Bandile Magibili
Mohalenyane Phakela
LOCAL poets will be up against their African counterparts for the chance to win an all-expenses paid trip to England at the upcoming seventh edition of the Recite Your Own Poetry competition in South Africa.
The contest is open to poets aged from 16 to 40.
The competition is the brainchild of renowned South African poet, Bandile Magibili through his entertainment company, Alphabetic Art.
Poets can enter the competition by submitting their details to Magibili on the Facebook page 2 B BLACK or WhatsApp number +27 78 167 0719.
The deadline for submissions is 30 July 2017.
Poets from other African countries were invited to participate for the first time at last year’s competition but this is the first time Basotho will be taking part.
Last year’s winner, South African, Mofetsi “Stanza” Mmonki Ramathibe will be flying to Amsterdam in Holland.
Speaking to the Weekender this week, Magibili said the aim was to promote his Eastern Cape hometown province and link it with the rest of the world by creating a network of poets throughout the continent.
“The winner of this poetry contest will get an all-expenses paid trip to England for five days as we seek to create an international platform and network for grassroots voices,” Magibili said.
“Eastern Cape has an identity as an unfortunate step-brother to other provinces as far as creativity is concerned. There are no meaningful platforms with national appeal, no adequate support for arts from the public or private sector and I believe this also happens in other African countries hence our reason for involving them in the project.”
He said the competition was meant to create networking opportunities among poets.
“This has very positive projected outcomes as one of the purpose is to link with Festival organisers across the United Kingdom for possible collaborative projects.
“It brings an ecstatic feeling and great sense of pride to know that in the midst of all the hopelessness there are still platforms like this one which are not only resurrecting a neglected art-form (poetry) but are also shifting the national and international focus and have them looking at poetry with keen interest,” he said.
