CANCELED
12 th POETRY AFRICA
International Festival of Poets
Durban : 29 September – 4 October 2008
CANCELLATION OF THOMAS MAPFUMO PERFORMANCE – 2 OCTOBER
The Centre for Creative Arts regrets to announce that Thomas Mapfumo's participation in the Poetry Africa festival has been cancelled. We were advised at extremely late notice that his asylum status travel documents are not in order and despite exhaustive efforts on the part of our team to rescue the situation the matter was out of our control. Mapfumo's participation at the Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre on Thursday will be replaced by a KwaZulu-Natal music kaleidoscope, comprising maskandi maestro Shiyani Ngcobo, the sonorous harmonies of iscathamiya group Mpumalanga White Birds, and the distinct gumboot dancing of Lamontville Lucky Star Gumboot Dancers.
Hosted by Gisele Turner, the evening opens with the Mahmoud Darwish tribute reading before Kenyan poet Bantu Mwaura offers us his laconic take on Africa , its politics, its history and its place in the international arena. Thereafter Masoja Msiza ( South Africa ) performs his uplifting and socially relevant verse. Anton Krueger ( South Africa ) then entertains with his humanistic yet slightly view-askance verse. Kole Ade-Odutola's ( Nigeria ) principled poetry, like Bantu Mwaura's, is centrally concerned with the African continent. Festival poet Mxolisi Nyezwa will launch his second poetry collection New Country earlier in the evening.
For more information call 031 260 2506 or 031 260 1704 or visit www.cca.ukzn.ac.za
Organised by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of KwaZulu-Natal), the 12th Poetry Africa festival is supported by the Department of Arts and Culture, HIVOS (Humanist Institute for Development Co-operation), Royal Netherlands Embassy, Stichting Doen, National Arts Council, French Institute of South Africa, Pro-