Skietreker launches book, et al

About the book

Apartheid ek gaan jou Boks

“On this journey my intention was to be outspoken & frank about issues placed under the carpet, highlighting our differences & cultural standings, religion and beliefs but respecting & learning about the fences and walls we have built that have left no words spoken but only hate.

The purpose of writing in Afrikaans was me celebrating the love for the language and telling Africa that we need to know about what happened back then so that we may know how to move forward, teaching our children about our rich culture, love and humanity amongst mankind.

Yes a lot of lives were lost under the apartheid regime, bloodshed and people oppressed spiritually, mentally and physically but we should not hate the language as it is like any other language but most important we should promote the beauty of our tongues, and live life beyond race and color but celebrate the richness of where we are as a country today, coming from times of the struggle led by iconic heroes like Nelson Mandela who served 27 years in a selfless movement and all those who died before we could even spell the word freedom.

Therefore in 2007 after performing my 1^st Afrikaans poem at Mmabana year end concert, the response was so positive I found myself rhyming and gooing Afrikaans verses in-between bars and bass, sharing my experiences through words and breaking walls that kept me chained, bruised, abused and reduced by sentences and ways that diminish and demolish what God has created.

In some pieces I say it like it is, sometimes going a bit deep and pasting humor on top of bread to make a salad without offending or defending the word color, in short the book was written by a traveler carrying a book & a pencil, so whenever life throws bricks, he builds a house, and the message that the author is trying to convey is for people to spread unity and not hate or discrimination but peace so that we can breathe and shout One World One God One Love…”

About author

Skietreker is a poet, author, performer born Reitumetse Richard Segopolo Seape from Thabanchu in the Free State. He writes his metaphors and similes in English, Setswana, Sesotho and Afrikaans, penning about subjects relating to racism, discrimination, abuse, poverty, aids, spirituality, love and social ills affecting the youth. He has performed on stages like Macufe annual festival (2005), he is also a former drama member of  Pitseng tse kgolo productions (2007), also In 2007 his poem titled “Spiritual Struggle” was published in an anthology called “A Prayer Away” in Durban,  he is also a Former poetry group member of infinite motions (2008), He has also appeared on  Frenzy (ETV),  Street Journal (SABC 1) and Lentswe poetry project (SABC 2). He was also the founder of Boston Poetry Movement (2008) and the brains behind the initiative of Velocity open mic sessions at iBurst in Durban. In 2009 he was awarded a certificate of appreciation by the Bloemfontein public library in recognition of valuable contribution to literature in the Free Sate. He published his first collection of poems titled Apartheid ek gaan jou boks in 2007 and in 2012 he received assistance from the department of sports, arts , culture and recreation to republish his power packed Apartheid ek gaan jou boks volume 2. He was also a volunteer for the SA Literary Awards 2012, and he also performed & rendered a creative writing, poetry workshop for Legae primary school at Africa century international African writers conference and shared a stage with Tinah Mnumzana, Lesego Motsepe and Charmaine Mrwebi.

About Richie Colin

Richie Colin is a composer, producer, songwriter born Reitumetse Richard Segopolo Seape from Thabanchu in the FreeState. He started producing music in 2007 using Fruityloops studio, Ejay & Magix Studio. Later in 2009 he developed love for music and enrolled at Mmabana Cultural Centre for piano lessons to better understand scales and chord progression, he then fused keys & bass to find the soul in his music. In 2011 he released his EP titled SuperGod comprised of 4 tracks, he defines his sound as soul-house, elements of the heart carrying a note of healing and a bit of acid.

About the Launch

After careful consideration it was decided to align the launch with charity, it means that all the people present on the day including the performers will pay R20 at the door and all the proceeds will go to charity.

The proceeds will be used to buy jerseys and school socks for one / two of the primary schools inThabanchu since winter is approaching.

Theme:     Yes I Can

Time:        14h00

Venue:       Mmabana Cultural Centre

Date:          20 April

Entrance: R20

“Skietreker & Richie Colin Live in Concert”

Skietreker will also be releasing a single called “Like water Like Metsi” ,

Richie Colin will also be releasing a single called

“The Young & the Blessed, The Beautiful The Rich One’s”.

