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.