FREDDY MACHA Freddy Macha comes from Kilimanjaro, Tanzania. He has travelled, lived and worked in Brazil, Paraguay, Germany, Scandinavia, Canada, USA, most parts of Eastern Africa and Europe. He currently lives in London. Originally trained as a joumalist, he worked for eight years as a reporter and columnist with the two Tanzanian Swahili&emdash;English newspapers. His Cultural Images weekly column in the Sunday News had a big impact on the cultural youth consciousness in Tanzania, creating controversy and discussion. Some of his poems won a BBC Poetry Prize and published in the Heinemann anthology SUMMER FIRES, London 1983, he was also a runner-up in the Commonwealth short story competition in 1996. He also self-published a collection of poems PAPIERKRIEG, (German/English) with Multi-printer Cologne, Germany 1986. He has done freelance work for the BBC Swahili Service in Brazil as well as workshops, performances and festivals, radio and TV all over Europe and south America. His new record KITOKO (Misic, Prosee, Poetry) was recorded in Rio de Janiero, Brazil and Quebec, Canada.

Poems in this collection:

EACH MORNING Text and Audio 12th OF NOVEMBER Text MAMA NYONYO Text and Audio

EACH MORNING
 
Each Morning
When I wake up
I don't remember what I dreamt
Last night
 
But whenever
I go to bed
I remember all the lies
& T ruths
 
 

12th OF NOVEMBER
 
When Mr and Mrs. God made the world they both knew:
Houses would glow, Flowers shine, Cars screech scratch with Laughter
Mrs. Goddess was the Ultimate Princess
Just like the Kings and Queens who rule Earth's Kingdoms with so much evil Today
Forgetting the past, working for the Future that seems Bleak
Like Star Trek video games
Distorted, Dignified, but, Worried.
 
Cockroaches used to live in Palaces
with Mosquitoes as their efficient Servants. Then came Adam-Eve & their Gang
they invented: Conquer, Plunder, Investment with Multi-Pesticides Pollution...
Everybody Fled!
Elephants, Snakes, Lions, Ruled the jungles
The Fish decided waters should be best hiding. Everybody started killing Everyone.
Multi-Pesticides, Bullets: Survival of the fittest.
 
Mmmh... Today.
Ladies walk Tall (Feeling low)
Men's eyes hide in fears, guns & beers
The drunk, drugged, stoned shout their myths of a Lost
. . .Erection.
Parents sleep in separate bedrooms.
Kids learned to Die of Loneliness, Restlessness, Confusion very early on
Loving Hip-hop, Ecstasy
becoming Masters of Spiritual Emptiness
(The Law of the Jungle that God Knows So Well)
 
Christmas Comes.
Families Eat, Belch, Embrace
But soon running back to Snow, Jobs & Taxes.
Extremists, meantime, blow Bombs: Create Fear
Talking of the End of the World. They love to Terrorise those with a Weak Will Power.
You are never sure when is your next meal!
You are never sure How Long You wil Live!
Floods! Hurricanes! Famines! Eathquakes! Wars! AIDS! Ozone Fear!
SPIRITUAL HUNGER....
 
God! Goddess! God!
Don't just sit there! You made this movie, please Sir!
Heal your House! Recreate Us! Bandages are Needed...
Mrs. Goddess Give Peace Makers and Lovers More Power!
Lets Dance the Choreography of Optimism...
God, do something your Highness!
Allah Waakbar...Allah.

12 November, 1994  Aylmer, Quebec

 
 

MAMA NYONYO
 
Mama Nyonyo
Kazaa Mtoto
'taka mnyonyesha
Maziwa hayatoki
'Kenda kwa Mganga
Mganga hayupo
Kenda kuzika
Mwanae kafa; Kafa kwa njaa
njaa, njaa, njaa...
 
Mama Nyonyo
has a new born baby
Wanted to breastfeed;
Bul the milk wont flow
And decided to go to the Doctor
Who isn't there
He went to bury
His son
Who died of
Hunger, Hunger
Hunger
 

Am Rheinbrauhaus, Porz, Cologne 1985
 
Freddy Macha