The work of Ekere Tallie

I spent eight months teaching English Communication Skills at Rundu College of Education in Namibia . During my last term there, I had six classes and it became apparent quickly that they all had an abundance of creativity. The students in four of my classes were third-years scheduled to go into the field and teach in four months; the other two classes were made up of all new students.

For me, teaching English is a great opportunity to learn about the people in the classroom, it’s an opportune time to do creative stuff and get folks to express themselves which is exactly what we did in our sessions. We all had to share ourselves, ask questions, find answers, look again and try harder. It was not always easy for any of us--my students would probably say that I was a bit demanding--but in the end we had a good time and I learned a lot from my students.

My third year students were overwhelmed by projects from other classes (and probably by that phenomenon we call senioritis) so when it came time to gather work for what I originally intended to be a print collection, the Rundu College veterans were slow in coming to the table with their writing. However, my new students were more than eager to hand their work in. What I have to say about classes 1A and 1B is that they had a mix of talent, charm and enthusiasm that excited me from our first meetings. After just a few weeks I was calling them my babies. These students were hard working, energetic and intelligent—even at 7 in the morning.

Because of hassles I had during my tenure in Namibia and disappointment with IFESH, the organization that took me there, I have been asking myself, ‘what exactly was the purpose of that journey?’ It could not have all been for my personal life or so that I could travel through three other countries in the region. When I sat down and typed up this work, the good energy that I felt from all of my students and the excitement of the classroom came back to me vividly. I could see them standing up to read their poems and stories, I could again hear their classmates' applause and encouraging comments on what they had written, and I could again feel the pride, the hope and the affection I have towards these students. These students—including the ones whose work you don’t see here-- made the journey worth it. Enjoy!

Mr. Alcohol - Juttah Mbambo - 1A
Hungry - Regina Haingura -1A
Love - Petrus K. Hamutenya -1A
Untitled - Erwina Likoro -1A
Secret Self-Portrait - Edward Diyeve -1B
Secret Self-Portrait - Mathilda Ndara -1B
A Day in the Hospital - Claudia Lilungwe -1A
Loneliness - Josophine Mufenda -1B
Exhaustion - Klementine Gaspar -1A
Self-Portrait - Thobias K. Rumeta - 1B
Secret Self-Portrait - Thobias K. Rumeta - 1B
It is Still a Nightmare - Andrew K; Kutenda -1B
Birthday Gift -Paulus Munango -1B
The Lost Key - Edward Diyeve -1B
Loneliness - Alex Tuneya - 1B
Untitled - Joseph Morrosy - 1A
Don’t Get Confused, Get Real - Mathilda Ndara - 1B
Excitement (excerpt) - Kristof Mangundu - 1B

Joseph Morrosy, Erwina Likoro, Claudia Lilungwe, Regina Haingura, Klementine Gaspar, Juttah Mbambo

1. Mr. Alcohol - Juttah Mbambo - 1A

I wonder where you come from

your home is the shebeen. People fight for you

they don’t go to church. You are very strong

you make big men and women weak

you have many friends

Children hate you, they sleep without eating

Because their parents are with you

Oh! You are so rude

You changed many cultures

the rich and the poor are your victims

you changed their minds

oh, how strong you are, sir!

2. Hungry - Regina Haingura -1A

Hunger beats small kids

forcing the elderly to steal

he makes people collapse

he stays with everyone

but he never wears clothes

he makes others thin

and weakens their bodies

he can also cause diseases

but if he’s not cured

he can kill

most of the people do not

like him, especially when

there’s no rainfall, people

think he’s coming

his best friend is draught

some people run away when they see him

but he always forces them to be with him

pregnant women say he’s a baby killer and men say

he’s an old man destroyer

but he can easily be killed

if food is there, well-prepared

3. Love - Petrus K. Hamutenya -1A

If you were a bird

I would fly away with you.

And if you were a door

You would make me your key.

You are always like an angel

When you come, you make me smile

When you go away

I’m like a house without a roof.

I will always be with my love.

4. Untitled - Erwina Likoro -1A

News is spreading like bush fire,

It is coming from North to South,

East to west,

Everyone is crying. Everyone is sad.

Because of this dangerous man

Who spreads so fast and easy,

He is so strong, that he kills everyone

He is strong as an elephant,

He doesn’t separate,

Rich or poor,

King or slave, black or white,

He doesn’t discriminate.

