| Poet Julius Chingono Detained by Police |
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| Literature - The Literary Update | ||||
| Monday, 30 March 2009 08:32 | ||||
Page 1 of 2 Fifty-two year old poet Julius Chingono was briefly detained by police at the Zimbabwe Republic Police post in 1st Street on Saturday 21st March for reciting a poem that did not resonate too well with the police officers present.
^ Julius Chingono and the first stanza of the handwritten poem he read at the street event. Chingono performed the poem, entitled My Uniform, during the Zimbabwe Poets for Human Rights (ZPHR) organised World Poetry Day street recital which was held outside the police post at the intersection of 1st Street and George Silundika Avenue. Chingono was applauded loudly for his poem by the crowd that had gathered to listen to the various poets whose poems were all centred on human rights. His poem spoke about police and army officers who use their uniforms to get access to goods that are in short supply. After his performance, he was surreptitiously summoned into the post and questioned about the poem. He was released after about half an hour. This was only after some members of ZPHR intervened and explained to the officers the spirit of the event. There were no further incidences and the rest of the event went as planned. Chingono was born on a commercial farm in 1946 and worked most of his life as a blaster in mines around Zimbabwe. Between 1968 and 1980 his poetry was published in a number of Shona anthologies including Nhetembo, Mabvumira eNhetembo, and Gwenyambira. His only novel, Chipo Changu, was published in 1978 and an award winning play was published in 1980. His poetry in English has also been published in several South African and Zimbabwean anthologies, namely Flags of Love (Mireza yeRudo) (1983), and Flag of Rags (1996). He has contributed to Poetry International in the Netherlands. His latest publication is Not Another Day (Weaver Press, 2006), a compilation of poems and short stories that were described by Shimmer Chinodya as enabling one to “look at your own society with a detachment that lets you laugh.” Below is the poem that caused the blip in the ZPHR World Poetry Day proceedings:
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