Spoken Word Rwanda!! Floetry in Motion

It’s rare to come from “outside countries” and find that the “other country” is way cooler than yours. After having been fed on “propaganda” of how clean the city is and how well run it was, it was about time someone came over and saw the “lies” first hand.

The utterly baffled narrator was utterly baffled to find that not only was the “propaganda” true, but it kind of even went beyond expectations, I mean who puts Christmas lights in the tarmac roads to dazzle us in the night time?? They should have been removed on Boxing Day for God’s sakes!! Aren’t there people on load shedding that need this power? Do they even know what load shedding is??

What was even worse was that at 5pm, more bafflement-attacks kept hitting the narrator, for electricity was just not going off, what kind of world is this? There is power for more than 24 hours straight?? 2 weeks?? What gives?? And when it rains, where is all the garbage that is supposed to flow right in the middle of the road?? And where, pray tell, is the dust? These hankies were not bought for nothing damn it!!!

The best part of it all though, was the cultural aspect of the whole thing, a “Spoken Word” session, only previously heard of in “Russell Simmons Def Jam Poetry” DVD’s that we used to borrow, that’s immediately after washing our hands of the accumulated dust on the way to the video library.

On the Kampala scene (busted), the closest that comes to a poetry session is the “Lantern Meet of Poets” where one recites a poem then the rest of the chaps attending tear it down like a bone in the jaws of a hyena, “I believe your talents are better placed in a local shrine”, the “critic” would confidently yawn, like it were Pop Idols and there are 20 Simon Cowells, what about??

Spoken Word Rwanda, on the contrary, is nothing but love for any soul that dares entertain whoever is in the crowd, well at least you tried.

Occurring every other Wednesday at Shooters Club (it also has a bar), the sessions are interspersed with song and comic relief from some of the presenting crew, while a couple of sessionists usually put us right back in our places when they rhyme in French, leaving some members cursing why they opted for Commerce instead of the lingua while in Senior 2.

Created by a duo of 2 literary scholars, who happen to still be in the category of “youth”, the sessions are reaching fever pitch levels, even soccer games, the ultimate worshipping alter for any African character, are ignored like a mad lumpen on a city street drinking boiled paraffin, if they dare show while the session is in progress.

Lyricists on the night we showed face (pardon moi, never to remember names) spat rhymes like they were auditioning for a hip hop class act, with some memorable phrases like: “my ex-girlfreind should be an actress, unfortunately if she found out it was a job, she would blow it…..”, “like a rabid dog infected with rabies, al attack you with my love and infect you with babies….I put the star in start, I put the cute in execute”, “voulez vous couche avec moi, cest soi….”

The last verse is forged just to show how the lingua was changing, thank you Lady Marmalade singers.

So come next session, we shall be representing the city of black gold….er, black dust, sorry there mate, hoping the theme shall be one of these;

“Pot Holes and their positive effects on tyres”, “Qualifying tips for the African Cup of Nations”, “Bribery Re-loaded”, “Embezzlement Un-Cut”, “The Positive effects of Tear Gas”, or “How to rule ……. like forever”, we’ll be on point.

Out!!