Litnet

This month, as the world celebrates World Migratory Bird Day, the AVBOB Poetry Project celebrates a brilliant, challenging new collection by Kelwyn Sole, an award-winning poet and keen bird watcher, with a particular love of pelagic birding.

Eleven talented poets – one for each official language of South Africa – were announced as the overall winners of the 2022 AVBOB Poetry Competition at a gala prize-giving at the Pretoria Country Club on Wednesday 21 September 2022. Here are the winners.

Stemme | Voices | Amazwi is LitNet’s series of 15 short, powerful monologues, presented in collaboration with Suidoosterfees, NATi and ATKV. In Siphokazi Jonas’ Mkhuseli, a fallen star whose memory was wiped when it fell to earth, stands guard at a shoreline to save the spirits of the drowned. Peggy Mongoato performs the monologue, directed by Qondiswa James. Watch the performance in isiXhosa with English subtitles here.

Stemme | Voices | Amazwi is LitNet’s series of 15 short, powerful monologues, presented in collaboration with Suidoosterfees, NATi and ATKV. In Jane Mpholo’s Ha wa lebona, Lerato gives her former best friend, Palesa, a dressing down after malicious gossiping did the rounds. Tankiso Mamabolo performs the monologue, directed by Mahlatsi Mokgonyana. Watch the performance in Sesotho with English subtitles here.

Stemme | Voices | Amazwi is LitNet’s series of 15 short, powerful monologues, presented in collaboration with Suidoosterfees, NATi and ATKV. In Jemma Kahn’s Not lost, a girl explains how she got fired while working on the set for a Barbie advert. Devonecia Swartz performs the monologue, directed by Jemma. Watch the performance here. The monologue text is also available.

Stemme | Voices | Amazwi is LitNet’s series of 15 short, powerful monologues, presented in collaboration with Suidoosterfees, NATi and ATKV. In Sifiso Mzobe’s Papa dearest, a man remembers his late father who kept smiling while fading away into the arms of death. Sonwabo Mpandle performs the monologue, directed by Gaerin Hauptfleisch. Watch the performance here. The monologue text is also available.

Stemme | Voices | Amazwi is LitNet’s series of 15 short, powerful monologues, presented in collaboration with Suidoosterfees, NATi and ATKV. In Fred Khumalo’s Ingoma kaTutu a praise singer pays homage to the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu and chastises the South African government for corruption and ineffective leadership. Zamah Nkonyeni performs the monologue, directed by Mdu Kweyama. Watch the performance in isiZulu with English subtitles here.

Stemme | Voices | Amazwi is LitNet’s series of 15 short, powerful monologues, presented in collaboration with Suidoosterfees, NATi and ATKV. Watch Gary Naidoo perform The fate of your soulmate, written by Paige Nick and directed by Rafiek Mammon. The monologue text is also available here.

Stemme | Voices | Amazwi is LitNet’s series of 15 short, powerful monologues, presented in collaboration with Suidoosterfees, NATi and ATKV. Watch Tshegofatso Mabutla perform Matlakala, written by Jerry Mofokeng wa Makhetha and directed by Mahlatsi Mokgonyana.

Stemme | Voices | Amazwi is LitNet’s series of 15 short, powerful monologues, presented in collaboration with Suidoosterfees, NATi and ATKV. Watch Motlatji Mjamba perform Country duty, written by Mike van Graan and directed by Chuma Sopotela.

"Sometimes first to fall
sometimes hang on through it all
Sometimes, somehow
they even make the final call"

"This is the end of the family
who once lived in the house.
And the end is otherwise quiet"

In Xolisa Ngubelanga’s Siwagawula siwarhuqa, a woman recounts how, as a school girl, she fell in love with a handsome gardener, Sakhumzi, and how the experience left her hands covered with thorns. Zikhona Jacobs performs the monologue, directed by Mfundo Zono. English subtitles. Stemme | Voices | Amazwi is LitNet’s series of 15 short, powerful monologues presented in collaboration with Suidoosterfees, NATi and ATKV.

Stemme | Voices | Amazwi is LitNet’s series of 15 short, powerful monologues presented in collaboration with Suidoosterfees, NATi and ATKV. Watch Buhle Ngaba’s performance of After tears, written by Buhle and directed by Amelda Brand.

"Soon I will be dead
It’s uncertain
When is the final curtain?"

"She plays a sound
Drawn from a deep-water source
She holds power"

"A love language,
Unhaltered, fragile, fluttering,
Mapped by constellations of emotions,"

"War is a nightmare, a nightmare we never wake up from.
A brutal shift in reality, a broken trust."

"hasten along the graveyard road,
with the body limp and pierced
on a rickety cart –
His soul pawned and distraught"

"I need the routine
Of the military the precision
I desire it after having sacrificed"