daniel chigunwe
Elliot Ziwira
At the Bookstore
Verse is often universally considered inaccessible, mostly owing to the use of contrived language and traditions, which makes Tafataona Mahoso’s “Rupise: Poetry of Love, Separation and Reunion, 1977-2017”, a breath of fresh air.
As one of the most prominent literary voices from the Zimbabwean landscape, Mahoso’s poetry is awe-inspiring, penetrating and soothing; building no kraals for sacred cows.
An incisive interlocutor and listener, Mahoso strikes one as a philosopher.
He appeals to the inner man, even though one may not share the same views with him.
In “Rupise”, the philosopher-poet is at his lethal best.
This anthology of poetry is a masterly exploration of love, displacement, and the human experience. With its musical allure hinged on adept use of poetic tropes, “Rupise” is a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the intricacies of life.
In the poems, Mahoso straddles the personal and universal spheres; speaking to the human condition in a way that is both relatable and thought-provoking.
The philosopher-poet’s use of imagery and symbolism adds depth and complexity to his work, placing “Rupise” in a class of its own.
The collection is divided into five sections, each exploring a different aspect of love and displacement. From the longing for a lost love to the struggle for identity in a foreign land, Mahoso’s poetry is both evocative and therapeutic.
These sections are: Unlit Lanterns, Separation, Rupise: Where, When Does Love Stay, Lifefolds and Gleanings.
Testifying to the poet’s artistic prowess and exceptional use of metaphor, understatement and ambiguity, “Rupise” captures the universal human experience. Thus, it appeals to varied readers.
Mahoso’s poetry is not just about his own experiences, but about the experiences of all those who have ever loved, lost, and longed for something more.
In the opening poem “Before you appeared in my Life”, he captures the reciprocal nature of love, the fluidity of life and the spirit of womanhood.
The poet writes:
“Before you appeared in my life
I feared my own imagination
Like a child surprised by its own giant shadow
At sunrise and sunset.
Before you appeared, I feared my own desire,
A naughty boy trying to hide from a run-away fire he started.”
He is conscious that love faces the same natural weaponry man faces in his daily toils. However, as man learns to tame nature, lovers can also break the sticky energies that weigh love down.
In this vein, love passionately refuses to be subdued, even under duress.
Mahoso powerfully explores the theme of displacement—both physical and emotional, connecting every strand of the human condition in more than one way.
Using nature’s symbolism, the poet relates the story of a young man suffering from triple separation; from his mother, girlfriend/s, and the motherland.
The desire to better himself in the Diaspora plays havoc with his emotions. For close to 20 years, he endures a lot, physically and metaphysically, as he buries himself in books.
Through effective use of symbolic elements, Mahoso reflects on the young man’s physical, spiritual, political, and psychological complexities.
Since there is no motherly love to comfort him, he seeks new mothers, girlfriends, and the land, with all that it stands for, in the Diaspora.
His quest in all this is to counteract the forces of distraction, and endure waiting for a change of scene—literally and metaphorically.
The young man’s tale reflects the experiences of those who have been torn from their homes, families, and communities, and the ways in which they have had to adapt and evolve in order to survive.
Notwithstanding the challenges and hardships that Mahoso’s poetry highlights, ultimately, “Rupise” is a collection of hope and resilience. The anthology is a testament to the human spirit, and how humanity can find strength and beauty, even in the darkest of times.
The philosopher-poet vehemently refuses to be subdued by the forces of oppression and plunder. His poetry celebrates the love and romance lost through colonisation and displacement.
Land is central to Africans’ struggle with colonialists, little wonder the philosopher-poet is up in arms with them in “Footprints About the Bantustan” (1989).
“Rupise”, therefore, evokes the essence of land reclamation revolution in Africa. The collection of poems is Mahoso’s tribute to the love embodied in the Hot Springs of Chimanimani, his home area.
He bemoans how the springs have lost their lustre due to colonisation.
The metaphor of the Hot Springs is personified in the beautiful Mainini Rupise, his mother’s cousin. As boys, she took them “swimming naked with the girls in river pools without anyone ever being sexually molested or raped.”
Mahoso demystifies the idea that African tradition is responsible for the oppression of women. Mainini Rupise, like Tinyarei in Mashingaidze Gomo’s “A Fine Madness” (2010), exudes love, beauty, tolerance and patience.
Curiously, this quality is downplayed in colonial and neo-colonial literature aimed at painting the African as a quintessence of evil.
Mahoso’s view of violence, sexual abuse, and misogyny are that they are products of neo-colonial and postcolonial patriarchy, which should not be blamed on culture.
Although the male voice dominates in “Rupise”, it does not override the significance of women. Their crucial role in society is highlighted, not only through the male voice, but through a counteracting and complementary female one.
Rupise, the woman, and Rupise, the metaphor, interact and merge into a national discourse that yearns for the restoration of robbed, plundered, bastardised and destroyed African institutions, which Aime Cesaire weeps for in “Notebook of a Return to the Native Land” (1947).
Mahoso quests for the return to the native land, where Rupise, and not the colonially detached Hot Springs, is celebrated through strong metaphors of heat and water.
To give impetus to the power of Rupise, the symbolic element, one has to read the title poem “Footprints About the Bantustan” (in “Footprints About the Bantustan”) in contrast with “Rupise Two” or “Rupise Three”. The reader may also juxtapose “There was No Room” in “Footprints About the Bantustan” and “Rupise Two” and “Rupise Three”.
Concerning the relationship between the poet and women on the one hand, and the poet and water on the other hand, Mahoso says:
“The poet’s relationship to women and water is clarified and made more intimate, with “Rupise Two” equating water with the woman’s eyes, which have absorbed the essential history of the African.
“And, in “Rupise Three”, both man and woman have become ‘water bodies’ naturally attracted to geographical water bodies, which Marina Warner correctly associated with the grace and powers of the sun and moon.”
Interestingly, as the young man returns from the Diaspora he seeks to reunite with his mother, lover, and the land of his birth. He attempts to suppress the triple attachment to the foreign land that nurtured and fed him, his foreign girlfriends, and foreign “mother”, which disappoints the spirit of his deceased father.
The persona’s late father visits him in a dream and admonishes him to integrate his birthplace experiences with the best of what he encountered overseas. Thus, the triad of love, separation and reunion is played out on two continents.
In the section “Gleanings”, also in “Footprints About the Bantustan” (1989), Mahoso highlights the nature of love in the enclaves of deprivation. He suggests that love conquers all.
However, the neo-colonial world, with its capitalist propensities, does not allow such expressions of love as explored in the poem “Love in the Shadows of Power and possession”.
This rationale of love as a double-edged sword; both soothing and hurting, when read against oppressive machinations, is also evident in the poems “To a Young Woman”, “Hunger Strands”, “Homage to an early Love”, and “Love in the Shadows of power and possession”.
Overall, Mahoso’s “Rupise: Poetry of Love, Separation and Reunion: 1977-2017” (2018) is a must-read for anyone who loves poetry, or is seeking a deeper meaning of the human experience.
Online Reporter