CHANNELLING ONE'S THOUGHTS ONTO PAPER

Revised and Updated edition (2013)

Originally published in 2005, Charmaine Kolwane’s study was a run-away success across the board in literary circles.

Now, the author has updated this work, incorporating new essays on recent works like Tebogo and the Haka (2008) Tebogo and the epithalamion (2009), and Tebogo and the pantophagist (2010).

Also included is a new (2013) illuminating interview with the protagonist. This revised edition is a must-read!

To get this new edition, contact Charmaine at 071 5573231

TSEBA O LEETONG (KNOW YOU ARE ON A JOURNEY)

By Angelina De Wee

- Motivational - 

Skietreker on the late Marobele

RIP Gloria Marobele

The moon sleeps and pushes the wind

To change the direction of the sun

The son is me

The daughter is Gloria

The conversation the interview

The review

God let me rhyme & change this view

She wrote for me

Gloria rest in Peace

This one is for you

Father I want to pray & praise you

But what I’m feeling right now

Come and touch me

This moment is not glorious

I’ve loved and lost too many souls

I don’t feel Glorified or Blessed

I’ve lost my sister I’m hurt

And that’s Obvious not Glorious

When I think about Free State News

With words “Ke ya phamisa”

Even when my eyes are closed I still see you

I see you for your spirit flows and touches those who shall speak of you

Sing and write a song in News Rooms

Spiritual Corners Columns and Headlines

In Every moment every minute and every second

Let us remember

Gloria for being Glorious & Glorified

Let us close our eyes and pray

For father we remain Horrified

With such news God have mercy

She’s gone & we are still Terrified

I’m Broken from the 3 corners of 1 point

I fall and break & melt

Its time to write pray & speak the truth

Not even God can catch me …

On my way to Heaven

I sleep hoping to wake up

I dream open my eyes & die.

This verse is dedicated to the loving memory of Gloria Marobele.

Luv Skietreker

* Skietreker's new book of poetry - written in Afrikaans - has now been published

CHARMAINE KOLWANE latest

Riveting poems by Charmaine Kolwane

“Charmaine Kolwane is the written voice of sanity. Her poetry is fearlessly
simple, not attempting to dress up grand words and force them to fit;
she has the genius of employing simplicity into a powerful experience
that results in heightened human experience. Her credibility as a poet
lies in the excitement we feel when she enters our psyche with her
words. She effortlessly touches on the shared human experience of
living, loving, hurting and hoping and speaks beyond stereotypes in a
language that makes us hungry for more. My sincere best wishes go to
her in this anthology...” - Andy Galloway

Through the Tunnel (Poetry) By Hector Kunene

Review by Pule Lechesa
Hector Kunene has rightly been praised by many for his promising work, Through the Tunnel. However I am yet to read even one critical piece or essay on the book, which is a great disservice to the author. As a new author he deserves his work to be evaluated in a critical manner, not just praised in ignorant fashion.

We have always pointed out that no writer, no matter how good, is immune from criticism. Thomas Hardy for example is one of the greatest writers the world has ever seen with his world class novels; yet even when he was at the height of his powers and he published Jude the Obscure the critics in his enlightened society tore the work apart – it was a real ‘onslaught of vituperative criticism’ as Hardy himself described it whilst alive

It is tragic indeed that basically so many people at grassroots level hardly read in our (black African) society, no matter how educated they are; hence we have situations where works full of many mistakes are praised, whilst more sophisticated readers, and especially the scholars and critics, can identify these mistakes very easily. Through the Tunnel is full of such mistakes

Take page 38 for example (containing the poem ‘I will portray’). The mistakes on this page are quite horrific; or how else do we describe a situation where almost TEN spelling mistakes appear on just one page? Of course the most painful error here is the misspelling of ‘portray’ many times on this page; but there are others, like ‘highlights’ instead of ‘highlight’

In case some readers out there start thinking that this is a random mistake, the unfortunate fact is that the legions of mistakes in the book start even before the book formally begins! It is irritating enough that the poet engages in extreme self-praise even on the blurb and the error-strewn ‘Hector Kunene biography’. Indeed the page (page 3) is very embarrassing with so many illogical and syntactical mistakes.

