REVIEW

TurfWRITE; Retrieved from File 13

It's been some time since I last read a copy of TurfWRITE (University of Limpopo's inhouse Journal of Creative Writing). Actually, the last one I have was published five years ago. I scanned it twice and threw it in File 13.

My reasons at the time were quite valid. See, a few months earlier I met the editor of the collection Professor John Ruganda over dinner and we discussed the arts. Okay, one of the few things people need to know about me is that your title of Professor, Doctor, Her Royal Highness, President, Chief Executive Officer, Chairperson, etc does not matter to me but the person behind it. (Hendriek Verwoed was a medical doctor so I have my reservations)

Like Martin Luther King declared, I relate to you based on the content of your character because while I've got a commoner's title I have a character stronger than many of the titles I earlier mentioned.

So, I'm chatting to the prof and he says to me I should send some of my poetry and prose to him (editor) so that he can publish in TurfWRITE. So, I sample a few rantings and ravings and snailmail to Sovenga.

Months later TurfWRITE pops up in my mailbox and my shit is not there. I quickly read through it, from The Spinster and the Feeder of Cats and Dogs by Professor Taban Lo Liyong to Igereka and other African Narratives by Ruganda.

I can't help but be charmed by Dream Girl by Timothy Bitten and be shocked by the recklessness displayed by poet Kgafela oa Magogodi in his prose The Hole in His Heart; "'noma ungandibetha bhuti, qha mna, ndikutjile', he follows the blow with an english version to make sure that he's heard. 'i don't care if you beat me bhuti, but me, i fucked you'". Earlier on oa Magogodi crudely narrated an orgasmic moment; "he gathers all his strength to push him away. it's beership. naked & spraying his cum in the air. it drops on the carpet. phaa!!!". Then you knew oa Magogodi was in desperate need of a shrink.

Now I went through all the poets and prose and plays and book reviews of The Master of Petersburg by JM Coetzee, No Way Out by Carol Zintle Mdakane and Igereka and other African Narratives by none other than Ruganda himself.

The reason I didn't review it then is because I felt it sucked - big time. It was not cutting it for me because it was more of a Literary Digest than a book with its own Identity Document, more like a child who doesn't have an ID because the parents have IDs already. It has an ISSN 1560-2044 which to me was a birth certificate than an ID.

What do you make of the following facts; Lo Liyong's contribution is taken from an existing publication, Ruganda's Waiting for Nyamiyonga is an extract from The Green Leaf of Drought, The Ultimate Disaster by Oupa Mongwe taken from the manuscript Twilight; Four South African Tragedies which is now a book published by Timbila Poetry Project, and scores of poetry you've obviously seen before.

I filed it at 13 then and released it out now just in time to let you know; why I didn't review it.