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 The Infinite Word Festival, an annual spoken word fest put together by the Exodus Live Poetry (ELP) collective has become a must-attend on every poetry lover’s calendar. This year was no exception especially when it came to the musical element of the show that outshone the rest of the acts.
The usual dose of poetry was performed by the members of the poetry collective, with Andreattah Chuma getting a standing ovation from the appreciating audience.
It wouldn’t be a poetry night without social commentary and the ELP collective stepped up, first with Thembi performing a poem about racism imploring the society to stop looking as people as black and white, but ironically she finished the poem saying, “we are not black and white, we are just brown and pink,” which many would say is another way of colour coding different races.
Joshua Machao, helped by another member of the collective, performed a poem a little closer to home on tribalism and the tendency of Batswana to demean members of the so-called minority tribes by referring to them as “le” and “ma” rather than “mo” and “ba” that is commonly used in reference to people.
Taking a cue from the president’s recently introduced 4Ds that Batswana have been encouraged to uphold, poet Tshireletso Motlogelwa gave his own version in a poem titled 101 D’s.
ELP also roped in guests from South Africa and Sweden in the form of poet and former Y magazine editor, Kabomo Vilakazi, and hip hop artist Nthabiseng Mofokeng, as well as poet and rapper Henry Bowers.
Kabomo performed his first poem “I am your poet” to much applause and was then joined by TJ Dema on “Dreams are Evil.” Not to be outdone, Henry Bowers impressed with his simplistic “I am all out of dog food” and “I like the darkness.” Henry told the audience he wrote the latter after he was accused of only writing negative poems.
The ELP collective also brought in a much loved traditional flavour in the form of an elderly traditional poet Rantokane Pule, whose poetry was in contrast to most of the night’s American style slam poetry.
But it was the music that really impressed at this event, with Jah Revelations bringing a smooth background groove to most of the performances while Beat boxer KK performed some songs with Samantha Mogwe, former Idols contestant.
Guitarist and singer Stampore was a crowd favourite as he performed three of his popular songs including “Re Batswana” and “Go siame” with which he bid the audience goodbye.
Mogwana brought down the house with their traditional music and dance, with the “phatisi” dancers and the “Hosana” dancers getting the most applause.
Closing the festival was hip hop artist Nthabiseng, who in a surprise move, brought out Scar to perform with her on a song titled ‘What does it mean to be an African?’
Actor Letsomo la Tshipa was the host and he brought a funny element with his uncanny imitation of the President Ian Khama’s not-so-impressive Setswana.
By Gothataone Moeng
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Entertainment 
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