Ufalme Africa is a youth group in Mombasa comprising of youth with various talents like dancing, acting, singing and poetry.

I’m not sure whether to call POWO a workshop, a meet up, a talk or a series of lectures so, based on my creative license I have decided to call it a thingymabob. POWO is a thingymabob that brings together Poets and Writers Online  (can you see the POWO in there somewhere) together at the iHub to talk about oissues that affect them, how they can better their writing, the weather, pretty coloured cats and then eventually to watch a poetry performance or two.

As expected the mole took a trip down there just to see exactly what was going on at this thingymabob and here is a report on my findings. The event started in proper Kenyan fashion, late. I should add though that the Gill Scott Heron videos did lads to please the crowd of more or less 40 which consisted mainly of poets and writers and nothing can captivate such an audience better than the godfather of street poetry himself.

Soon enough though things began to take shape as the MC for the day, Ndanu took the stage and showed the crowd how to give love, a simple process that involved raises both hands to the front and then saying the word love like a black American from somewhere in the ghetto. This became our signature applause all through the event, all Ndanu had to say was give the man some love and the whole audience would go “Love” I must admit, that was pretty cool.

I don’t like MC’s I think they are irrelevant at many times and mosst of them talk to much. They are boring and have an ability to kill the vibe whenever they want to, it’s nothing business oriented, it’s just personal. Hence it won’t be shocking when I say I didn’t like the MCing style in this event. Given the love thing was a cool idea at times she seemed to be shouting into the mic and sometimes it seemed that just when she needed to keep quiet she had something to say, that being said she was okay, I’ve seen worse.

The technicals were good, the sound semed to be handled okay although there was a bit of delay in the adjustments and Ngwatilo didn’t seem to know how to use thos new fangled microphones (the ones you pin on your shirt). My main qualm hough is with the speakers. I may not beAllanShore, or Willy Mutunga for that matter, but I know one or two things about law. I strongly object when we make it seem that it has to be that mundane. Content wise they all had it spot on but I think they could have done better when it comes to execution all through the forums and presentations people could be spotted yawning in a corner.

Ngwatilo, as expected brought the house down with a series of amazing performances and Kenyan Poet seemed content sitting at a corner and tweeting. All in all though It was a cool thingymabob that was very informative and partly entertaining. All that one wonders when they look at the show in retrospect is why they didn’t do any better, it just doesn’t add up.

Photos by Robert Mahebo

© The Mole 2011