You Won’t Believe What I Squeezed Out Of an Award Winning Poet’s Brain

Tau Kelvin
Sep 5, 2018 · 8 min read
Philani A. Nyoni, Credits: Mgcini Nyoni

A few weeks back, I wrote Bulawayo Night Out: Movie Review and shared it on my Facebook page.

Got back to my page an hour or so later and found that 6 people had shared my post.

It never happened before.

So I thought of showing gratitude to everyone who had shared my review.

So I’m clicking on every link that shared my review, right? Liking the post and throwing “thank you for sharing” comments.

Then, I get to this guy’s post and I couldn’t believe what I saw.

He shared my review but then wrote:

“Mere mortals dabbling with the tools of gods. Check out the real shit in the first comment. Award-winning shit shot on the smartphone. Bitch.”

So I’m like, “What’s wrong with this guy? This is the best thing I’ve ever written.”

Just to feed my curiosity, I click to read the first comment, and I see a link to a “Jane the Ghost” movie.

“What kind of marketing is this?” I asked myself.

I thought he was a total asshole. “Only a douche bag would do this.” I judged him.

It’s not okay to judge. I know.

But I did.

Sometimes my brain just goes on to judge people without asking for my permission.

So, I really, really had this vibe to dislike him.

But after a few more shares and likes on my review, I released lots of dopamine and my brain totally wiped him off my memory.

About four days later, my Facebook told me that Philani Amadeus Nyoni wants to connect with you on Messenger.

He had sent a text to me via Messenger, and, unfortunately, it had gotten itself buried somewhere in my inbox and I hadn’t seen it until then.

He just wanted to “bring my attention” to their movie.

We had a chat (via Messenger,) and I realized (once again,) that I was actually a bad judge of character.

He’s really likable.

During our chat, he was honest about the hustle, he was down to earth and he was just actually a remarkable human being.

I watched the movie, it’s actually great and I said some nice things about it. It’s a short story.

And because he wasn’t selling himself or anything, he wrote, “There is a lot of great stuff out there.”

He spoke for many artists, in a good way.

And he’s an award winner.

Humility and talent are a winning combination, there are no two ways about it. So I got in a good vibe with him.

And automatically, all the parts of my brain that are solely responsible for “judging other human beings” were totally silenced.

Some of our fellow artists, after receiving awards, their careers hit a wall because their egos can’t handle the position where they are at.

And it’s sad that they start pointing fingers at the media, the system, the economy, the fans, promoters and so on. They don’t want to admit that their failure is the result of their own actions.

So I thought of asking Philani for a raw interview.

Why?

He’s achieved what most poets only dream of, but he’s still on the grind, he’s humble and still — hustling and pushing like he’s a new kid on the block.

Philani talks about poetry as if it’s something tangible.

As if, we live with it in our daily lives.

Maybe we do.

His perception of poetry is so amazing — it’s pure poetry on its own.

And because I didn’t know about him to this point, so I started asking him questions starting with what he mostly writes about.

Getting to know Philani

And interestingly, he didn’t hold back when it came to answering my questions.

So, I found that he doesn’t limit his creativity, “I write about all sorts of things: politics, sex, masturbation, God, religion.” He said.

His writings depend on what he’s feeling, where he is and part of the outside that interacts with his spirit.

“One glance and one word could rub me and suddenly I’m in a trance tinkering with words.” He says.

He believes that inspiration isn’t picky and someone once told him that, “Writer’s block is a myth developed by people too scared to listen to inspiration.”

As someone who has been through a terrible pickle and survived, he says it’s a kind of journey that will “grow you and prune you,” but what is most important is that “you’ve to enjoy the whole process.”

“Poetry is an art and a discipline, it will help you grow spiritually and make sense of the world, even for a fragment of a moment.”

The Take Away From His Poetry

As he went on about his writing, I also wanted to know what (since he writes about almost everything) he wants his readers to take away from his poems.

And he said people shouldn’t take anything too seriously. As we all know poems — they are just words, shit said when one is very happy and shit said when one is very sad.

“Poetry has a bad manner of coming to you at the extremes of the spectrum. And utterances made at such points are not to be trusted as the measure of a man or woman. Take whatever the poem makes you feel, all I was probably trying to do, was probably to capture that precise moment.” He said.

