LET'S TAKE A WALK MAMA

Collection of poems by Tiisetso M Thiba

Introduction by Omoseye Bolaji

Published by First Born Distribution (South Africa)

INTRODUCTION

The genre of literature -never mind poetry for a moment - though admittedly global, is nonetheless hydra-headed in many ways, with disparate hues even whilst employing a common language.

Thus amidst classical English poets, the use of language, imagery and kindred ideas varies. The poetry of the likes of T.S. Eliot, William Shakespeare, Emily Bronte, Thomas Hardy, D. H. Lawrence is notable for its dissimilarity despite their common inheritance. How much more African poets to whom English, French or Portuguese are essentially foreign languages?

But as pioneering - and powerful -African poet, J. P (John Pepper) Clark, once said, African writers, specifically poets, would still want to regard themselves as writing within the same "international canon and stream". And can we doubt even for a moment that African poets like Mongane Serote, Lenrie Peters, Wole Soyinka,  Jack Mapanje, or J. P Clark himself are not mainstream poets?

Yet for many African writers and poets, there is also the element of integrity; whilst they want to be part of the warp and weft of mainstream writing, they also want to be considered as authentic African writers as regards their subject matter, ideas and the very language and imagery they use. This is not a trivial issue, as witness the long-standing feud between revered writers Chinua Achebe and Ayi Kwei Armah, with the latter nettled at the suggestion that he might not be a "real African writer".

The late literary giant Nadine Gordimer, once opined that "African writers are always translating from their mother tongues" – which invariably adds a subtle richness to their writing.

Indeed, there can be no doubt about the fecundity and remarkable expressiveness of our indigenous African languages. The plethora of proverbs, idioms, wise saws, imagery, "wisecracks" can be seen reflected in the works of diverse writers, even when they are writing in so-called European languages.

It is universally acknowledged in the literary world that Chinua Achebe was not only technically adroit and accomplished as a prose-stylist, but he was unambiguously "African" in the process too, with the fascinating litany of Igbo expressions, ideas, aphorisms that dot his work.

The same could be largely claimed for the likes of Chukwuemeka Ike, Zakes Mda, T. M Aluko, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Ama Ata Aidoo, among others - all African writers who combine prose of a fairly high order with (intrinsic translations) of their own linguistic heritage.

From the point of view of the western world, Gabriel Okara might well have gone too far in his novel, The Voice which contains prose directly translated from his native Ijaw into English with scarcely any mediation. But on the whole, skilful African writers often manage to be authentic in their writing.

Which brings me to this book, and its author, Tiisetso Matthew Thiba. I have been somewhat familiar with his imaginative writing for some years now; at the moment poetry is definitely his forte.

Thiba writes a lot of poetry, and the exciting thing about his repertoire is the way he effortlessly combines fine, striking verses in the western sense with quintessential African traditional expressions and imagery. I have found this startling many a time, and the reader of this work would no doubt see many examples of this for themselves.

Ultimately, one day I was prodded to ask Mr. Thiba: "Your poetry is often what one would expect from an elderly African, not from a young man like you. How do you do it?" And he replied with a saturnine smile: "You see Mr. Bolaji I grew up in a real African village where things were still very much as they were in the past, the ancestral cultures, which included language and philosophy. I guess this is reflected in my poetry..."

Ah, well. Enjoy this debut work of Ntate Tiisetso Matthew Thiba.

         - By Omoseye Bolaji