Verse by verse Onalenna Shaka is rhyming and writing up a storm – she maintains poetry is life.
Onalenna is a 21-year-old poet from Mohlakeng and she has passion. “I see poetry as life. There is poetry all around us. It’s everywhere,” she said.
She explained she has been writing since she was 12 and she writes about everything.
“Some are slam poems, others are educational. I just love poetry,” she said.
While poetry is her passion, she currently is in her second year of study and plans to major in journalism.
I’m still deciding whether I want to go into radio journalism or being on the ground.”
Her other hobby is dance. “I dance as well – pantsula dancing. A lot of the pantsula dance groups in Mohlakeng consist only of male members. They’re not so happy about female dancers. They think we’re too slow, but we aren’t. I don’t know,” she said jokingly.
Onalenna works part time at the Mohlakeng Underground Library that was established shortly after the Mohlakeng Library was burned down during a service delivery protest.
“The library is the first of its kind in the area. We teach kids to read, we have spelling bees and we teach them poetry. On Sundays we have poetry sessions.”
At the library she writes poems and performs it for children.
Recently she was asked to perform her poetry at a career day in Toekomsrus hosted by Thusanang Adventures.
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