Sentences such as ‘The poem Bloody corpuscles is about alarming the use of the specific words when talking especially to the young ones’ and ‘His poems are mainly in English but he throws in Zulu poems...which are normally shared at occasionally’ are meaningless and will make the purists of the English language flinch with shock.

With logic also often thin on the ground, the perceptive reader is left perplexed on a regular basis as he or she reads this book. A poem like ‘Cheating Standard’ might well have a message, but one suspects that only the poet knows what it is. At the very end of the poem the poet tries to explain what it is all about, but we are still none the wiser, as we are confronted with another confusing, quite meaningless sentence – ‘This friend ended up having a baby with this guy whilst married to his wife few months after this poem was inspired’ (page 23)

What the hell is this? we wonder. Is ‘this friend’ male or female? Surely a male can not have a baby, so we assume it is a woman; but can a woman be married ‘to his wife’ as the rest of the sentence ‘explains’? And how can all this (the betrayal) have happened months AFTER the poem was inspired? Doesn’t the poet mean that his poem was inspired after this betrayal? No matter how you look at it, there is no coherence here.

Indeed it is a common mistake with people who use languages like English formally whilst writing, to want to flaunt their knowledge, and hence they often go off in a tangent, and end up in a confused muddle. Additionally there are problems with similar sounding words which often lead some writers to add to their mistakes.

Alas, such is the case in Through the Tunnel too. There is no point in pointing out dozens of such mistakes in this book, but two shall suffice here. On page 17 the poet wants to write ‘at first sight it was’ but ends up writing ‘site’; again on page 37,(line 6) he confuses ‘live’ with ‘leave’ and ends up writing ‘you live me in a state...’

The desire for the poet to display his ‘flair for words’ often ends in confusion and embarrassment, as we have pointed out. The ‘big words’ hardly go hand in hand with common sense or real poetry. In the poem ‘Paradigm in paradise’ we can only assume that the poet, whilst showing the world that he knows such a ‘big’ word, is amusing himself, but not the intelligent reader. Lines such as ‘perpetual lifestyle sarcastic to the ancestors who fought’ are in no way poetry.

That the poet is confident, very confident, is clear enough from the book; but the problem is when this confidence strays into the arena of arrogance which should not be tolerated. Indeed in more enlightened societies a poem like ‘Gays and games’ (page 32) would land the poet in serious trouble from countless quarters!

One can only shake one's head sadly at this juncture, realising that the hoary statement ‘if you want to hide something from a black man put it in a book’ might well be true. Or how do we explain a poem like ‘Gays and games’ in this modern world? The disdain and arrogance of the poet shines through in lines like ’Gays and games or lesbians and less beings’? Again the poet makes a mistake here, as he clearly wants to write ‘lesser beings’ – but the effect is still the same; a very dangerous, insensitive poem.

Time and again, it has been shown that the best poets, whilst writing in English as a mother tongue, or as a ‘foreign language’ focus on a coherent message, with brilliant imagery, at least. Good poetry is not about big words or trying to sound clever – that is why even in the Free State the likes of Lebohang Thaisi will continue to be respected for their brilliant simplicity and lyricism in their published poetry. One can only hope that Mr Hector Kunene will try to focus less on ‘sounding bombastic and clever’, and more on writing moving poetry that will linger in the mind.

Paul Lothane on how FS Black Writing fared in 2012…

By Paul Lothane

The year, 2012 is petering to an end; and like I did at the end of last year (and mid this year) I would like to focus a bit on some of the major literary trends in the Free State again. Not that I am filled with euphoria. Why? Because it seems since my last “mid-term report” nothing much has happened in the Province. But don’t let me jump the gun.