Nobody knows his mother or father

Maybe he killed them

Because he doesn’t know either

His best friends are people who sleep around,

his brothers are syphilis, gonorrhea and herpes,

he doesn’t have mercy or a sense of humour

scary, HIV/aids.

5. Secret Self-Portrait - Edward Diyeve -1B

I’m tired of wanting something

that I don’t get

everyday the inner pain in my heart

increase

my feelings are not shared with anyone

a chicken cannot be changed to be a rabbit

I’m 20 years old but emotionally

my feelings are older than my age

I do not know what it means to live

I’m afraid of myself, but I can’t

admit it, that’s what life

is made of

I was off track, but I’m trying

to get back

I’m proud that I’m part of this

World but not part of what the world

holds.

6. Secret Self-Portrait - Mathilda Ndara -1B

Sharing a friend is bad for me

this tells me that sometimes I’m jealous

deep inside my heart,

I feel natural and prefer to live somewhere

where nature is like Africa ’s

Smile is my natural being

I look at African nature

I feel green because of the beautiful colour

yellow reminds me of desert and sun

black makes me feel sad as it

reminds me of the suffering of Black men

and red reminds me of the blood we shed during

war. Colonialism is the beast I hate.

7. A Day in the Hospital - Claudia Lilungwe -1A

It was a very cold evening and this happened after I watched My Three Sisters on the 27^th of October in 2004. I never thought another evening would come again. I was rushed to the state hospital and it looked like the world had lifted up its heels against me, but that was not it.

With my eyes full of tears I saw nurses running up and down in the hospital looking for a doctor. Everyone was shouting, “Help! Help!”

I was just praying saying, “Oh God of David, deliver me out of this ocean which is full of pain.”

Then the doctor came with his three nurses all dressed in green clothes, I was lying on my back in a single room and I was told to relax and do what the doctor told me. All of a sudden, I heard the three nurses screaming, “Oh no, oh no! You are killing her. Push harder.”

I started to cry a cry of happiness and joy because I brought a queen into this world. Although she is not my child—she is a child of this world—she came into this world through me.

I was proud and excited. So was she. She smiled at me and I smiled too. We smiled silently.

8. Loneliness - Josophine Mufenda -1B

Loneliness is a kind man.

He looks like a policeman but he is a rebel.

He wears a green suit with black shoes.

He enjoys convincing people of things when they are alone.

He forces people to sway when they are alone,

but he never comes where there is a crowd.

He is as fast as electricity.

He enjoys knocking at people’s doors to see if they are alone.

He visits different people of different languages.

He speaks all the languages of the world.

He is not afraid of an individual.

He pleases sad people

and upsets excited ones

He is an extraordinary man

who never gets tired.

9. Exhaustion - Klementine Gaspar -1A

She is always without meaning

I see her walking alone

With arms around her shoulders

She wears all colours of cloth

She passes by with a sneer

Without a smile she looks at you

She looks from side to side

To see where to run to

She doesn’t want people to see or know her

Anger, fear and loneliness are always in her

When she walks, darkness is always by her side

Her knives are always on others’ throats

She crawls in the middle of frustration and despair

Galling disappointment and embarrassment are her routines

When things are useful, to her they are useless

When games are fun, she is bored

When life is easy, she says

“things are no longer at ease”

everything in her life has fallen apart

she is empty and desperate

she always drives to insanity and suicide.

Edward Diyeve, Mathilda Ndara , Josophine Mufenda, Andrew Kutenda, Paulus Munango

10. Self-Portrait - Thobias K. Rumeta - 1B

My skin colour is chocolate,

and I have dark hair,

I blink not,

I wear no glasses

my legs and fingers are straight as a eucalyptus tree,

I use my nose as a lion does

I like my character

11. Secret Self-Portrait - Thobias K. Rumeta - 1B

I feel guilty when others

look at me with a strange look,

I feel a bit changed

after watching a movie

I’m not a social being

I don’t whisper,

when it’s not a secret,

I make a lot of decisions

when alone

12. It is Still a Nightmare - Andrew Kutenda -1B

A loud knock woke me up. I sat upright trembling with fear, not knowing what was going to happen next. I knew that I had to do it “now or never.” Bang! Bang! Came the sound from the loud knock. I stood up and squeezed myself behind the closed door. I looked around for something to defend myself with, and on the floor laid a piece of timber. I picked it up quickly and stood back in that same position behind the closed door. There were hard knocks on the door, and pushes and pulls which eventually caused the door to open. Without hesitation, I brought the piece of timber down on his head before he could turn his face to where I was standing. He fell onto the rough wood floor and was soundless.

