Poetavango

Botswana has a very rich oral tradition, which unfortunately can sometimes end in verbosity and never ending meetings, but lend people latitude for colorful interpretations and descriptions.

We have a cool organization in Maun called Poetavango.

Get it? Poets + Okavango.

Every once in awhile, they'll do a Poetry Slam and have poets in from all over Botswana and all over the world.

Slam poetry gives people an outlet in a society lacking resources for a large variety of recreational activities. It's a great source of encouragement and innovation since the culture is sometimes deeply rooted in the stringent functions of the bureaucratic machine.

Saturday nite I went to Poetavango Spoken Word Poetry and it's cool to see friends and other people I know and work with perform. People cover all sorts of topics and one person performed a powerful poem about his daughter and how her mother had died, and how HIV/AIDS had ravaged the world around them.

Just an example from DreddX, the chair of Poetavango.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Motivationalcoach?blend=2&ob=5#p/u/4/ALDrfFfYSIo