Opportunity for South African Poets

Two years ago, Badilisha Poetry XChange travelled across African cities to meet and record the

work of the poets in those cities. The 2015 #BPXRoadTrip visited eight cities in South Africa,

Botswana, Tanzania and Ethiopia. During the road trip, Badilisha interacted with over 246 poets and

recorded 184 of which 100 are now featured on our growing archive.

We’re pleased to announce a new edition of our poetic journey. Badilisha is going on the road

again, this time with the specific intention of meeting with emerging and seasoned poets working in

indigenous languages. Our aspiration is to marry the language diversity of the continent with that

represented on the Badilisha platform. We are specifically targeting poets who write and recite

in Setswana, Sepedi, Sesotho, Zulu, Afrikaans, and Ndebele. To do this, we will be travelling

to Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape, North West, Northern Cape and the Free State in South Africa.

We will announce the specific tour dates for each province via Facebook and Twitter.

In the meantime, poets from the abovementioned provinces or whose poetry is in any of the

languages mentioned, please submit the following via email to palesam@africacentre.net:

Two written poetry samples (in any of the eligible languages)

One audio poetry sample (Voice notes and other mobile phone recordings acceptable.

Need not be professionally done)

A brief biography

A highresolution photograph

Poets will also have the opportunity to participate in poetry workshops with poetry professionals

from the different regions. Further information on this will also be shared on our social media platforms.