Profile: Neville Nyoni
Thirst
By Neville Nyoni
Long queues
Still getting longer
Shrivelled men and women
With twenty-litre containers
Wait under the scorching sun
For a chance to get water
From the unprotected wells they dug
Out of desperation for water
Despicable thirst!
Yet even the wells begin to succumb to thirst
Babies cry behind their mothers’ backs
They too can tell from their mothers’ milk
Turning yellow
Turning powdery
The wells of their breast dry up
Lullabies from the mothers’ biltong tongues
Have since lost meaning
They are raspy grants and groans of pain
Taps have since gone rusty
Not a trickle out them drops for years
“The pipes are burst’, water authorities say
“We are working flat out to rectify”
Same decade-old song
Nothing changes
Wells are filled up with sand
Because they say they are illegal
As if it’s more legal for people
To die of thirst
The sun has had its day
Tired of hanging in the sky
It retires
The mothers too head home
Faltering under heavy load of hard-won water
Musing and sighing
The men too
Loads on both shoulders
Shake their heads
As if to say:
We are simply ordinary people, what can we do?
(Above poem he performed at the 2009 NANGO Expo)
Neville Nyoni (pictured above)
Performance, as it is, requires a great deal of enthusiasm and word power, and Nyoni, through practice and participating in various poetry functions and contests in Harare, sharpened his skills that now he can look forward to becoming Zimbabwe’s great.
Since 2007 Nyoni has been performing his poems at different functions and contests, such contests as the Padare Schools Poetry and Drama contest (2007) in which he became 2nd, Power in the Voice (2007-2008) in which he was finalist (he also appears on the DVD produced from the PIV programme by the British Council), the BWAZ Poetry Contest (2008), and functions like the Manica Arts Festival, the African Youth Arts Festival and this year’s NANGO Expo.
Nyoni has a short story titled “Far Away Hills” in the 2009 NAMA nominated anthology called “Children Writing Zimbabwe” (edited by Ruby Magosvongwe, Jerry Zondo and Memory Chirere) published by the Zimbabwe Standard newspaper in 2008. Children Writing Zimbabwe is a compilation of short stories selected from the Cover to Cover writing competition which drew entries mainly from schools in Zimbabwe. Nyoni was at Churchill Boys’ High when he participated in the writing competition. It was also at Churchill that he learnt his skills of orature in the Public Speaking and Drama/Writers Clubs.
Asked what he thinks of BWAZ, Nyoni said “BWAZ helps us to realize our dreams. It has taught me to believe in myself. I wish to say to other young writers and poets that they should do what they do to the best of their mettle. Nothing should limit talent.”
The 19 year old poet is currently doing Draughting and Designing Technologies at the Harare Polytechnic.
A Dream
By Barbra Anderson
Zimbabwe
I dreamt of you
In deep slumber
I dreamt of you
You came to me, a bright lady in the sweet night
Took my hand and led the way
You, Zimbabwe, gave me wings
Made from the leaves of your beautiful trees
You gave me wings to fly
Over the Zambezi
White and foaming, crashing down
The great Victoria Falls
I walked in your forests
Became one with your creatures
I lived with the baobab
And heard her unborn child scream
Inside her belly never to know
The African sun
I ran like the cheetah
Jumped like your impala
And blundered forth like the elephant
I walked on your mountain
Wrapped in a blanket of sand on your hills
I saw un-ending plains
Zimbabwe
Beautiful goddess
I fell in love with you
