How Often Do We Bend Down To Help The Children

How Often Do We Bend Down To Help The Children

by Dina Cormick

Compiled by Njabulo Ngobese

Today on National Women's Day, we continue to pay homage to the works of the women that have been responsible for being the voice that speaks for children's rights.

Dina Cormick is a Zambian native from Nkana who is known for her work as a feminist theologian and artist. Born in 1942, Dina has worked as a free-lance artist since 1976 from her studio in Durban where she has created numerous woodcut and lino-block prints to image the need for change. Her works have also been responsible for arousing political and social concern and challenging the particularly narrow vision of Christianity practiced by so many South Africans.

Dina Cormick's collections can be found in places such as the Constitutional Court, Pretoria, Gauteng; Harare National Gallery, Zimbabwe; Tape Aids for the Blind, Durban, KwaZulu-Natal; the National Heart Foundation, Johannesburg, Gauteng and the Durban Botanical Gardens, KwaZulu-Natal. Her religious artworks can be found in over 300 churches throughout southern Africa. Dina has exhibited widely in solo exhibitions in South Africa, Europe and America.

Poem:

Emoyeni

Marí Peté

She rose at dawn to catch a train,

stampedes  along   smoking buses

screeching brakes and bullet holes. 

In a sewerage ditch she hears a cry. 

Amadumbe ankles stop, aching back

bends low, banana fingers brush aside

fermenting fruit syringes and coke cans –  

She scoops him with the willow branches

of her arms.     Toes sink into clay belly.

He climbs her contours for birds eggs

in hollows of her nest, soft places

to sleep between her breasts.

He smells the sour breeze

of milk upon her breath.

Emoyeni = isiZulu for breath / spirit

Emoyeni

IsiZulu translation coordinated by Dr Maria Letsie

Wavuka ekuseni ukuyothatha isitimela

Ukugxobana namabhasi ethunqisa intuthu

Kukhala amabhuleki kanye nezimbobo zezinhlamvu 

Phakathi esitamukokweni uzwa ukukhala

Isitobhu saseMadunjeni, ezwa izinhlungu ngemuva

Ugoba kancane,iminwe ethambile iyaphulula emaceleni,

Emiphongolo enezithelo ezibilayo kanye namakani e Coca-cola

Wamcaphuna ngezandla zakhe ezingamagatsha omnyezane

Izinzwane zakhe zashona phansi emajukujukwini obumba.

Wamnyusa emnqumisa emnyusela amaqanda enyoni

Phakathi esidlekeni sakhe ezindaweni ezintofontofo

Zokulala phakathi kwamabele akhe

Uhogela umoya wobisi omuncu emphefumulweni wakhe 

A Brief Biography of Mari Pete (poet)

Marí Peté’s poems have been published in literary journals such as Fidelities, Botsotso, Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, on the LitNet website and in the anthology Collaborations: a Book of South African Art and Poetry. Her bilingual poetry collection begin was published by umSinsi Press in 2002. Marí’s poem “voorstedelike oggendritueel” (suburban morning ritual) was awarded first prize in the 2004 Woordgilde poetry competition.