Photos: Morocco

I have finally posted photos from my Marrakesh trip on my website. Here is a taste and links to more:

General - http://www.waynevisser.com/photos_2008_marrakesh.htm

  

Architecture - http://www.waynevisser.com/photos_architecture_morocco.htm

  

Gardens - http://www.waynevisser.com/photos_gardens_morocco.htm

  

Markets - http://www.waynevisser.com/photos_markets_morocco.htm

  

People - http://www.waynevisser.com/photos_people_morocco.htm

  

For my poem on Morocco - Colours in the Dust - see http://www.waynevisser.com/poem_morocco.htm

For more photos, see http://www.waynevisser.com/photography.htm

What it means to be African (TV interview)

Today, I did a phone-in guest interview on VoxAfrica TV's "Shoot the Messenger" dialogue on what it means to be an African.  I believe it will be published as a video recording on www.voxafrica.com. 

Apart from my poem, "I Am An African" - which you can see on my website, here are some of the pieces from Ben Okri and Thabo Mbeki that I quoted: 

Ben Okri – Mental Fight

The world is not made of labels. The world, from now on, will be made through the mind. Through great dreaming, great loving and masterly application.

Thabo Mbeki – I Am An African speech (1996)

I owe my being to the Khoi and the San whose desolate souls haunt the great expanses of the beautiful Cape. 

I am formed of the migrants who left Europe to find a new home on our native land. Whatever their own actions, they remain still, part of me.

In my veins courses the blood of the Malay slaves who came from the East. I am the grandchild who lays fresh flowers on the Boer graves at St Helena and the Bahamas.

I come of those who were transported from India and China, whose being resided in the fact, solely, that they were able to provide physical labour, who taught me that we could both be at home and be foreign.

Being part of all these people, and in the knowledge that none dare contest that assertion, I shall claim that - I am an African.

Ben Okri – A Way of Being Free

The fact is that all organic things of single strain have short histories. Obsessions about purity of blood have wiped out empires.

We are all of us mixtures, and our roots are fed from diverse and forgotten places. The Yorubas of Nigeria trace their origins to the Middle East; some anthropologists claim that the real aborigines of Africa are the Bushmen of the Kalahari … the ancient Egyptians were black as well as dun-coloured.

This is the history of bodies. The histories of civilizations is even more eclectic.

My poem is on: http://www.waynevisser.com/poem_i_am_an_african.htm

Gifts (new poem)

There are gifts

(So many musely gifts)

That you gave

To me

 

Gifts I will treasure

Forever –

The view of the bridge

The popcorn curfew –

Forever gifts

I will treasure

 

Gifts that nobody can take

Away –

The scent of curls

The caterpillar kisses –

Away gifts

That nobody can take

 

There are gifts

(Such priceless passionate gifts)

That you crafted

For me

 

Gifts that will live

On and on –

Love letters to Heather

Picture perfect days –

On and on gifts

That will live

 

Gifts that I can’t imagine

Giving back –

A child’s poem

Black and white prints –

Giving back gifts

That I can’t imagine

 

There are gifts

(Such sparkling darkling gifts)

That we exchanged

Together

 

Gifts that were bursting

Surprise –

Islands where fish drum

Houses of starfish –

Surprise gifts

That were bursting

 

Gifts that still echo

Echo echo –

Lessons of flight

Colours in the dust –

Echo echo gifts

That still echo

 

Then there are gifts

(Such hopeful hope-filled gifts)

That I gave

To you

 

Gifts that could now become

Worthless –

Because I could not give

The true gift of giving –

Worthless gifts

That could now become

 

Gifts you will be tempted to

Throw away –

Because you deserve more

So much more than my gifts –

Throw away gifts

You will be tempted to

 

And then there are gifts

(Such hallowed haunted gifts)

I can never again give

To you

Print version: http://www.waynevisser.com/poem_gifts.htm

(2009)