Let me start by reproducing some comments – still very important and apt – which I wrote this time last year:

“How many times do we have to say it that writers must ensure that their books are read by the right people, respected reviewers critics, even scholars if possible? In this way they (writers) are assured of some sort of immortality with their books being analysed, talked about, reviewed. As history has shown, those who do not go through this process are either wasting their time, writing only for themselves, or will never really be acknowledged as writers…

Of course the year 2012 started very well in respect of writing. Again I wrote (mid this year) :

Hence Pule Lechesa must be commended for the publication of Essays on Free State Black literature early this year. Suffice it to say that the work is world class.

Early in the year Omoseye Bolaji also published the 8th in the Tebogo series, Tebogo and the bacchae. As one would expect, countless excellent reviews and critiques of the book have appeared in many parts of the world already.

The book, Free State of mind has also been a critical success. The poetic work is the brainchild of Nthabiseng JahRose Jafta, Rita Chihawa and Lebo Leisa. It is a great achievement that the book has attracted positive reviews from literary figures like Bolaji, Hector Kunene, Mathene Mahanke, Napo Masheane, Sabata Mpho Mokae, Mpikeleni Duma, etc

George Rampai did very well to publish the novel, From where I stand. I have seen the book, and on a personal note it would be my choice for book of the year. .. (The book did win in this category at the Mbali Awards)...

Teboho Masakala also did well again to publish another work of fiction, The fall of Marcus Desmond - apparently another grim work ending in a reprehensible death.

Since then, what has happened? Certainly nothing much as regards book publication, though at least there was another study on O Bolaji published titled Omoseye Bolaji: a voyage around his literary work. Authored by Ishmael Mzwandile Soqaga. Even if I did not read the book it has been a great success obviously. But happily enough I have read the work and I largely agree with the reviewers/critics who are in consensus that it is a fine book indeed.

I do not want to be churlish, so let me mention Ukukhanya - by Mayibongwe Mpanda. We may quote from the major review of the work (By Kgang Motheane) : “We must remember that not all books are published for literary acclamation or purposes. The writer just has something to say - this includes books with spiritual or motivational purpose. Ukukhanya is such a work. The author is Mayibongwe Mpanda and this book strives to improve us spiritually... Ukukhanya (light) contains a variety and diverse kinds of poems and there are some real questions posed prompting the reader to logic thinking. There are poems covering various topics like faith, social affairs, family affairs, economic affairs, political affairs etc… Poems here include humbleness, youth, talent, ubuntu, reconciliation, Holy spirit, women’s Day, South Africa, rainbow nation, water of life, wisdom, bread of life, no to crime, complacency; among others.”

Last time around I lamented in my “mid-term report” that that there were few impressive essays or literary reviews pertaining to the Province in 2012. In this sphere there is much better news, thanks to the magnificent wordfest that took place during Macufe. Mr Pule Lechesa’s speech at the occasion (now available in English on the internet under the title:  ‘Literature in mother tongue, tantalising translations, ebb and flow of pertinent literature, et al…’) is easily one of the highlights of the year for those who appreciate pure literature. Mr Qoopane’s speech on fusing fiction and journalism was impressive too; but to be honest, it fades into relative insignificance when compared with Lechesa’s delivery.

 

On a rather unfortunate note, I find myself compelled to reproduce another paragraph I wrote at the end of last year here:

“The most disappointing aspect of 2011 was the failure of the much advertised book on Flaxman Qoopane, supposed to be written by Hector Kunene, to come out. Thus far, no apology or explanation has been offered to the literary world to explain such a farce and embarrassment. Writers, even those from F.S must remember that the literary world is a very serious, responsible one where reputations can be made and tarnished quite easily. There are many scrupulous and focused people out there who frown on what the world would perceive as dishonesty or a lack of purpose…”

So: is this book ever coming out? Is the whole thing a charade? It seems the early promise of Mr Kunene might be fading fast as regards real genuine contributions to literature.

The Mbali Literary Awards was a well-produced literary occasion which recognized the good work of writers, especially those contributing in a concrete manner to the world of letters, so to speak. Seeing a man of over 70 (Ntate Motheane) being honoured really warmed the heart.  I wish such awards could take place at least twice yearly…the sad truth is that too few talented writers are still being produced at grass roots level.

To end on a positive note, we can say: well, another new year is just around the corner…