Better Than Starbucks!

Tendai: When you started your poetry journey up to some few years ago you seemed supportive of the government in Zimbabwe, with some of the poets thinking you were part of the regime in Zimbabwe, what turned you to the other side?

Mbizo: I said the real me is in WHAT I write, to present myself like ZANUPF helped me to become a strong poet who now know the machinations of ZANUPF and its government. I know all the tricks they do when they perceive you as an enemy. I have never been a ZANUPF member. I never wanted to be one; I am not a political party member in Zimbabwe. I believe in progressive cum positive change Voices. I performed at a lot of ZANUPF and government events and even appeared on ZBC for national events but that doesn’t mean I was or I am a ZANUPF zealot, it was part of work. I am an artist. We have to be mature to the extent that being hired to do a performance would not mean you are not associated with that organization. I worked with a lot of embassies, UN and many other NGOs, Schools, Media, Festivals and Universities   even pressure groups, the immediate example is CRISIS COALITION IN ZIMBABWE. I am a strong and a founding member of Zimbabwe Poets for Human Rights .I am the Resident COORDINATOR OF 100 THOUSAND POETS FOR CHANGE- global. All these projects do not sing the ZANUPF tune, I cannot sing for the regime.  I can’t be bribed by the revolutionary rant Mugabe  pull every time he is cornered while in reality and ironically he is the African cousin of the ANGLO-SAXON, he cherishes Europe and western life a lot, he wears European  and  speak Latin  and English, he is a devout catholic , I have never been in ZANUPF. In Zimbabwe you have to act like one to protect yourself from dying. True revolutionaries know the space and the time to start voicing against a dangerous regime. Truly, I am not ZANUPF member. Those who engaged with me at a closer range know the truth about me and my writings. Otherwise I don’t need to politically be nametaged to be a poet.

Tendai: We have read in the media, stories that you were being harassed by the political establishment in Zimbabwe, especially the security establishment, that made you run out of Zimbabwe, and now you stay in Uganda in exile, how far true is that? Tell us more about that.

Mbizo: No mentally right person can lie about being tailed by a rogue system, the system is rogue and  I think it is irked by my writings and articles online as well as my inclinations  as the whole foolish  thought that gripped  our system, whenever you become a creative friend to the other race, you become a threat. I have a lot of work that   cracks a whip to the rot of dictatorship    and the decay of the social fabric in Zimbabwe. My demise was supposed to be a very careful one and secret one. The problem is that in ZANUPF, there are a lot of zealots who have taken to their leader Mugabe as their God BECAUSE he has protected them from jail as they have stolen from the diamond and gold rich country and plunge the country into abject poverty, when you write, talk and tell this truth, it becomes clear you are threat, and most of them thought I was part of them –bootlickers, the Internet sold me out and struggle against me and others began. I know some of the people who are part of the scheme, when time comes, I will let the cats out and these people are within the system. I escaped yes, I am not a coward, I will up the struggle for the truth, and the truth soon will help change Zimbabwe. Its better I add to the Voices of Reason and Positive Change. But I think all this has nothing to do with whatever we are. One thing which is important that I learnt is that you cannot trust Zimbabwe police with a political story in Zimbabwe, political victims in Zimbabwe when targeted disappear, and it’s not wise to seek legal justice, it is better to be a living voice of reason than a dead one. You need to fight your case when in safety; I am not yet safe though. People think that the tailing of political victims can be reported in newspapers and police like rape cases, no. In this situation the VICTIM should be careful about his life. If you are not careful, you can be buried nicely by people who might have paid for your death. Most of this tailing and threats are done carefully and secretly.

Tendai: Your poetry doesn’t seem to bend towards any structures of poetic forms taught in class, what inspired you to write the way you do? Is it African forms of poetic expression you use?

Mbizo: Yes. I hate stereotypes, its African, it’s of griots in nature, its poetry, and it’s got voice thus why you call it my poetry. I discovered my own voice through the African traditional praise poetry, imbongi, from the beat of Africans; Shona and Ndebele dances, the Western African poets like Christopher OKBGO, WOLE SOYINKA, Jack Mapanje and Frank Chipasula in East Africa from Malawi and Zambia respectively. I am also a prodigy of Langston Hughes.  I tap my art from African storytelling and lullabies. I believe more the meaning than conventional form.  We can’t continue to wallow in Shakespearean times, we need to move, we need to tell the African story with the angle of African storytellers, African griots or other, new diverse approaches – Sometimes traditional rhyme limit the griot to expose his sugar ice or vitriol. I don’t want to be limited. I believe in the freedom of a poet of expression. My poetry can be studied,  ask  students of Arts and HUMANITIES, P0LITICAL HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCES,  they will assure you- http://slipnet.co.za/view/poetry-project/endings-and-beginnings/, take a look at that commentary, you will start to like my poetry  and even start teaching it. I enjoy a wider readership, reportage in the global arena. You can say I am a REVOLUTIONARY in African VERSE.

Tendai: You use the “I” most of the time in your early poetry, like ”I am”, is it individual and polemical  or it is the “I” Whitmansque song of myself confessional poetry? It also speaks for an entire race.

Mbizo: My  poetry  is  diverse  both  confessional, confessional in the sense of word experiences , so it  depicts  the  situations  of  the  entire  though the (I ) in most of my poems reflect myself as part  of the global concerns and a voice/representative  of the global community, myself and our concerns. I believe in the truth, my poetry is sincerely from my anger, my experiences, my happiness, my surroundings and everything I hear, see and think. It’s then baked into imagery, satire, paradox and irony not forgetting juxtaposition. Remember I am an avid reader.

​

Tendai: Your latest poetry is openly political. Do you feel you still achieve balance between social messages that’s the heart of political poetry with poetry as an art form? Someone might feel your poetry has lost the art as the social message dominates.

Mbizo: It is this same time that When Pharaoh abused and ill-treated the Israelites, it was not supposedly upon the messenger Moses to take charge alone but it was also supposed be Israelites taking charge to redeem themselves, the children and the elders from the chaos. Mr Mugabe a full time dictator in Africa has relegated our country to the dogs, his clinging on power, his rotten governance, his dictatorial tendencies has plunged us into somewhere, he has killed all the respect in us by his doings , he has failed my generation . I am a member of the corruption, gold-rush, jambanja, rerun, condom, drought relief, diaspora and musombodhoya generation. I am sorry I don’t have any kind words to the system that made many to die in South Africa, to die in LIMPOPO RIVER, to leave their beautiful homes, a system that have maimed, killed, and destroyed lives of many. We need leadership not ruler ship, Grace Mugabe must sit down- She is just a merciless, clue less, headless ranter, mouth slinger, we are already tired  of her before even she become an MP.  I am a politician; I don’t like to be one.  I am practicing the art of Creative Activism because our situation calls for that. We need a better Zimbabwe; we can’t make that one family squander the beauty of our country. I think that every form of art has a political message, it depends where you draw and how you draw the message as a reader. I am artist for positive change, an artist who has chosen the route of surrealism and realism, a poet working through the art of creative activism – CREATIVISM.