THE CORUSCATING LESOTHO BARD

By OMOSEYE BOLAJI

“The love of a man and a woman has always been special but lately it’s exploited and ripped out of its definition…women, recall and respect men for their position, and you men, remember (that) women are just a rib of your whole package – they are highly fragile; that’s why they need your touch”

- Sheila Khala, in FORMULA

It is not the province nor perimeter of this short piece to ponder whether the above quotation – penned by a very young female writer from Lesotho is essentially true or false. Suffice it to say that I am more concerned with the exhilarating emergence of the author (Sheila Khala) herself.

Having said this, I must briefly point out that whilst younger, I was very much intrigued with the book, The anatomy of feminine power produced by one of the most erudite and brilliant African intellectuals, Chinweizu. For him, women’s fragility is a façade; they are actually the opposite!

And world history has also churned out many examples of how “un-fragile” women can be, especially during warfare: the dreaded Amazons (female warriors) of erstwhile Dahomey; and the role of women during the French evolution when “the women returned with the heads of those who had fallen…baying for even more blood…it was a most shocking scene”

Most of us we men will however like to believe that women might well be “highly fragile” – even if it’s mainly in our dreams!

But back to Sheila N. Khala. Remarkably she was only 19 when she published her first book of poems (Formula) which was published in 2009. She is a dynamic and fecund poet in every sense of the word. It is understood that her second book of poems will soon be out.

For lovers of literature, there is always that frisson of excitement when a new and very young writer takes the stage. Of course these days more and more African women are making big strides in the genre of writing. Sheila is already holding her head high in poignant African female black writing at a very young age – reminding us of international icons like Buchi Emecheta, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Helen Oyeyemi etc who did the same.

Of course a lot of cynicism is entwined within the warp and weft of creative writing, especially where new voices are concerned. Some literary protagonists have stated that “Sheila is probably one-dimensional; a good poet. She can’t produce stuff like fiction that would cement her stature even more as a writer”

But I beg to disagree. There are more than enough glimpses in Sheila’s poetry to suggest that she can be creative, fluent and evocative when she wants to. For example in her poem, “I love you” she writes inter alia:

“When you see me
Do you have a heartbeat that
Accelerates as space becomes thinner?
Or you can’t wait for me to walk out of the door
So you exhale a deep breath of Relief…
How do you react when you walk towards me
Are you faking the butterflies you claim run in your stomach?”


For aficionados of African literature, note the name: Sheila N Khala

This columnist will like to hark on the obvious now –

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!