Session details
Thursday 15 August, 18:00
Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study (JIAS)
Join us in-person for Session II, with Congolese-born, Johannesburg-based poet Sarah Lubala and South African poet and series curator Maneo Mohale.
As space is extremely limited (max 20), RSVP is essential.
A Burial Hymn
Sarah Lubala
I
Bring the bitter leaf
the wild spinach
the kola nuts
I am gathering from scratch
telling the stone house
the thatch roof
the gun too large
for hands so small
the months of rice and
honey
II
Oh Lord
that I belonged
to any land but this
that I could not read
the currents
that the dirt roads knew nothing
of me
In these lines
I have tried to forget the words
by which we are known
III
I am told my poems
hold too much water
are charged with too much
weeping
I know nothing else
honeyed water for the mouth
lemon water for the throat
saltwater for the wounds
history is the dog at my back
hard by the heels
the profane stain of red earth
along the hem of every skirt
IV
The night my grandfather died
I stood in a long line at Home Affairs
awaiting a new name
forgive me
- - -
link to the poem on the Johannesburg Review of Books
Sarah Lubala is a Congolese-born poet. She has been twice shortlisted for the Gerald Kraak Award, and once for The Brittle Paper Poetry Award, as well as longlisted for the Sol Plaatje EU Poetry Award. She is also the winner of the Humanities and Social Sciences Award 2023 for Best Fiction: Poetry.
Her debut collection, A History of Disappearance, was published by Botsotso Publishing in 2022