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
