural event on Saturday 11th July from 6 pm to 11:00 pm at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), Bellville, Cape Town, in the framework of an international conference on “Transnational Capitalism, Identity and Immigration”. Refugee and asylum seeker students from tertiary and secondary institutions presented the culture of their home countries through poetry, music and visual arts.
What a spectacular evening of dance, poetry, music s and food!
As the event coordinator, I was overwhelmed by joy by a surprising spectacular performance of refugee students. From the smooth spiritual Rwandan dance, the talking Burundian Tam-Tam, the Ethiopian and Eritrean rocking dance to the enchanting Congolese belly dance and the Ugandan hip and thigh waving moves, the night swung to the rhythm of these bewitching body moves.
Add to it the striking poetry performance of Clement (Rwanda) Tutu Joseph (DRC) and my humble performance, (poems extracted from my first collection: “Tam-Tam sings” and some new poems), and the reading of Fred (Uganda, reading of the book” We came for Mandela”) and the blessing singing of Sarah (DRC) and Angelique (Burundi) made the night enjoyable. Above all, the traditional food from different African countries made the whole event spectacular.
I am still amazed and dazzled by the cultural event.

jamala safari: A NIGHT OF WORDS, ART, MUSIC AND FILM

http://www.aquarium.co.za/press_release/default.php

A NIGHT OF WORDS, ART, MUSIC AND FILM

TWO OCEANS AQUARIUM TO HOST “DEEP” - A NIGHT OF WORDS, ART, MUSIC AND FILM
On Thursday 30 July 2009 the Two Oceans Aquarium, in collaboration with the UCT Writers Series, will present DEEP: A Night of Creative Currents featuring Sharks, Poets and other Endangered Species. The event is in support of the Aquarium’s Adopt-a-School Programme.
Tickets cost R40.00 and include entrance to the Two Oceans Aquarium and a free glass of wine on arrival. Fairview will present cheese and wine and a cash bar will be available. Art, and books from the Book Lounge, will be on sale. Doors open at 18h30 with performances starting at 19h00.
*
Writers and poets have been inspired to speak and write in celebration and defense of the oceans. In today's rushed world there are fewer and fewer places available for contemplation and creativity, especially in cities. Just as our creative spaces and practitioners are under threat, so too are our oceans and their creatures. DEEP is an opportunity to celebrate the oceans and some of South Africa’s most creative artists.
Central to DEEP is the launch of Hyphen, a debut collection of poems by Tania van Schalkwyk, which is published by the UCT Writers Series. Included in this collection are a number of poems inspired by the sea including Siren Song, Abyss, Lionfish and Water. Lindsey Collen, author of The Rape of Sita, Mutiny and Boy, and twice winner of the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize, Africa, said, “Tania van Schalkwyk’s poems are warm, sensuous memories that often shock and surprise at the same time … They are not just on inner space, but are poems of place, as they move from islands to the veld, from cities to the desert”. No stranger to the Aquarium, having assisted with the launch of Shoreline Café, van Schalkwyk also curated DEEP in collaboration with Michelle Matthews of Electric Book Works.
The launch of Hyphen will be supported by a collection of three minute sea-inspired flash readings and performances by select poets and writers, including Gus Ferguson, Justin Fox, Sarah Lotz, Helen Moffett, Malika Lueen Ndlovu, Henrietta Rose-Innes and a collaborative piece by Toni Stuart, Michael Mwila Mambwe & James Jamala Safari. The MC for the evening is the inimitable Suzy Bell; writer, columnist and pop culture aficionado.
Ferguson has had seven collections of poems and two books of cartoons published; Fox is deputy editor and senior photographer at Getaway magazine; Lotz is a scriptwriter-cum-krimi author with an insatiable greed for the macabre; Moffett has recently published her first collection of poems; Ndlovu is dedicated to creating indigenous multi-media works in line with her personal motto " healing through creativity"; Rose-Innes won the Caine Prize for African Writing in 2008; Stuart works with young people, using poetry as a means of self-expression; DRC born Mambwe’s has performed on various stages from the Cape Town Book Fair to the Africa Centre's Badilisha Poetry Exchange and Jamala Safari’s earliest artistic exposure came in the form of theatre at a young age in Bukavu, South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
