Local poet wins top award

Brenda Phiri Arts Correspondent
Well travelled poet Tendai Maduwa (24) was on Saturday honoured with an award for being the most internationally celebrated performer in the poetry and theatre category. Maduwa, fresh from touring West Africa for arts and poetry festivals, said he is going to use his influence to improve the standards of the spoken word.

“I am humbled by the acknowledgment and I am confident that it goes a long way in boosting the confidence of other poets in our country.
“Poetry is just like many other professions and should therefore be given adequate recognition,” he said.

As the only Zimbabwean representative at Kenya Kistrech Poetry Festival held from July 31 to August 6, Maduwa said more needs to be done to reach standards attained by other countries.

“From the international tours that I made I felt privileged to exchange cultural values with fellow professional poets. It was helpful also that we performed for unique crowds — away from city buildings into the hearts of people,” he said.

During his tour, he performed live at MTV Live Nairobi television.
He also performed in front of more than 1 700 students from Nairobi University and at a show dubbed Kuane Open Mic Session before proceeding to Tanzania and Zambia until August 17.

“I learnt so much and I want to share my experience with local poets to develop poetry in my country,” he said.
He, however, expressed disappointment over the lack of appreciation of poetry locally

“It is a pity that poetry is not celebrated in our country as much in other countries. We lack sponsorship and have limited venues to carry out our work. I, however, urge poets to maximise on the few resources available to them and work hard to make things happen for themselves,” he said.

The Southerton-based poet said he was born an artiste. Performing professionally from the age of seven, Maduwa said he was mentored by Ben Sibenke, known as “Mr Shereni” in local sopie Studio 263.

Sibenke exposed him from a tender age to become not only a poet but actor, writer, motivational speaker and columnist.
“I have lived poetry all my life and that will never change. Trips for later this year include a tour of India in November for a poetry festival and another arts festival slated for Thailand in December,” he said.