Contributor Spotlight: Landa wo
Landa wo’s poem, “Okandja Irogo” is part of Bellingham Review Issue 80’s feature New Writers from West Africa.
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What would you like to share with our readers about the work you contributed to the Bellingham Review?
The poem “Okandja Irogo” is part of a larger manuscript called “Cabinda”. It is a work that is influenced by the history of Angola and Cabinda from the Portuguese colonial era to the modern day. This poem was born out of an eternal feeling of loss and of belonging to a mix of the main subgroups who live in Cabinda, the Vili, Sundi, Yombe, Kakongo, Woyo and the Linge. I am part of the so-called diaspora but I am fully aware of where I come from.
This poem was nurtured over a long period, almost ten years, as I am definitely a very slow poet who polishes again and again until the very last minute before sending the text into the wider world. I wrote this poem while keeping in mind the oral tradition in countries below the sand belt of the Sahara where memory has a special place in society. A poem that is written like a dialogue with my ancestors who are not providing direct answers but using a lot of sentences with double or triple meanings and where only initiates can really understand the true meaning. “You wrote to me one day” can be understood as “You told me one day”.
Our ancestors told us one day a way to stay humble during our time on earth. I had to write and let it go, coming back later to read it out loud, and making changes until the final touch. Maybe it’s an illusion but I have the feeling that some parts of this poem were born out of me borrowing from our ancestors in order to transmit this message to the next generation. Thus I am no longer a poet but a messenger just trying to deliver the right message with the right tone.
Tell us about your writing life.
I’ve been writing since I was a kid, a piece here and there, a sentence, a short story, an incomplete work and like most poets several notebooks with only a few pages written on. At 18, my French teacher, Miss Seguin in Libreville, Gabon, gave me a high mark in a written exam and asked me after the class if I was considering a career in writing, I did not take it seriously as I was young and wild. Still wild. She saw in me something that I would discover only years later. Every time I think about this, I am grateful for all my teachers who all provided some advice to help me become the writer I am today. Actually all these notes that I’ve been collecting since I was a child were actually snapshots of a reality that I am transforming today into complete poems and stories. I navigate between fiction, non-fiction and poetry.
In the early sixties when most African countries started the decolonization process, young talented authors of the time were very enthusiastic about writing about love, nature and so on but elders like Alioun Diop, the founder of Presence Africaine, reminded them that the priority was to use their talent to educate the masses and serve their people. I am not sure if I am talented or not but everything I write is for a purpose. And I do believe this is the role of the writer: to be engaged with society. Poets are not invited to the table to discuss the world after COVID-19. The feeling is that poets live on a different planet. This is wrong. In whatever new world is rising, I know we will need poets.
I am obsessed with today and I am involved in daily life through poetry. I use poetry to respond to current events. The poem “Beira” was written after the cyclone “Idai” made landfall near Beira city in Mozambique, “Algeria” a poem written during street protests in Algeria, “I can’t breathe” a poem in memory of Eric Garner and “Nos morts” was written in memory of Lamine Dieng . A poet should be a personal historian for people. If a history book is too heavy to carry during the day you can still walk around with a poem in your heart. I walk around with the poem “L’homme qui te ressemble” by René Philombe. Day and night, the poet must be a watcher on the tower looking for danger then responding to it with verses of hope.
My short story “Fanta”, published in Fiction International, was written with the idea of educating the public about the impact of discrimination in the workplace in real life for a young couple who simply wanted to build a life in Paris. “Isidore Mapota”, published in Grain Magazine, provides a view on the racial profiling of European Blacks in airports in Europe. The short story “Ramata”, published in Wizard in Space, had the goal of shining a light on black French girls who are struggling to find life partners for life as they fear white boys are attracted to them for fetishism, and black boys prefer white girls or light-skinned girls. Not only do black boys in Europe not date black girls but they also find it important to add insult by claiming that black girls are ugly and too aggressive. Black girls are beautiful and the poet must celebrate their beauty as did léopold sédar senghor with the poem “femme noire”.
In my writing I am really obsessed with the present and the experience of black communities from Africa and in the diaspora. All my work comes back to considering mankind as a unique group without races or ethnicities I have black and white nephews in every corner in the world from Dakar, Pointe-Noire, Libreville, New Jersey, longueil – Annel, Shanghai, Taiwan, Varennes, Rosny sur seine ,Yvelines, Rosegg in Austria, Montreal, Dubai, Paris, Cherbourg, Bagneux and they will grow up to become fine adults. Maybe I am naïve. But this idea helps to keep me engaged.
Which non-writing aspect(s) of your life influence(s) your writing the most?
Music and arts are of great influence. I am really into Ekphrastic poetry and my writing is also influenced by looking at art, especially contemporary art from Africa, artists like Montserrat Anguiano , Kudzanai Chiurai, Meschac Gaba, Nástio Mosquito, Chéri Samba, El Anatsui , Abdoulaye Konaté or Sokari Douglas.
