that I had a poetic nature in me
that had been induced by
someone else but it was part of
me. So when I was in primary
school I never did much in poetry
but I would read the ones in the
books, maybe I’d be the one of the
few reading the poetry sections of
the text books. Then when I
really started reciting poetry on
my own terms as in something I
wrote originally, actually I cowrote the poem with somebody
but I recited a poem when I was
in form 4 in 2006. I was supposed
to write a speech, I’m a public
speaker as well; I was part of the
public speaking group of the
school. So they asked us to write
speeches, to deliver speeches for
Africa day, so I wanted to play
truant, and tried to run away so I
didn’t write anything. So when
the day came my teacher asked
me to deliver the speech and I
told him that I didn’t write
anything so he said go and deliver
an impromptu speech about
Africa Day. So the other members
of the club decided that I should
go last because I was the only
male. So I went on stage then
delivered a poem that I once
wrote. I remember one teacher
congratulating me and giving me
a large ‘stash’ of money
equivalent to today’s $20. I made
my professional debut at
Chinhoyi University in 2010,then
in 2011 I was on the House of
Hunger Poetry Slam stage-and
that’s when I started my
professional career.
64
GM.: What inspires your work?
MTG : It’s fortunate or
unfortunate that the things that
inspire me are the negative things
that I go through-the things
around me that affect me
negatively. I know that there are a
lot of things to talk about like being
happy, parties and love, but I feel
that I don’t quite do justice to those
things that’s why I let the Tehn
Diamonds and Junior Browns sing
about being ‘happy’ and everybody
will be singing along with them,
but you wont find me part of those
things. I write about stuff that I see
and things that happen to me.
GM.: How receptive are people to
the genre of poetry. What can be
done to improve the art?
MTG: Currently poetry has been
for certain people; if you don’t
know that there is poetry
somewhere then you don’t know is
for some people. Poetry is
recognised with Book Café because
the Book Café has a lot of arts
activities that it caters for-meaning
that the Book Café is the biggest
platform for poetry. People know
poetry is there but do not go to
where it is performed. That shows
that poetry has value but not the
value that it should have. I think
that poetry is secluded to a certain
class of people. Poetry should be
brought to the people and should
be relatable to everyone. We need
to bridge the that gap and remove
stereotypes from poetry.
GM.: You have done festivals
including Shoko and HIFA
what has the experience been
like. Any projects you are
doing?
MTG: Right now, I don’t know
what to call it an album or
something but I’m working on a
project that I entitled, ‘Nhau
Dzepadare’, then in English it is
called ‘Ciphers of The Ancient’which is a mixture of a lot of
things including music, poetry
and theatre. It’s more of a ribbon
tape. There is a connected from
one “track” to the next from the
beginning to the end but I
wouldn’t exactly call it an album.
I’m also doing collabos and
mixed tapes with some artists.
I’m also writing tracks for
consulting artists-lyrical content
that I just come in to add. I made
debut at HIFA. This year and it
was an elevation. It was different
because I didn’t know about 90%
of the people, so I saw it as an
opportunity for my artistry to
develop and grow. So because of
that I had an adrenalin rush
which was constant even before
I went on stage. I noticed as I
was interacting with people, I
could feel this energy different
from other even that I have
attended. The experience was
quite great.
GM.: You were a