“Oh, Ben!”

It started at a bar called, “Keep Going,” where I was partying that Friday night with my two friends, Ben and Angelina (Lina).

After some glasses of beer, Lina started to complain that the place was boring and even the music was not satisfying. She suggested that we go to another bar. She said we had to go where there are many people and where they play music that gives life. That bar was called, “Steps.” It was about 500 meters away. Let us not waste our money on taxis, I suggested, we better go by foot. My friends agreed and we even enjoyed waking around at night. Ben asked if we could take a shortcut.

“If there is any,” Lina responded.

We all stood there in the street expecting Ben to give us directions to the shortcut.

After a pause he said, “Through the graveyard.”

All of us did not bother about the dangers of the graveyard. We agreed to walk through it. We jumped over the first fence because we knew that at the other end of the graveyard was a gate which was never locked at night.

We were about to reach the end of the graveyard when we heard someone running towards us while screaming, “Help me, I can’t get myself out of here. Please get me out of here.”

So we thought we should be good Samaritans for the first time ever. We went back to help the helpless man. Suddenly the screaming for help stopped and before we realised what was going on, four men surrounded us.

“I am the one who called you back to help me, and these three are my friends,” one of them said, ”All that you can help me with is money or you remain here lifeless. You are good people who came to help me with this problem. I have been watching you throughout the evening at that bar and I realized that you have what I need. My gun—“at this point he took it out—“will shoot the first person for today while my knife will cut the second person’s throat. Do you want to know who the first person was? Look over there.” He switched on his torch and shone it on a dead man lying in the grass. While staring at the dead body, darkness covered me.

I woke up after some hours and realised that I was bleeding from my forehead. I looked around but couldn’t see anyone.

“Ben, Lina,” I whispered. There was no answer. I saw someone lying a distance from me. I crawled there and found that it was Lina lying in a pool of blood. When I looked carefully I saw a cut in her throat. I shook her body and called her name, but no response. She was dead.

Ben was nowhere to be seen. I thought that he was also dead. I staggered up and tried to get out of that place as quickly as my legs could carry me but I couldn’t move that fast. I lost a lot of blood and this weakened my body but I managed to reach a place I thought was safe. I entered the old deserted house with broken doors and windows. I managed to push the steel table, the only furniture in the house, against the door which I had just closed. The darkness covered me again until I was awakened by those loud knocks on the door in the early hours of the next morning.

13. Birthday Gift -Paulus Munango -1B

I am a superstitious person. I call myself a fortune teller. As I was born under the zodiac sign Scorpio, I share this sign with many vulnerable people; many tame animals give birth on this time of the month when rain clouds gather and the pasture is green.

I never knew about the word “abuse” as an evil word, all my life I’ve known men to be superior than women. As I was raised by a single parent, it has been difficult for me to have all the characteristics a child should have when you are raised by both of your parents.

In our culture, fathers are supposed to show their male children how to do the farming, herd the cattle, make traditional weapons and take care of the family when the head of the house is gone hunting or visiting relatives far away. Boys were the heir to all the riches within the household, that is why mothers were not to wash their baby boys when they are a year old: it was regarded as disrespect to the head, it is a taboo.

As I said already, I am a superstitious person. People born under this star sign are not strangers to tragedies or abuse and every new night of the moon of the Scorpion month, I experienced scary, uncomfortable feelings. I heard voices calling my name in sleep. Of course, the voices were answers to my prayers from ancestors. They had heard my cries and seen me being used, abused, trapped and accused by mother earth. But I was not ready to go to that and of peace where suffering was forbidden. How could I leave my mother or my three little sisters? My father was long gone; he would never come back except as a memory. I was the head of the family even though I saw no image of him, but I’ve seen the figure of him giving me strength and courage to take care of his wife.

I was crowned the head of my family on the third day of November in 1981, that is the day I was born and the day he was long gone. My birthday is a curse day. I want to be born again and experience the joy of birthdays my whole life long.

14. The Lost Key - Edward Diyeve -1B

It was a happy life when I was a child and things never went wrong. I was cared for and loved by my Queen, the earthly God, my mother. She kept the key to my better life, and she told me that to reach the door to that life, streams of tears have to be passed. Life started to sink when my mother gave the key to my father and she was no longer a member of this sinful world.

