“No Roses from My Mouth” .@drstellanyanzi’s collection of poetry (159 of them, some were seized) that was written in prison, is a deliberately provocative – and apt – response to a dictatorial regime that fails to see the folly of imprisoning writers 1/8
theelephant.info/features/2020/…
theelephant.info/features/2020/…
We have not had a book like “No Roses From my Mouth” this in this region. It is hard to think of another writer doing what Nyanzi is doing - A. K. Kaiza 2/8
From “No Roses From my Mouth”:
There will be no orgasm
Coming from my mouth
Who cares about pleasure during war?
Instead there is venom and acid 3/8
There will be no orgasm
Coming from my mouth
Who cares about pleasure during war?
Instead there is venom and acid 3/8
...in the African tradition, it is acceptable, if not ritual, to shame or protest through nudity – the elderly women in Nairobi who stripped naked in public to protest Moi’s regime in the late 1980s were not mistaken for pole dancers 4/8
When an elderly woman strips naked or uses obscenities, we do not ask if she is mad.
We turn to the old man and say, “See what you have done? 5/8
We turn to the old man and say, “See what you have done? 5/8
The state must break the body to acquire power, hence, the prisoners must sit on the floor, stooped, kneeling before the upright standing guards 6/8
The human body is power. Entire civilisations convulse at the showing of an ankle, shoulders, breasts. Priests and judges police the human body more than they police anything else 7/8
The human body is power…When a tyrant wants to show who is boss, it is the eyes and nostrils at which tear gas is aimed, the head is for the baton, wrists and ankles for manacles, the heart for the bullet of the firing squad 8/8
