POETRY BOOK REVIEW: Infants of Dust - A Narrative Poetry Collection by Sello Chokoe

Defined as, a form of poetry that tells a story, often using the voices of both a narrator and characters, narrative poetry is exactly what Infants of Dust by young poet, actor and playwright Sello Chokoe achieved in his latest anthology. Chokoe's storytelling prowess betoken a strength of true originality in aesthetics of lived experiences. Paging through this short collection, one is brimful of gratitude that Infants of Dust doesn't only make a fascinating read but also has a more personalized nature of poetic utterance, a display of considerably greater stylistic versatility than fiction which is often constricted by the demands of social realism.

Infants of Dust book by Sello Chokoe. Pic: Khehla Chepape Makgato

Chokoe journey us into his multifaceted worlds with myriad of declarations to the writer: 'Think of the truth as you ink', to the speaker: 'Redeem yourself from fear', to the listener: 'Bear your eardrums in the air' and finally to the reader: 'Remember, the mind that reads is an imprint of a heart that leads'. The collection of 30 poems starts with Oppressed and concludes with Dreamers. He punctuates his narration with what seems like a letter or verse to his grandmother Batlile Ranoto. He acknowledges the endurance, loyalty and warmth his grandmother exuded in raising his mother and later him as a grandson. In the dimmest of darkness where hope seem centuries away, Chokoe vows that he will 'rise before creatures of night'.

Marveling at this 'unputdownable' pagepiece which can be enjoyed in one seating, you encounter best poems which have a confessional quality about social and economic pressures in South Africa which forces one to examine big words such as equality, economy, shared opportunity and the myth that is democracy and rainbow nation to mostly landless populace. In one of his poems addressing the rainbow question, Chokoe writes: 

...If this country is a church

This city is a tithe basket

White privilege standing at a pulpit

Preaching, fourth industrial racism

A rainbow singing praises of unforeseen colour blind

A congregation of miscarried revolutions

A segregation of whites cursed with riches and blacks blessed with poverty...

Here Chokoe chokes us with indisputable fact that 'land belongs to those who grew from it not those who landed'.  We are reminded of the poverty that comes with being without land. The brutality of colonizers who stole the land from us continues 27 years post apartheid. The title poem Infants of Dust concludes with heart-wrenching lines: 

Their village is where we learn

That life is but deep beautiful pain

We all need six feet to walk out of.

Chokoe's life describes some of the events which where the source of his mystical enthusiasm and poetic inspiration. His words characteristically contribute virtually in the shape of contemporary struggles of black youth facing challenges such as high rate of unemployment. His poetry does pointedly alert the reader to those underlying South African socio-economic tensions. He plays tribute to great black thinkers and philophers such as Steve Biko, Robert Sobukwe, Chinua Achebe among others. A trained eye on the works of these legends could easily pick it up through the stance of their convictions in the liberation of Africans from caged minds of colonization.

Infants of Dust is an exciting literary radicalism which since 2000s has appeared, sometimes furtively at other times boldly alongside Pan Africanism, African spirituality and African humanism. In conclusion I would like to borrow a line from Goodenough Mashego's foreword when he wrote: 'Chokoe's poetry habitually violates sanctums we deemed holy.'

The book is available directly from Sello Chokoe on 071 256 7031.

A review by Khehla Chepape Makgato

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