Jamaican poet tips ladies

Jamaican dub poet D’bi Young has urged creative women to listen to the dictates of their soul before they step aside and let men dominate the arts in the country.

The Womanifesto creator was commenting on the underrepresentation of the fair gender at the just-ended Blantyre Arts Festival (BAF) which pooled 500 performers, according to events organisers.

“Women cannot always blame men for hijacking the arts. Those that chicken out must ask themselves three questions: Who am I? How am I? What is the purpose of my life? They must listen to themselves,” said Young in an interview at the French Cultural Centre in Blantyre on Saturday.

Famed for her revolutionary books—Art on Black, Reverse and   Blood—the acclaimed poet was in the country to headline the Poetry Africa recitals organised by the Centre for Creative Arts of the University of KwaZulu Natal South Africa.

The crew comprised South Africa’s music duo Pedro Espi-Sanchis and Medosine, Norway-based Kenyan poet Philo Ikonya, Ghana’s Nii Ayikwei Parkes as well as Malawi’s Chigo Gondwe and Nyamalikiti Nthiwatiwa.

While admitting unflagging admiration for Afro-centric Mutabaruka, Young credited her art to her mother-cum-poet Anita Stewart, saying: “I always had a revolutionary artist to watch and I wrote the first poem when I was 13 years old. The poem was included in my homemade album which I sent her as a tribute,” she said.

She has two formal albums, Womanifesto and 333, which celebrate life and Africa.

“Love is the ultimate thing in life. As Africans we have to love ourselves first because the transformation of Africa can only follow from personal transformation,” said the poet.

Like Mutabaruka, she performed bare-footed to symbolise her connection with the continent which she fondly calls ‘motherland’.

She described herself as an “ever-changing being” who is still single because she is always at work, globe-trotting and putting up in hotels much to the chagrin of her potential suitors.