Cynthia “Flowchyld” Marangwanda is a rising spoken-word poetry star from Zimbabwe. In her excellent spoken-word/ Hip Hop piece ‘Art of Invisibility‘ you can get a taste of her sharp mind and poetry. In the poem she is impressively destructing the general media portrayal of African women and then turning the piece into a celebration of African womanhood (see extract below). By the way: She is also nicely promoting Chimamanda Adichie‘s great novel ‘Purple Hibiscus‘. Cynthia Marangwanda has recently received international attention through her participation in the Poetry International Festival in the Netherlands. As proved in this poem she says her passion is “to empower,liberate and elevate girls and women through my spoken-word poetry and to be the poetic voice of my generation“.
“… I find it easier not to exist
in this world of mass media constructed images of a kind of beauty
most of Sub-Saharan Africa seems to lack
which means a darker skinned ethnic looking sister like me
is pretty much non-existent in the eyes of the global machine
except as the stereo-typical victim of poverty, disease and conflict
the concept of an intelligent, beautiful, natural African woman has to be a lie, a myth
because I can’t seem to find myself in your magazines, your movie scenes
your pictures dominate my vision
but in none of them do I find my own reflection
so I simply choose not to be there …“
in this world of mass media constructed images of a kind of beauty
most of Sub-Saharan Africa seems to lack
which means a darker skinned ethnic looking sister like me
is pretty much non-existent in the eyes of the global machine
except as the stereo-typical victim of poverty, disease and conflict
the concept of an intelligent, beautiful, natural African woman has to be a lie, a myth
because I can’t seem to find myself in your magazines, your movie scenes
your pictures dominate my vision
but in none of them do I find my own reflection
so I simply choose not to be there …“
Watch below the video for ‘Art of Invisibility‘, produced by Jo/ Champupuri.
Check out Flowchylds’ profile on Badilihsa Poetry and listen to her poem ‘Liberation‘ here (+lyrics).
Source : http://www.zimbojam.com
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