'' Black Consciousness Poetry is a movement that was started by four young men who established themselves as arts. Through the art of poetry they came to a realization that they need to raise awareness on the injustices that continue to plague their people.''
Black Consciousness Poetry stands for:
VALUES
a.Awareness: Being an African who acknowledges that the journey for substantive equality is a
long one. b.Self-love: Accepting who you are and what role you play as an African. c.Reparation: Providing assistance to those who have been disadvantaged by the system. d.Ubuntu: Encourage the spirit of inheriting the challenges of every African and making them your own. e.Bravery: Black Consciousness Poetry stands on the backbone of truth telling without fear of being labeled or challenged. f.The Woman: Embracing the African woman that raise the nation. VISION
Ours is not to make you conscious, but to make you aware of your unconscious behavior. To promote a united Africa. For Africans not to settle and to challenge the status quo. To see them investing in our disadvantaged communities. The empowerment of women in our society. Doing it for African people, your people,our people…
MISSION
a.Through poetry we aim to raise awareness and awake the masses from the injustices that still plague our people. b.To engage with students across all disciplines of study and to change their state of mind through poetry. c.To influence high school students through our poetry and the concept of academic excellence as a key to empowering the African people. d.To reunite every African with their history through truth teaching. THANK NOTES
As a movement we would like to give thanks to the artists, who contributed to this collection of what we have come to term as Black Consciousnesss Poetry, The reason, revolt as a title suggest to a reader, a revelation of meaningful insights regarding the past and current events unfolding in the black world, then this collection attempt to highlight few elements that a general persons, especial Black persons in the world that is ant black and continues to manifest oppression in totality. it also safe to conclude that by the virtue of contributing to this collection these artists can be seen as Activist, who seek to see their communities, their people conscious of the unfolding events. We think it will be less fair if we don't acknowedge these Artists by names, below is a list and their short biographies. Brother H.F Swarts
Hendrick Frans Swarts is a first born of five children of a single parent. He was born in South Africa, Gauteng, Vereeniging and raised in a township called Eatonside. He spent eighteen years of his life in Vereeniging and the surrounding townships before he left for the Western Cape, Cape Town to become a sailor in the SA Navy. HF Swarts is inspired by his upbringing and his family and the lived experience of people everywhere. Particularly the experiences of the marginalized, and those treated as minorities. He is passionate about life and living life motivated and inspired. Sister Lindokuhle Matina
Lindokuhle Matina was born in Eastern Cape, in Port Elizabeth. As an Artist who regards herself as a black women, who is conscious of her unconsciousness, hence she refer to herself as a hypocrite, she has and still declare that her love and respect for her people, black people. Has heeded the call of artistic expression. In her artistry, she express truth the best way she knows how, all in the name of healing herself and the black community, she once said ''that healing sometimes surfaces uncomfortable contradictions within us in our mission to liberating ourselves. but in the end i genuinely believe it will all be worth it.''
Brother Sazi KaMzibeni
Sazi KaMzibeni is from KwaZulu, in one of impoverished township call eMondlo, as many of his people was raised by a single parent, his beloved mother who manage to raise five children to fairly respectable adults. Sazi KaMzibeni's love for his people, black people. Has led him in a journey Activism and of different forms of Art expression, Art as being a voice to give meaningful critic and objectives on subject matters in a society, his writing is solely grounded on functionality and activism. Brother Mufasa
Oliver Matemane known as Mufasa, was born on 15th January 1988, in the early 2013 after reading Biko “I Write what I like” and deeply interogating his lived experience and his condition as a black person living in South Africa, his thoughts were organized and shaped to seek freedom for his people. He later found his expression through poetry and ongoing dialogues held among black people in various grave yards misnamed as black communities or townships. He, together with others organized themselves as an organization that seek to give black Artist, the platform to address black people's condition. Today he ''stand proud to announce that he is a poet and co-founder of Black Consciousness poetry movement, which was founded in the year 2014.''
Oswald Kucherera
Oswald Kucherera born in 1986 in Nyajena, the large village in Masvingo province near Great Zimbabwe. He later came to South Africa in 2009 after being retrenched from ZB bank, where was working as a Transactions Clerk. He had his poetry and short stories published by the National Library of South Africa,FunDza Literacy Trust and German journals. He is an author of the autobiographical novel 'The Exodus Down South' and a contributing writer for Science Stars Magazine. He is a human rights peer educator at Africa Unite, a stauch supporter of the struggle for freedom and independence for West Papua and a member of BCP. He writes to raise awareness on the issues of social injustices suffered by black people and also to keep our history alive. Brother Stacks
Phumelela Mdingi, his friends call him Stacks,he's a founding member of black consciousness poetry, he met his brothers whose poems are part of this collection, they met around 2014. Quoting Stacks : ''Back then they mainly focused on reciting poetry that was/is considered “conscious”, whatever that means''. he later proclaim "Latey I dont see the difference between “conscious” people and everybody else, it's all the same really''. Stacks is originally from the eastern cape, his mother is from eCentane and father is from eNgqamakwe. Quoting Stacks : ''Excuse me if I spell/pronounce those names wrong. I spent most of my adolecence in America, Baltimore Maryland and also in Prince Georges County.'' his mother is a nurse and she went there when he was a toddler and Stacks went to stay with her later on and came back to South Africa in 2011 and have been here since. His poetry is yours to consume and reject as you please, he hope you do feel something though. Quoting Stacks: ''This was supposed to be a short bio so I think I gave any key information you might need to know. Thank You''
