Putting politics into poetry
Azwinndindidi Calvin Mutheiwana is a man with plenty of stories to tell.
POLOKWANE – His first poetry book Mitodzi Ya Vhavhoni was co-authored by three writers. The second, Shadows of Dusk, was sent for publication but unfortunately the publishers refused to publish it on the ground that it would foment national tension.
It was finally published in 2009 by J.P Publishers in Polokwane. The third book, The Struggle for the Freedom Charter and its Class Content in South Africa: What has Gone Wrong? was published in 2013 and reflects revisionist tendencies of the post-Apartheid period, including the erosion of the democratic vision the ANC stood for.
It projects pitfalls in our new democracy and the failure of revolutionary leaders to defend the revolution. The fourth book, Prayers Pocket Book for All Nations, was published in 2016 and covers various subjects on God and spirituality.
Mutheiwana hails from Tshakhuma and started writing poems as early as the mid-seventies. Majority of the poems during this period were influenced by the political environment of the time.
He was honoured by the Emmanuel Bible Correspondence and awarded a certificate in Bible Doctrine.
He attended the University of the North in 1980. Alhough he wanted to enroll for a law degree, he ended up doing a bachelor of administration majoring in public administration and politics.
In 1980, the majority of students who had been elected into a new student organisation, Azania Student Organisation (Azaso), formed in 1979, skipped the country. Azwinndini, who was not there when Azaso was formed in 1979, was entrusted with the responsibility of building Azaso. He was introduced to Benny Monama, who after liberation became one the director generals of Limpopo, together they regrouped and started building Azaso from scratch. It was during the same period that he was elected as chairperson of Public Administration and Political Science Student Society in 1981. As the chairperson of Azaso, he and other students were involved in helping and encouraging student activities in the campus.
“To be a writer means to be pathfinders and a source of knowledge. What has motivated me in writing is a search for knowledge and understanding contrast in society to find reality, that out of unity and struggle of opposites we must be able to find truth or reality.
“I was highly influenced by writers such as Ngugi Wa Thiogo, Nkwame Nkrumah, Oginga Odinga, Martin Luther King Junior, Karl Marx, Steve Biko, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Tse Tong, and Amilcar Cabral. These writers were confronted with a society they wanted to change, a society where there was struggle between opposites, wealth and poverty, starvation and prosperity, good and evil, justice and injustice. Each time these opposites faced each other in a vicious way. They faced the challenges, either in their written work or in action.”
He said the biggest challenge he came across in the writing industry, especially if you are publishing for the first time, is non-acceptance of the manuscript.
“The second challenge is marketing your books, especially if one opts not to give the manuscript to publishing companies, were you get royalties. Fortunately, there are companies that are promoting self-publishing, and though expensive, at least you own the book 100%.”
He told BONUS that his wife, Lepono Mutheiwana, encourages him, sometimes by reading the manuscript as it develops, and by staying awake as he writes. “At times she asks how far the manuscript is progressing. My children read my manuscripts and question certain views and conclusions, which ensues in a lot of debate,” he explains.