The Favorite Part of His career And His Least Favorite

I wouldn’t skip the question about his favorite part of his career, for anything, and his least favorite, of course.

So he told me an interesting story.

In 2016 Thabani Moyo, Memory Kumbota, Vusa Blaqs and some other guys, talked him into a “mad-dog mission.” He had shot a video and thrown some poetry into it, so the guys wanted to develop the concept and put it on stage.

TH (Thabani) would produce, Kumbota direct and Blaqs do some of the visuals.

When he eventually got down to finally writing the show, TH and Philani were the only ones left, in fact, TH was the only one left.

Philani just did it because he had given his word, and he says, “otherwise it was drunk talk.”

“The other guys had other commitments at the time, but we did well.” Said Philani.

Their show was titled, “Diary of Madness.”

It officially opened at the Harare International Literature Festival and he woke up to the best review of his life, in The Herald.

“That was the greatest moment of my career. I had outgrown the template and re-invented spoken-word.”

And as someone who considers himself an artist, I can tell you without the shadow of a doubt, I totally get it.

Fantasies are a necessary ingredient to living, but we keep them to ourselves and if it happens that we do reveal them, we get anxious and nervous about what people would think and how they would judge us.

If our fantasies get to be appreciated by the outside world, we feel like we are not slaves to our imaginations anymore, and it’s the greatest feeling ever.

Philani then goes on to tell me about his lowest moment which “visits” him more than he cares to admit.

“It’s the recurring nightmare of seeing the world fall apart and not being able to do a damn thing about it with these words I’ve been given. You see some shit and you know you have to say something but you can’t, the words won’t let you.” He said.

Finding Balance Between Writing And Social Life

He is someone who reads a lot and since I strongly believe that artists are entrepreneurs, I also wanted to know how he manages to find balance between his writing and his social life.

“Writing is a very lonely craft, I think that’s one thing that can’t be emphasized enough.” He said and I couldn’t agree any less.

“I spend more time convincing myself to write than actually writing, every day. You have to read a lot, like a very, very lot.”

Then he gave me an example of a poem he wrote, “Crocolanus.”

When Emmerson Munangagwa was famously fired from the VP post, he crossed the border and promised to come back and lead the country.

Social media found a tonne of humor there, while in the back of his head, he thought of “Coriolanus,” a Shakespearian tragedy.

He realized how the similarities were glaring and decided to write something with intertextual (or allusion) to the Shakespeare text.

Then this is one of the moments he said something that caught me off-guard because I didn’t see it coming, “Poetry is a very nagging wife. Once the idea is planted in your brain, it only grows until it fills your head and you’re forced to release it on paper.”

That’s a punchline and I wasn’t expecting it.

Like that was enough, he goes on to say, “It’s like an orgasm, as Arnie described “The Pump.” While this idea was festering in my head, begging for release, I came to the realization that I would have to read the whole text again.

I had to read a whole bloody Shakespeare, to compose one silly poem!

So unless you’re prepared to suffer such lengths, writing will humble you. But everyone needs a social life.

Most of my friends are in the fraternity. We are bad company to guys who aren’t and we have to live with it.

Somehow.

It helps a lot, and that’s when you realize you think you’ve stopped writing but what seems a jailbreak for a day is actually a walk around the prison grounds, because you are still talking about creating, about books and gossiping about new music, shows and such.”

Philani says he goes to the theatre as much as he can, watches shows as much as he can, without breaking the bank.

“In short — I have no social life.” Said the NAMA award winner.

Nuggets of Wisdom For The Aspiring Poets

He opened up about his career, a lot, and as someone who’s more experienced in the poetry world, I asked him if he had any nuggets of wisdom he’d like to share with amateur poets and he said:

“Run!!!”

And for someone who’d describe “poetry” as a nagging wife, I wasn’t surprised at all. But “run,” wasn’t the full story, he continued:

“Poetry will take over your life and there is no happy ending. But if you can handle that, for most of us have to, because writing isn’t really a choice. It’s like being born gay or left-handed; you’re just… like that… the only advice I have is the best advice I ever got and it’s been solemnly passed for eons from one scribe to another: JUST FUCKING WRITE.”

So this was my experience with Philani Amadeus Nyoni, an award-winning Zimbabwean author, actor, and writer who also holds the world record for the most Shakespearean in a manuscript.


Originally published at taukelvinwrites.wordpress.com on September 5, 2018.

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