8th Poetry Africa Festival 18-23 October 2004
Centre for Creative Arts, University of KwaZulu-Natal
 

The Botsotso Jesters - South Africa  

Botsotso Jesters

(poetic script for different characters)

 

SIPHIWE: Pensioner standing in a queue

ragged animals in the zoo

yawning toothless lions

ALLAN: I am fire burning the shack

no jobs and drink lead the attack

hey, sweetie – get flat on your back!

 

IKE: Soul food binder stay free

silaphanje nge mum for men

eat your heart and lungs out

 

SIPHIWE: Listen to my voice at the shop door

listen as you walk to the sounds of war

umngena ndlini mama, umngena ndlini baba

 

ALLAN: Stink of scam in the State

bureaucrat shuffle while you wait

nepotists scoop the honey

 

IKE: Stripper lelohembe asidlali

nkhetheni ke wa ponto le sheleng

sendela ngeno kanna legetleng

 

SIPHIWE: Shebeen tables black with booze

girls caress beards of their fathers

mothers bump and grind with their sons

 

ALLAN I’m the bull running this kraal

don’t pull my ring if you’re skraal

Roll up – Sun City extra!

 

IKE: Hout kop petty crime is a taboo

shame on you daaso a ni hembi

guys ni hava nchumu jokes aside

 

SIPHIWE: Darkness shadow in the slums

pockets cold with a stainless knife

pass the bucks or I’ll take your life

 

ALLAN: Total Onslaught amnesty

even Wit Wolf walks out free

forgive and forget history?

 

IKE: Ginger face butters no record to trace

ready stomach digests sound of my words

no bubblegum music in our verse  
   

 

The Botsotso Jestersare Allan Kolski Horwitz, Ike Mboneni Muila  and Siphiwe Ka Ngwenya, a poetry performance collective. They also publish a literary magazine, Botsotso, and, as Botsotso Publishing, books of poetry and fiction. The composition of the group changes from time to time but the present three members - Siphiwe ka Ngwenya, Ike Mboneni Muila and Allan Kolski Horwitz – have been working together since 1994. The group has performed at many different festivals, schools and universities and are acknowledged as pioneers and innovators in the field of poetry performance. As a collective and as individuals, The Botsotso Jesters have been published in numerous anthologies, magazines and websites, both locally and internationally.

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Select Bibliography ( Botsotso)
We Jive Like This , Botsotso Publishing, 1996
Dirty Washing , Botsotso Publishing, 2000
Discography
Purple Light Mirror in the Mud , 2001
 
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Allan Kolski Horwitz  was born in Vryburg in 1952 and grew up in Cape Town where he studied political philosophy and literature. Between 1974 and 1985 he lived in the Middle East , Europe and North America , returning to South Africa in 1986 when he worked in the trade unions as an organizer and educator. He currently works for a social housing association and member-controlled provident fund in Johannesburg . He was a founder member of the Botsotso Jesters and Botsotso Publishing. Horwitz espouses that we look to the streets, shebeens, sports fields, and jails where the intermingling of languages and cultures is taking place, which will give rise to an authentic speech and rhythm of an inclusive South African culture. To this end he calls for participation in a ‘linguistic experiment which is adequate to the task of expressing our lives’.

His first book of poems Call from the Free State was published in 1979. Substantial selections of his poetry have been included in Essential Things (COSAW, 1992) and Throbbing Ink (Timbila, 2003). Many South African anthologies and magazines have carried his writing. His fiction has been included in two collections – Unity in Flight (2001) and Un/common Ground (2002). His story ‘Courageous and Steadfast’ was shortlisted for the Caine Prize.

 
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Ike Mboneni Muila was born in Soweto in 1957, and grew up in Venda , Limpopo Province , returning to live in Soweto in the 1980s. He studied acting at the Soyikwa Institute and his first poetry performances were between 1988 and 1990 with the Madimba music students at the Soyinkwa Institute of African Theatre in Soweto . Since then he has performed at numerous festivals such as Grahamstown, Arts Alive, Herman Charles Bosman, Berlin International Poetry and Cambridge Contemporary Poetry. In 1998 he recorded a poetry performance video titled Jikeleza Train in collaboration with New Coin and ISEA at the Grahamstown Poetry Festival. In the same year he won a poetry translation award from the English Academy of Southern Africa . He is inspired by the combination of music and poetry, where it is not possible ‘ to draw a line between their harmony’. His poetry is featured on the CD Purple Light Mirror in the Mud (2001). He also draws inspiration from ‘listening to people when they chat or deliver jokes using a combination of words from different languages brought together without fancy formalities’. His other publications include We Jive Like This (1996)and Dirty Washing(1999) – all of these being compilations of group and individual work with the Botsotso Jesters. The most recent solo collection of his work (which includes his drawings and a CD recording) is Gova (2004). He is presently on the editorial board of the Botsotso Publishers Collective.

 
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Siphiwe Ka Ngwenya was born in Soweto in 1964. He is a writer, theatre director and performer. In the late 1980’s he met writers like Don Mattera and Sipho Sephamla and attended poetry workshops at Funda Centre which at times came under Security Police surveillance. He then switched to COSAW where his work developed. Ka Ngwenya has a diploma in Speech and Drama from Fuba Academy, participated in a Voter Education play commissioned by the Matla Trust in 1994, was a member of the Rishile Theatre Project that presented plays by Nadine Gordimer and Don Mattera, and currently organizes poetry readings in Johannesburg under the auspices of Timbila Poetry Project and the Jozi Book Club. He enjoys experimentation and freedom in the use of languages, concentrating on traditional oral/praise performance poetry, extending the genre in more critical and contemporary forms. A selection of his poetry was published in the 1992 anthology, Essential Things. Other publications that have included his work are Ingolovane, Botsotso, New Coin, Timbila, Kotaz, It All Begins and Writing from Here. Ngwenya has performed internationally in countries as diverse as Denmark and Pakistan . A collection of his poems is to be brought out in 2005 by Botsotso Publishing.

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