Unique Day Tours and Holiday activities in Cape Town, South Africa.

Words for our Freedom Song

by Iain Harris

A story about poetry and the power of the word in Cape Town City

We came out dancing at dawn
Chained for so long
We found that the chains was gone
But we never collected words for our freedom song
Now our misery continues on
From On and On, by Jethro Louw

History has forever told us that the pen is mightier than the sword. Yet history has forever shown us that it is the sword that conquers countries, not the word. We live in a world that dialogues with bombs.
And yet the word is the one weapon that every person on the planet is armed with. What can words do to make housing, jobs and a better life for all a reality?

Jethro Louw lives in a township. And he is a poet. He is the ghetto poet, largely considered to be the godfather of spoken word in Cape Town. And alongside poets such as Lesego Rampolokeng, Mzwaki Mbuli and Mzwandile Matiwana, he ranks as one of the nation's key voices. These gentlemen are all, in the words of Rampolokeng, word-bombers.

Jethro in particular uses the power of his words to heal the tappets of the discontinued heritage of his culture. His idea is to revitalize the legacy of stories and the wealth of storytellers of the KhoiSan people. For centuries, the members of this community have been silenced by the gun and the bullet and the wall. The results are a lack of formal skills and access to infrastructure to turn those skills into income, subsequently a lack of identity and self esteem.

We don't know who we are, says Jethro. "So much has been taken from us since the beginning of our history that we don't know who we are, and we don't know how to be who we are. There is a disruption in our timeline. It's like if a cars timing is out, you have to fix the timing otherwise the car won't drive properly. Our people are like that car. We don't function properly because we haven't fixed our timing. We don't know who we are. How do we fix that?”

The challenge of the disrupted cultures and communities in Cape Town is to break the silence and write their own history and future. In claiming the words that are personally liberating. The words `I can' are revolutionary in South Africa’s new economy, for they unlock the personal capacity that has forever been chained. Jethro, the Ghetto poet, is spearheading this movement. His poems are wakeup calls. But who can listen?  “We need to create platforms for people to share their words. To express their opinions. Platforms for people to be heard. There are very few of these spaces. And they come and go like the Southeaster wind.”

Some years back Monday Blues was the space. Every Monday poet and journalist Sandile Dikeni hosted Monday Blues at Cafe Camissa. It was a free platform, anybody could share. It was wildly popular. Jethro was there too, bringing to words the same grace and power that Mohamed Ali brought to fists. Eventually Cafe Camissa was lost to the end of the lease. 
These days we can hear Standup poetry at Zula Sound Bar in the City centre every Wednesday or at The Touch of Madness in Observatory on Monday nights.

But see the pattern. All of these word platforms are in the city. There is nothing on the Cape Flats, nothing in the townships.

Which is where Jethro saw that action was necessary. He started a tourism initiative, hosting locals and tourists to the city at his home in the Kalkfontein township for music and poetry sessions with dinner. It is a means of creating a platform for poetry that generates income and creates interest for poetry in the area where he lives. It is a space for poets from his area to share their words with both locals and foreign visitors. So far, out of a word driven initiative, a catering company and a guest house have emerged as small businesses for people in Kalkfontein, stimulating the economy and the sense of personal pride and capacity to achieve.

The idea is to duplicate this initiative in other areas and so create many, income generating spaces for poetry in Cape Town.

“Ultimately,” says Jethro, “we are trying to find the words to our freedom song, we are trying to liberate ourselves from the oppression of our history. It is with the word that we must begin. The rest follows.”

POETRY LINEUP
Verses takes place on the last Wednesday of each month at Zula Sound Bar, 194 Long Street, starting 9pm. 021 424 2442
Off-the-Wall is at A Touch of Madness, 12 Nuttal Road Observatory, every Monday night starting 8pm. 021 448 2266

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