Poets from Blantyre and Lilongwe on Monday met at the Blantyre Cultural Centre where they shrugged it off during a show dubbed Nkhonya ya Ndakatulo.
\nThe event was organised by a non-profit Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) known as Fertile Brains International, with the aim of raising funds in aid of Tikondane Women Social Enterprises in Blantyre.
\nWith poetry events pulling huge audiences of late, this one failed to do so\u2014perhaps because it was Chilembwe Day.
\nHowever, the organisers showed creativity at the show, which was more like a boxing duel where poets came on stage in sets.
\nUnlike in other poetry events, where poets, one by one, come to the stage and then offer their poems, the case was different this time.
\nFor instance, Sylvester Kalizang\u2019oma from Blantyre battled it out against Michael Benjala from Lilongwe.
\nThe two were invited to the stage by the hosts Mollen Nazombe and Kenneth Khondiwa, who, in this case, served as referees.
\nIt was a battle that saw Kalizang\u2019oma dish one poem and then Benjala drop his. It went on like that, while people cheered them on.
\nIt was a tussle that saw the \u2018Unkalindanji Moyo\u2019 star and the \u2018Zitsitsi za Yehova\u2019 creator exciting the audience.
\nThe other battle was between Yohane Pangani from Blantyre and Thomas Chigo from Lilongwe.
\n\u2018Achikabudula\u2019 creator Joseph Madzedze battled it out with Hudson Chamasowa.
\nBut, in this case, Chamasowa was vibrant throughout while Madzedze seemed to have run out of gas in some instances.
\nAlthough some of the poems from the poets have now started losing steam, the audience enjoyed them.
\nDespite that poetry is enjoying its fair share of appeal in the creative industry, poets have a long way to go if they are to continue enjoying support and this can be done by creating quality work and following the rules of poetry.
\nIn their poems, the poets tackled various issues and, in one of Madzedze\u2019s poems, he highlighted several issues that engulfed the country in 2017, including that of bloodsuckers, Area 18 residents drinking contaminated water and blackouts.
\nPoets Raphael Sitima and Samuel Joseph closed the chapter on the day.
\nThey, too, touched several issues.
\nThere was also a performance from The Mighty GYV.
\nFertile Brains International Administrator, Mathias Maguda, said they were happy with the way things went during the day.
\n\u201cIt was a good event; we actually are looking forward to doing more. Of course, being the first time, it was difficult but we have learnt lessons. We have more events lined up,\u201d Maguda said.
\nHe said, apart from raising funds to go towards women\u2019s project, they also want to help youths showcase their talents.
\nHe said they came up with the Nkhonya ya Ndakatulo because they wanted to move away from the usual poetry event setup.
\n\u201cThis was more like boxing where poets battled [against each other] and we are happy people enjoyed it. We would like to thank them for the support,\u201d he said.
\nOne of the people who patronised the event, Goodluck Mtambo, said he was satisfied with the performances.
\n\u201cToday, it was well organised, including in terms of the equipment, which had no technical challenges. The battle was good and the poets did well on the ground. The only setback was the turnout,\u201d Mtambo said.
\nSitima described the concept of the event as good and creative.
\n\u201cIt was a set where poets battled it out and it challenged us. We are looking forward to more of such unique platforms,\u201d Sitima said.
\nSitima also revealed that he has produced a DVD to be launched in March in Blantyre and Lilongwe alongside a new album.
\n\u201cThe DVD has poems from my albums Kalata kwa Jailosi and Chala Changa. I will launch it in March in Blantyre and Lilongwe. It will be a double launch which will include the new album Fiti za Fiti,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Poets from Blantyre and Lilongwe on Monday met at the Blantyre Cultural Centre where they shrugged it off during a show dubbed Nkhonya ya Ndakatulo. The event was organised by a non-profit Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) known as Fertile Brains International, with the aim of raising funds in aid of Tikondane Women Social Enterprises in Blantyre. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":59164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59165,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59160\/revisions\/59165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}