Mohalenyane Phakela

LOCAL poets have been urged to participate in a South African spoken word competition to broaden their horizons.

The Recite Your Own Poetry competition, held in the neighbouring country’s Eastern Cape province, is open to participants between the ages of 16 and 40 from the rest of the African continent.

In its sixth year of existence, the competition is the brainchild of South African poet and renowned author, Bandile Magibili, through his company Alphabetic Art.

Past winners have landed the opportunity to participate in the annual Mangaung Cultural Festival held in the Free State province.

Magibili told Xpress People this past week the competition had been opened to all Africans to foster unity, adding that the prize for the winner would be an all-expense-paid four-day holiday in Amsterdam, Holland.

“Poets are the custodians of our heritage and the prophets of our time. With this initiative, Alphabetic Art is aggressively restoring their silenced voice and also planting a seed for future generations so they don’t take any art-form for granted,” he said.

“This year, we decided to include the rest of Africa to create a continental poetry network. It is also meant break barriers imposed by politicians on Africa.”

Magibili said poets can enter the competition by submitting their details to Magibili through either Facebook or his Whatsapp number +27781670719. Applicants will then receive a form via email which they are supposed to submit before the closing date of 21 October 2016.

The auditions will be held during the first week of November in East London and again during the first week of December in Sterkspruit.

“The topics will be disclosed to the contestants a week before the auditions to foster creativity,” said Magibili.

He implored Basotho poets to participate in the competition, saying he was already acquainted with a number of local poets.

“I have been to Lesotho before although it was not for a performance, and managed to interact with a few poets such as Sheila Khala and Sekete Lesaoana. Lesotho poets are on top of their game, and we would appreciate having them as part of the competition,” Magibili said, adding that the finale of the competition is scheduled for 25 February 2017 at Hotel Osner in East London.