Poetry loving folks in and around Kumasi are about to start their 2021 year with an intoxicating poetry experience. As Abanus De Poet brings to their way an Arabic Poetry slam. First of its kind in Kumasi and, arguably, Ghana.
Anyone who has learned or knows a bit of Arabic knows that the Arabic Language is in and of itself a language of poetry. Just listen to the Quran. Oh my, there is no better piece of poetry than the words in it! The bedouins had been inclined to poetry generations before Islam. They had expressed love, humor, sence of peace and harmony, angst, passion, and authority in their oral works of literature, and folklore before even writing begun among the Arabs.
They had also preserved their customs, traditions, and tribal tenets through poetry and literature. Feuding tribes had engaged in poetic wars aside from battles in war fields, to show their strengths and power. In the same vein, Arabic poets have used poetry to broker peace between feuding tribes. In something similar to what Abunus De Poet is bringing to Kumasi, Arabian poets, met in bazaars to engage in poetic tags-of-war. Or rather, tags-of-peace.
On the first Saturday of 2020, January 2nd, a gaggle of Arabic poets shall meet at the Islamic Education Unit at the Kumasi Central Mosque to in a debate-style, exchange words of poetry. The most domineering in the judgment of the panel of judges will carry the day. For even people who don’t speak nor understand Arabic, it is a must-see event.
The organizer of the program, Shaikh Abdul-Nasir Alhassan Maiga, has himself participated in such slams while studying in Saudi Arabia. And has enviable laurels under his belt.
See program details in flier below:
