WANPIS IS BACK!

                                                                            
One of those rare books that has haunted the general intelligentsia of Papua New Guinea as a new and independent sovereign state for the last three decades.

A book that many of the earlier generations of the 1960s and 1970s of Papua Guinea New Guinea grew up with.

 Indeed, a rare kind of book that finds its home only in the libraries of book lovers that love the cultures of Papua New Guinea.

And yet, the kind of book that appears once every three decades then disappears as quickly as it appears.

Always, it is wise to grab a copy.

Or wait another three decades for a rare chance such as this.

This 2012 republication: courtesy of the University of Papua New Guinea Press in association with The Anuki Country Press.

Currently selling at UPNG Bookshop for:

K55.00 (hardcover)

K45.00 (paperback)

CORRESPONDENCE – LOVE THIS!

                                                                              

Ia ora na Russell,

How are you ?

I'm pleased to have by Drusilla your e-mail,

So I can hope to have some news 

from you and your young writers,

I would like to congratulate you 

for your Awards in September,

It's wonderful !

I knew it by Drusilla,

And I read Anuki, sometimes.

I let you know that there is a possibility 

for you and for your writers to send texts, poems,...

to be published in an electronic review in Europe, 

Vents Alizés in Budapest (Hungria),

I wrote to Amanda Donigi also 

after having her e-mail by Drusilla

I'll receive the texts for the Pacific area that I'll send

as a member of the comity

 A Doctorant (French word) in overseas French literature,

and Pacific literature, 

teacher at the University of Budapest

would like to have your email,

So can I send it to him?

I'll wait for your response before sending  it to him,

Russell, I apologize for my English,

I do my best.

Well, I'm writing to you before living

tonight for three weeks to spend in France,

I hope to have news from you,

I'm very pleased to share this moment with you,

Warm regards,

Flora

                                                          

Flora, bonjour, at long last we are in touch.

Thank you for your kind words. They uplift me tremendously and I feel blessed.

I am glad you are in touch with Amanda and the rest. A very good crowd
to know in PNG literature!

Please forward my e-mail to those who wish to correspond. It is good.

I will see what I can send, but they might be interested in my 
SAILING ON A BOUNTIFUL ARK  
which I am compiling at present.

Good, until then

Bien cordialement!

                                                                               

PORT MORESBY IN HIGH SAVANNAH

                                                                                                                                 
Sun on light mist, the yellow
hills. Smoke, mucous sky.
An early riser casts
a glance at the sleeping sea
and yawns.

The day is a tired old earth
panting 80 degrees farenheit.
The afternoon brings in dusty wire
hair, and stomachs that are empty.
Then dusk;
burnt sienna clouds, sky:
a solitary mud lake.

We could love this city
a fluorescent lagoon
of suburban tropicalities;
areca drugs days
bahasa sunsets
ad no betel nuts
for the gods.

The fall of evening blinks out
silhouetted signs:
taravatu
itambu
nogat wok

from KWAMRA: a season of harvest

                                                                  

TWENTY-TWO WOMEN

By Loujaya Toni

Twenty two women
Sitting ducks
Shot at
Mercilessly
By trigger happy mouths;
A nameless, faceless number
Posing
Threatening shadows
Women in waiting
Wanna-be politicians
Hopeful governors;
Unknown but significant
Twenty two women
All wanting
In on parliament;

They are daunting shadows
Reaching in
To the men’s haus
Haunting his wildest political dreams
Forcing a hand in his schemes
Being
A very present number
At all
His deliberations
Seen and heard more
Than a mere apparition;
Twenty two women
Waiting their dues.

Posted courtesy of Tribal Mystic, Emmanuel Narokobi and PNG Attitude. A review of this strong poem with the emphasis on the line "A nameless faceless number" will be read at the Crocodile Literary gathering in September this year.

READINGS FOR THIS SEMESTER

We have a variety of books to read this semester. In the course "Modern World Literature" we look at Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" purely for its technical appeal. Many ask locally how relevant this book is to Papua New Guineans and the argument we come up with is the novel's power in the development of plot, drama, much suspense and excitement, and the memorable hour of denouement in works of fiction. We also look at the novel as a British novel as far as the English language goes and its very calmness of presentation. Question we ask, as a private aside perhaps, is that why would a woman in her mid-twenties or thereabouts sit away in her study and write a peaceful sounding when there is a war raging about her? Napoleon is about to conquer England, you know.

Other books looked at are those by Naipaul, and a good one, "The Namesake", by Jhumpa Lahiri. A student asks what part of Papua New Guinea Jhumpa Lahiri comes from and another replies, "Kerema." In addition, we look at Kim Scott's "That Dead Man Dance" and some of James Joyce's.