These well-known word-artists have a wealth of performance experience and publications behind their names and will give voice to the ocean’s deepest secrets.
Word art by Gabeba Baderoon, Gus Ferguson, Tania van Schalkwyk and others in The Vinyl Collection, will come to life against the backdrop of smaller exhibits in the Aquarium. Baderoon is the author of three collections of poetry and was the recipient of the DaimlerChrysler Award for South African Poetry in 2005.
The evening will also feature seven short films including three from the City Breath Project – Waitless, The Electrician and Omdat ek die stadsrumoer (Because I chose the city noise). The writer of the latter film was blinded at age four, but at sixty-nine, still has vivid memories of visiting an aquarium. A film, alpha, by Kai Lossgott, curator of the City Breath Project, will also be shown. City Breath is an urban oral history video project which seeks to interrogate the official understandings of South African cities conveyed in television, film and other mass media.
Other film pieces include Umbilical Cord (with or without) by disability rights activist Shelley Barry and Sea Orchestra and The Tale of How by the Blackheart Gang. Barry’s films have been screened at major festivals and events around the world and The Tale of How has won numerous international awards, including “Best Independent Film” at the Bradford Animation Festival in London in 2006.
Artists Rebecca Townsend and Colwyn Thomas will show their work which will be available for purchase. Townsend works predominantly with glass and creates sculptural glass vessels that reveal the magic of the ordinary things we live with every day.
“Kelp” by Thomas is a 12-part light-box installation which, according to Thomas, “is a rumination on some of the changes that take place when we grow up.”. Thomas is influenced by traditional and modern Japanese art and his works often show both humans and fish or animals in dreamscapes animated by trailing clouds, plants or jellyfish tendrils.
Local band Benguela will take to the stage against the spectacular backdrop of the I&J Predator Exhibit. The trio, including Ross Campbell, Alex Bozas and Brydon Bolton, has played at many of the festivals around South Africa. According to James Garner, “Benguela's sound is an atmospheric, uncompromisingly adventurous fusion of constantly shifting elements..."The name 'Benguela' is taken from the cold current running up the West Coast of southern Africa and reflects both the flowing nature of the music as well as being geographically representative of where the band came together and the climate in which they live.
Proceeds from DEEP will go towards the Aquarium’s Adopt-a-School Programme. This Programme provides the opportunity for children from previously disadvantaged schools to visit the Aquarium and to discover the wonders and beauty of the ocean and its inhabitants. Such an opportunity can be a life-changing experience for these children and instill a deep and long-lasting appreciation for the oceans.
Tickets cost R40.00 and include entrance to the Two Oceans Aquarium and a free glass of wine on arrival. Fairview will present cheese and wine and a cash bar will be available. Art, and books from the Book Lounge, will be on sale. Doors open at 18h30 with performances starting at 19h00. For more information and images please contact:
Helen LockhartCommunications & Sustainability ManagerTw Oceans AquariumTel: 021-418-3823Email: helen.lockhart@aquarium.co.zaWebsite: http://www.aquarium.co.za/
Tania van SchalkwykTel: 071-291-3337Email: tvs@uskonet.com
Michelle MatthewsElectric BookWorksTel: 082 921 1101Email: michelle@michellematthews.co.zaWebsite: http://www.electricbookworks.com/

jamalasafari: Poem: Ramène-moi dans tes seins

jamalasafari: Poem: Ramène-moi dans tes seins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KFvOY6zXSg

jamalasafari: Jamala live, UWC, Cape Town 2008

http://www.zoopy.com/audio/wqa/michael-mwila-mambwe
http://www.africacentre.net/badilisha/performers/jamala-safari/
http://utrsafrica.org/student-voices/james-jamala-safari/

jamalasafari: Jamala live, UWC, Cape Town 2008

http://jamalasafari.blogspot.com/2009/06/smile-of-time.html