It all began when I woke up in the morning. The sky was clear and blue, smoke was everywhere and I felt really down and lazy. My conscious told me that something was wrong. I could hear the voices in my heart telling me that my support pole had fallen, but I could not believe what I heard. The situation went on like that for the whole day.

It was around 15 h 00 when someone brought it in my ear, “Eddy, your mother has passed away.” The moment I heard it, I could not breathe and I lost my confidence and burst into tears. I was in grade 7. I was thirteen years old.

From that year upwards, my whole life changed and in whatever path I traveled, I had to sweat—pushing stones out of my way. My dad never told me he had the key, but I knew it by how he treated me. It was when I was in grades 11 and 12 that I knew I was closer to the door that leads to a better life. I believed that I had the power to push away all the stones that stood in my way, and that I was strong enough to cross the stream of tears. I was getting nearer and nearer, so I asked my dad to give me the key so that I could enter, but he could not, it was nowhere to be found.

“They key got lost,” he said.

I was left outside with somebody like me. Lucky enough, my elder brother got a broken key which was left by my mother in a box. I used that key and, thanks to God who sees those who suffer, the door opened.

I have experienced a lot. And I know how it feels to live without a mother. Now my dad understands the importance of me wanting the key. These years, he also helps me push away stones in my way. My life is slowly starting to float rather than sink.

15. Loneliness - Alex Tuneya - 1B

Do you know me? My name is loneliness and I was born in a country where there in no one. I don not bring trouble, but I bring many thoughts. I’m kind and gentle and handsome. I prefer to stay in isolated places. If you are at a party, I won’t be there. If you read, watch television or do anything to keep you busy, I won’t be with you.

I live in every country in secret places waiting for people to get isolated. I do not kill them, I keep them thinking of their lives, their friends, and relatives. That’s why I separate people: so that they can come to my secret place and think such thoughts. I am everywhere, but you don’t feel me when you are with others. I attack, but no attack is final, I might come back.

I live where you live

where there is life.

16. Untitled - Joseph Morrosy - 1A

When the world was cool, I was hot. When others smiled, I was sad. But why did it happen? It started where I come from.

The hot days and cold nights are still fresh in my mind. I can not wish to go back. Laughter was never a dream.

How did it start? Did it start with the roots or with the leaves? It all started with roots.

17. Don’t Get Confused, Get Real - Mathilda Ndara - 1B

Surely it took some time for me to distinguish between a man and a woman. I could only see that people put on different types of clothes and had different types of voices. And I always observed that my mom and daddy slept in the same room while I was not allowed to share one room with my older brothers.

It was in the morning and I was 13 years old. The sun began to shine. I could hear voices of dogs, chickens and people murmuring outside the house.

“Mathilda,” Mama called me, “breakfast is ready.”

I got up and stepped into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. As I was in the bathroom, I felt like I had to pass urine. As I began to remove my underwear, I saw red things on it. My heart started to beat fast, I was so frightened. The nervousness I felt made me so weak. I ran quickly to the bedroom and squeezed into the blankets. My mom began to scream, calling me again and again but I could not reply. What I thought was that I had a very bad wound somewhere else, that’s why blood was coming out.

My mom came into my room and tried to move closer to me.

“Mathilda, are you sick?”

“Yes,” I replied.

“Since when?”

“This morning.”

She touched me to fee my temperature, it was normal. She asked me to show her where the pain was. I showed her the blood in my panty, that panty was my fifth. I had changed them to see if the blood could stop, but it did not.

My mother began to smile and she looked so funny that I was surprised.

‘Is my mom a witch,’ I thought. How could she laugh? I had a serious sickness.

“It’s time to be mature,” she said.

She tried to explain menstruation to be but I couldn’t understand. I wanted my daddy to come and see my wound. My mother could not allow it because it is a taboo in our culture. She explained her level best until I understood.

They kept me in the room for a week. All those days I could not bathe. They taught me how to behave as a grown up and how to take care of myself. All this work was done by my grandma. After a week, they took me out, washed me and applied oil.

Sometimes natural things that take place in our bodies scare us, but to understand these things we need education from out parents. We should know that changes in our bodies are natural so we won’t be confused. Let’s get real.

18. Excitement (excerpt) - Kristof Mangundu - 1B

Is a beautiful lady who shows up any time. She carries a torch so that she can light anyplace. She always comes with her young brother, Happiness, and her little sister called Enjoyment. When she arrives she dries all tears and chases away her opponent, Lonely.