Ekari Writes

  { For all those needing a Daddy } Stolen Fathers Where did the daddies go? We need them. Some are gone forever, taken into the next life. Others are living, walking and breathing, but are hard to find - though never out of mind. Others we see every day, in and out - but their hearts are a million miles away. Others become the source of our darkest moments... the source of our fears. Fathers are missing. We need their presence, their words, and their spirits, to guide us to the right path. We need them to reflect the love of our Almighty Father We need to see them treating our mothers with love and respect So that we can choose future mothers and fathers of our own We need them to tell us we're OK Tell us we are more than OK, that we're special We need their guidance to tell us when we're wrong - as we so often are We need their punishment to understand the consequences of our actions We need their discipline that comes from love...

There are times in life when one has the opportunity to be a part of something greater than oneself, and it just feels awesome . I was invited to perform at British Council's Go Green Malawi awareness event,  a gathering of artists from all mediums, adding their voices, paintbrushes and movements to one cause... climate change. It is a phenomenon which many of us may be aware of, but there are many more that are not fully awakened to the effects of it.  I was lucky enough to be given the freedom to come up with whatever I wanted to, as long as it was no more than 3 minutes long. I decided to write and perform a piece of poetry entitled "environMEnt". It expresses the reason why I choose to study the environment in the first place.  Here is the video - somewhat fuzzy unfortunately, but at least the audio is alright. Note: the first line was not filmed in time so it seems like it starts in the middle. The poem begins - " I woke up one day and realised, you can't...

As I sat in the auditorium, I thought back to the moment I chose the poem I was about to perform. Q Malewezi's anthology has many powerful pieces, but "The Dress" had me hooked immediately. My love for dresses was the first catch... then there was the layered meaning, the metaphors, the build-up, the ultimate ending. The poem took my breath away. It captured the agony, and the power of being a woman all in one piece. I was compelled to respect that deeply, considering that although it was portrayed from a woman's point of view, the poem was written by a man. Q told me he had performed this piece at an earlier occasion as spoken word, but this time he advised that I take on a monologue approach. I had no idea what the difference between the two was, but after a bit of schooling in the form of a five minute conversation, I got an idea of what I could do. And here I was! On the night of Q's book launch, waiting for time to eat up the first hour before my slo...