HAMA TUMA AT THE INTERNATIONAL POETRY FESTIVAL IN BERLIN

THE 13TH ANNUAL International poetry festival in Berlin was held in Berlin from June 1 – June 9/2012 and Hama Tuma was one of the invited African guests. The festival is held every year and is sponsored (this year) by the German Foreign Ministry, AfricAvenir, Akademie of Arts (Kunste) Berlin, Literature Across Frontiers, the British Council, European Union, many other literature centers and embassies, African NGOs and Women’s groups, Institut Francais, Heinrich Boll Stiftung, etc…

Discussion forum with famous Egyptian poet and reporter D Fatma Naoot and the moderator professor Maureen Maisha Eggers, Kenyan

Isabel Ferrine-Aguirre, who had in the past facilitated the publication of the poems of Hama Tuma and Alemu Tebeje in a Chinese anthology of African poetry (“No Serenity Here”), was in charge of the overall proceedings involving the African poets.

Aside from Hama Tuma, the African poets invited to the prestigious poetry festival included professor Euphrase Kezilahabi, the veteran poet, writer and philosopher from Tanzania (now teaching in Botswana), the rising and well known poet, singer, actress and performer of Kenya, Ms Ngwatilo Mawiyoo and Egyptian poet and reporter Mrs. Fatima Naoot. The famous Kenyan poet Mme Micere Githae Mugo (Syracuse University, USA) was unable to attend for personal reasons as well as Sudanese poet Al Saddiq Al Raddi who met with specific difficulties that impeded his voyage.

Discussion on decolonizing the mind and the role of language with Tanzania’s veteran famous poet professor Euphrase Kezilahabi and the moderator

The festival was opened by the reading of the work of several poets from Japan, China, Canada, Macedonia, Tunisia, Greenland,, USA, Germany, etc….June 4 was a special African Poets Day dedicated to debates and reading of poems. Professor Kezilahabi and Kneyan poet Ngwatilo presented a poetry talk and brief reading of their poems. This was followed by a discussion period between Hama Tuma and Egyptian poet Fatima Naoot on the issue of war, loss, reconciliation and poetry. In the evening, all the African poets read their poems in English, Swahili, Amharic and Arabic. The predominantly German audience was moved and applauded the poets. Hama Tuma informed the audience that Berlin as a city has a special place in the struggle for democracy in Ethiopia as European student union annual meetings and that of the formation of the World Wide Federation of Ethiopian Students, and the first congress of the EPRP were all held in the city. Hama read his poem “Lenatoch Leihitoch”  in Amharic while the audience read the fine German translation made by Andreas Wetter. On June 5, Hama Tuma and Tanzanian poet professor Kezilahabi (the veteran fighter in the late sixties to make Swahili a recognized language of learning) held a well attended and vibrant talk at the AfrikAvenir center on the crucial issue of decolonizing the mind, the role of languages and the place of literature/poetry in all this. Several questions were asked by the audience and the discussion was lively. On June 6, Hama read four poems in Amharic and four poems in English for the Lyrikline organization (lyrikline.org) that has posted on its websites many other poems read by international poets.

On the sideline of the festival, Hama Tuma has met with dozens of international poets, writers, journalists & other guests, and taken the opportunity to update all of them on the situation in Ethiopia.