THE POETRY OF TIISETSO THIBA

Book: Let’s Take a Walk Mama

By Tiisetso Thiba

Review by Henry Ozogula

The author is a talented, effortless poet and most of the content of this work constitute true poetry. The examples are legion but I’d just point out some samples here including lots of impressive similes.

 "When I cascaded a tear and made the pillows sludge" pg 38  …  

 "I close the book. Before waterfall in my marble"  

 "Desperation is buddy of depression"  

 "His hand to ease me from the cuffs of agony’’ Page 11

 "Mum's Coffee...made by magic hands. And adorned by the cream of profound love"

 "Be my derrick to uplift me from the muck"   Brilliant!

And savour this line, which highlights the sexual flavour of wordsmiths! "I ejaculate my thoughts onto paper" page 46. 

Note the doses of philosophy in this work too, eg "Life is too short, but we'll be here for a while..." pg 18

Similes include, "like python that preys on some animals" page 8.

"Africa vanishing like rubbish in the ocean"   pg 12.

"He was short tempered like a lion" page 16.

"Our love for you burning and boiling like a gold pan"  (33)

However, there are some spelling or printing mistakes in this book, e.g on page 1, "tears running down my chicks" which should be "cheeks". And on page 22 "past compliments the present" - It should be complements. Also, "he pretends to be holly" which should be "holy".

But despite some mistakes, this is a very good book by a sensitive, intelligent South African poet.

MARIA SHARAPOVA's NEW BOOK

Maria Sharapova is one of the greatest tennis players around in the world now; never mind the dominance of the sport by the Williams’ sisters, especially Serena. Maria has just written a book, and though this is an essentially “African” blog, we must take notice of a book written by a talented, lovely, blonde lady who was also perhaps the highest paid woman in sport for years.

The book of course has been flying off the shelves, so to speak. We have been intrigued with some of the initial reviews of the work, but we consider the excerpt reproduced below (published in VOX) as a refulgent gem which would elicit smiles from many in Africa…

“…Williams and her sister Venus Williams are the two most successful tennis players in the modern era. They’re also black. And throughout their careers, every milestone they’ve hit has come with a side of racism and sexism. Their bodies have been scrutinized and lampooned. Their integrity has been questioned, and rumors about them taking steroids have circulated repeatedly. They’ve been called gorillas and likened to men playing against women.

The underlying theme throughout their careers has been centered on one thing: that there’s something incomprehensible and unfair about black athletes beating stellar — sometimes they’ll be mythologized as being superhumanly strong; other times it’s something more nefarious, like being on steroids.

Sharapova’s words about Williams in her book fit this pattern.

“First of all, her physical presence is much stronger and bigger than you realize watching TV,” Sharapova writes. “She has thick arms and thick legs and is so intimidating and strong. And tall, really tall.”

According to their official listed heights, Sharapova is 6-foot-2 and Williams (below) is 5-foot-9. It’s bizarre to see Sharapova refer to how towering another player is when she herself is 5 inches taller.

Further, Sharapova emphasizes her perceived smallness in a couple of phrases about how she thinks of herself as being a “skinny kid,” or her size in comparison to Williams’s: “She was a woman. I was a girl. She was big. I was small.”

Never mind the reality that Sharapova is taller than Williams, or that she was temporarily banned from tennis for taking a performance-enhancing drug; the picture she’s painting is one in which Williams is a physical Goliath and Sharapova is a David…”

* Excerpt courtesy of VOX

LOVE WORKS WONDERS. By Bertha M. Clay

The author Bertha M Clay used to intrigue one when one was much younger. Then one learned later on that such a writer hardly existed although the original author (pseudonym) lived in the 19th century, the daughter added more titles under the pen name, and MANY other writers would contribute to the title across time and generations.

Yet the titles and stories remain quaint, old fashioned and interesting in their own way; concerned with themes of love, class, genteel life with spiralling ramifications and the like. Love Works Wonders is a typical story (novel) under the title. We see the development or metamorphosis of a young lady, Pauline, from a "Bohemian" to an exemplary lady of "class".

And at the end we are proudly told: "Six years had changed Pauline Darrell from a beautiful girl to a magnificent woman; her beauty was of that grand queenly kind that of itself is a noble dowry. The years but had added to it. They had given to her beauty a charm that it had never worn in her younger days."

Apparently this is the perfect culmination of a process, as Pauline had been too raw and "unlady-like". As Sir Oswald stresses early on: "She (Pauline) has lived among the artists. She does not seem to have ever known any of her own sex. She is, I am sorry to use the word, a perfect Bohemian. Whether she can be transformed into anything faintly resembling a lady, I cannot tell. Will you undertake the task...?".

Hence eventually Miss Darrell of Darrell Court attains a refulgent height and stature...and being a Bertha M Clay work, she also finds happiness in love at the end. The lucky man is Vane, who clasps her in his "strong, manly arms, her haven of rest, her safe refuge, her earthly paradise, safely attained at last..." Are you clapping?

-         - Henry Ozogula