PALESTINIAN spoken-word artist and poet, Rafeef Ziadah, will join 18 other poets from across Africa and the globe at this year’s 22nd Poetry Africa Festival. The week-long festival runs until 20 October, is hosted by the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) Centre for Creative Arts (CCA).
Forrefugee Rafeef Ziadah, poetry has been an important way to tell the story of her people and their struggle for liberation. “My experiences and those of the majority of Palestinians have been shaped by dispossession and exile enforced by Israel’s settler colonial regime. This reality is the backbone of the poetry I write,” said Ziadah, who first shot to fame when her poem We Teach Life, Sir went viral on YouTube.
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A shared history of colonialism and dispossession that links Africans to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation is what makes Ziadah’s inclusion at this year’s Poetry Africa Festival so significant. The festival will also host a week-long praise poetry workshop led by Zulu history custodian and praise poet for King Goodwill Zwelithini, BM Mdletshe.
The full programme can be viewed on the website www.cca.ukzn.ac.za . Tickets are R60 for adults and R40 for pensioners and students through Computicket.
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