Definitely music from Congolese Rhumba with singers like Franco, Les Bantous de la Capitale, Zaiko Langa Langa to politically-engaged artists like Kery James and Tiken Jah Fakoly. I also write poetry while listening to artists like Pierre Akendengué, reggae artists like Etana or Ijahman but also to various Kizomba, Salsa and Zouk bands.
What writing advice has stayed with you?
“Get to the point”. My teacher Mister Ntsebé Antoine in Elementary school, I can still remember his name after all those years. I was a 9 or 10 year-old boy at Ecole Batavéa in Gabon and my teacher provided this advice. I was so proud of my homework in French and he gave me a bad mark. He crossed my paper with the word “verbiage” meaning “waffle”. But the fact was that my ideas were all over the place. The assignment was supposed to be a one-page document and I arrived with something like nine pages. My mind went wild. I had a bad mark because he had to search to find the answer he was looking for in my homework. He explained to me that there’s nothing wrong with having lots of ideas but you have to learn to edit and get to the point, using only crucial information.
Even today I still apply this advice to my work. The poem “Okandja Irogo” was initially 15 pages long until I was able to condense it down to 2 pages. And I am grateful to the poetess Susanne Paola Antonetta who provided editorial advice on a couple of light endings, lines and metaphors to arrive at the final version of this poem. James Baldwin was right: “You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal.”
What is your favorite book (or essay, poem, short story)?
This is an impossible question to answer, but one book that made a great impression on me recently is Suzanne Cesaire`s The Great Camouflage: Writings of Dissent (1941–1945). I was also favourably impressed by the book “American Founders – How people of African Descent Established Freedom in The New World” by Christina Proenza-Coles.
As for my favourite writers from poetry, fiction and non-fiction I can cite in no particular order of preference: Mariama Bâ, Edouard Glissant, Derek Walcott, Ferdinand Oyono, Tchikaya U Tamsi, Frankétienne, Kei Miller, Fernando Pessoa, Dany Laferrière, Caryl Phillips, Charles Bukowski, Achille Mbembe and Dino Buzatti.
What are you reading right now?
I`m currently reading poetry by Doyali Islam, I.S Jones, Nick Makoha, Rebekkah Leigh LaBlue, Viola Allo, Rainie Oet, Yewande Adebowale, A Woman’s Body Is a Country by Dami Ajayi (Ouida Books), and non-fiction work by the French astrophysist Fatoumata Kébé (La lune est un roman) .
I am very interested in understanding what is happening in Sub-Saharan Africa in art and literature and from time to time I check two online resources Brittle Paper and Bakwa Magazine.
What project(s) are you working on now, or next?
I am currently working on two main projects: Omahingo, an epic poem in several cantos by Ngondo Moyula. This escaped convict from history is building a bridge between Africans from the motherland and those in the diaspora in Colombia, Peru, the USA, Europe and Russia. Building a conversation with the likes of Queen Amina, Yaa Asantewaa, Samory Touré, Njinga Mbandi Queen of Ndongo and Matamba, Sankara, Lumumba and Benkos Biohó.
The second project is a work of fiction with an ambitious black French young man who dreams of becoming the next Gaston Monnerville. As doors are closed to traditional political parties to include minorities he decides to join a far right party to climb the political ladder.
Anything else our readers might want to know about you?
Integration in a new community should not always be one way as it is really a two-way process. When I immigrated to Ireland with little English skills I took English courses but I also joined an intensive course at Drama League of Ireland, I then went for auditions and I got an 8-minute monologue as the messenger in Medea. I did my part to integrate into Irish society and Ireland also came to meet me half way by providing opportunities. As a society we need to integrate this two-way process for successful integration and a peaceful life together. I have had the opportunity to travel a lot in my life including going to fish shrimps in Taiwan, late nights in “Wan chai” in Hong Kong, long walks in Osaka and Seoul, visiting the Eiffel Tower in Shenzhen, eating lobsters in Danvers, heading for Point Almadies, the westernmost point of Dakar, and the continent of Africa visiting the “pont de Liane” in Gabon, the Gorges of Diosso in Congo Brazzaville, or Hill of Tara in Ireland, “Starnberg Lake “ in the Munich area but also driving through the “route des vins” in Alsace”. In three thousand years we will be all gone. We must relax and live a full life. I try a new hobby each year, such as photography, Salsa, Tango, painting, and cooking. The only thing I will never try is parachute jumping.
I applied to be part of the delegation to meet the first aliens when we make contact. I believe that scientists, the military and politicians are not equipped to be ambassadors. Poets and musicians should be in the lead. I will represent poets, there is one spot left for a musician.
Where can our readers connect with you online?
Social media is time consuming but I found one tool which works for me, I am 100% a Twitter poet and I can be found online @wo_landa
https://www.poetryinternational.org/pi/poet/17006/Landa-Wo/en/tile
Featured Image: “Gullied Massif in the Nereidum Montes” by NASA