For the course "Cultural Studies II", a course devised by the late Dr. Regis Stella, our course texts are just twofold: Drusilla Modjeska's "The Mountain" and the collection of essays and interviews, "The Post Colonial Critic", featuring GC Spivak. Treating the latter as a central point of interest in thematics we place some emphasis on the phenomenon of epistemic violence: what it it? where do we find it? who uses it? and for what ultimate good? etc. Both texts become thoroughly, thoroughly useful in that sense.

Happy semester readings, students of Literature throughout Papua New Guinea!

ON LANGUAGE ISOLATES

                                           
"Emancipation Songs"

for Vera Nondai'isiri

Each Sunday I wake up
to a bright morning
I celebrate with my God
these songs of emancipation

That I am no longer slave
to my own words, to my own songs
to each word I utter -
nor see myself as a language isolate
like a Kasunda
of rural west Nepal

My songs
are the aftermath songs
of emancipation
songs of celebrations eternal!

Who was that reggae priest
who sang, "Emancipate yourself
from mental slavery"?

My songs are free
My life is freedom
I am slave to none

From SAILING ON A BOUNTIFUL ARK, a forthcoming publication by The Anuki Country Press.
                                                            

Our Jeffrey Febi Stands for Elections

                                                                        

Candidate for the Lufa Open Electorate, 2012 Papua New Guinea National Elections

SOMETHING HEAVY HAD SETTLED on my head. I thought I felt my brain inflate and deflate rapidly. I didn’t know I wasn’t thinking. Then I heard a sweet voice cut through this wall of dense confusion.

“Mane!” I turned and saw my concerned mother. The wrinkles around her eyes have grown, her hair more grey. And, clutched firmly in her palm at the end of a frail extended arm, a kaukau. “You must eat,” her voice sounding the more alarming because of its concern.

The scene was more of a successful gathering than one of failure but I, with less than zero experience in crowd control and management, was more worried than every other person who approached to greet me.

After I nominated to officially become a candidate for the Lufa Open Electorate in the Eastern Highlands, I met the crowd. They didn’t come in hundreds; there were over a thousand people.

Men, women, boys, girls, children and babies; some had walked hundreds of miles, taking days to arrive at Lufa government station to witness this event.

Others have flown to Goroka then caught rides on PMVs (public motor vehicles) to Lufa. They are the people of remote rural Lufa; those who sing: ‘They call us camels; they call us white horses; they call us semi-trailers…’

The ensuing excitement and confusion (as I saw it) was over a thousand voices to listen to and innumerable hands to shake and many more bodies to hug. It was overwhelming.

PEOPLE OF LUFA, THE TIME OF POETRY HAS COME. IT IS TIME NOW TO RAISE THAT SONG OF CAMELS, THAT SONG OF COFFEE WHOSE AROMA IS KNOWN AND TASTED THE WORLD OVER!

THANKS TO JEFFREY FEBI OUR BODIES AND SOULS NOW AWAKEN TO THE NEW SOUNDS THAT DAWN BRINGS. AND EVEN IF IT MEANS TAKING THE PEN RIGHT UP TO THE DOORSTEPS OF THE NATIONAL PARLIAMENT, THAT WE SHALL! FOR THE BENEFIT OF OUR PEOPLE.

LET THE WRITER WIELD HIS PEN IN THE PARLIAMENT. LET THE LAWS OF THE LAND BE RE-VISITED, REVISED AND RE-WRITTEN, IF NECESSARY, FOR THE GOOD OF OUR FAMILY, OUR COMMUNITY, OUR PEOPLE AND OUR COUNTRY.

ASK FOR A WRITER’S CHOICE AND THE WRITER CHOOSES THE WRITER.

PEOPLE OF LUFA! THE WRITERS OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA GIVE YOU JEFFREY FEBI. VOTE HIM AND YOU ARE VOTING THE SOUL OF THE NATION INTO PARLIAMENT!

I thought there was no order, and something was brewing. Any moment from now it would burst and someone would be hurt. A child, a man, a woman, anyone…

Just to feed such a crowd was no easy task. A group of men and women in their mid-30s made it seem less arduous. They, young and untested, worked on and on.

There were peaks and troughs, some of which almost derailed their efforts. But at the day’s end, not a single hungry soul was to be found.

I, on the other hand, with less village experience and knowledge, couldn’t envision a successful ending.

This, coupled with the day’s heat and smell of the crowd, almost laid the foundations for a brain explosion.

As the election days unravel along with their latent challenges, I am hoping and praying I’ll be able to cope.

AND THERE YOU HEARD IT ALL. THE VOICE OF THE WRITER!

JEFFREY FEBI FOR LUFA OPEN 2012! 

Wording by Jeffrey Febi courtesy of PNG Attitude. Additional words of support by The Anuki Country Press.