The Power of the Pen – Poems for Palestine
21.09.2024
As the state of Israel concedes its inability to achieve its stated war goals, while still obliterating Gaza, and as it adds a new goal – to get people back home near the Lebanon border – it proceeds to go inflict a high-tech mass terrorist attack on civilians in Lebanon, at this very moment in history, there was, some distance South from and slightly East of there, a solemn event being held in Mauritius in solidarity.
In the circular structure of the Municipal Council Chamber of the Port Louis Municipality, with the names of Mayors elected during the French Revolution engraved on a wooden plaque on the wall behind them, supporters of the people of Palestine met to listen to the reading, one after another, of the work of twenty-five different Mauritian poets who had prepared a poem each for the event. The event was called “Enn Poem pu Palestinn”. Yes, 25 Mauritian poets wrote either original poems in Kreol for Palestine, or translated poems by a Palestinian poet into Kreol. It was truly powerful.
It was the Thursday after Israel’s Tuesday remote-controlled terrorist acts of exploding beepers in people’s hands, killing people including children, and after Israel’s Wednesday explosions of walkie-talkies, with the weight of all those deaths and injuries adding to the on-going slaughter of the genocide in Gaza, that the event organized by the workers’ education association, Ledikasyon pu Travayer (LPT), was held. It was in the late afternoon, the sun slanting in through the tall windows.
The opening speech, wide-ranging and up-to-the-present-moment, was delivered by Cassam Uteem, former President of the Republic of Mauritius. His conviction on Palestine is legend. His role in Palestine support in Mauritius is, too. He was active in theatre in his youth, and is known for his support of literature. So, no-one could have set the tone more precisely and with more conviction than he did. In his speech, he introduced the metaphor used in the title of this article of the pen being not only mightier than the sword, but mightier than bombs dropped from the skies on a civilian people, half of whom are children. And he emphasized how Israel is granted its level of impunity by the support of the powerful in the West, particular of the USA.
Alain Ah Vee, presided, explaining how LPT is a member-organization of the Mauritian common front Solidarite Morisyin Ar Lepep Palestine, and how, as an association, the LPT has a tradition of holding poetry readings – like one against the war on Iraq, another against repression and for freedom, and one in support of the Palestinian poet Ashraf Fayadh when he was on death row in Saudi Arabia – and how poetry-writing is part of the LPT pedagogy, too. This reading, he said, is part of a series of actions – demonstrations, vigils, letters of protest, petitions – in support of Palestine that members of SOMALP have accelerated since October 2023. He called for us all to put pressure on the Mauritian State to join in to the South African case against Israel for genocide that is before the ICJ. Mauritius has experience at the ICJ, and should formally join the case.
The audience at the Municipality was young and old, town and country-side, men and women. The atmosphere was calm and determined. There was a feeling in the air that despair is turning to hope. There was a feeling that Israel’s impunity, and the impunity of its backers, will end, is beginning to end.
In turn, each poet read their poem or, for those not able to be present, their volunteer readers read their poems. Some poems were on the genocide itself, others on the hope springing eternal from humankind’s very humanity, others were on the defiant doggedness of the struggle against oppression. Some exposed the shameful inability, so far, for “the world” to stop the genocide. The late Bam Cuttayen’s poem, read by Kavinien, linked the Mauritian struggle over Diego Garcia and Chagos with the Palestinian struggle, with the strong line “enn lager pu fini lager”. And the Haiku’s by Chrisyl also made this link between the two struggles against colonization and militarism, through branches of coconut trees intertwining with branches of olive trees. Poems referred now to a swimannga bird, now to watermelon dripping down a chin then on to a hand and then down on to an elbow no longer blood and tears, now to the yellow rose grown by the Palestinian youngster who reports from Gaza each week for Electronic Intifada, Abubaker Abed, blooming in the midst of the rubble. Each poem was powerful. One poem was even on the lived experience of being part of a recent students’ “encampment” in support of the people of Palestine at his University in the UK. Each poem was short. Some were Haiku-length, no more. Two or three longer ones were less than a page. The totality of the poems created a strange tensile strength that carried in it the knowledge of future, though not soon enough, victory.
Here is the list. Just imagine listening to each poem:
Alain Muneean – original poem
Chrisyl Wong-Hang-Sun – original poem – read by Begum Budulla
Aanas Ruhamaully – original poem
Natasha Soobramanien – translation of Sarona Abuaker poem adapted & read by Gaelle Tossé
Soufyaan Timol – original poem read by Kashmira Banee
Ananda Devi – original poem read by Kavinien Karupuddayan
Kavinien Karupudayyan – read lyrics of Bam Cuttayen original song in Kreol by Bam Cuttayen
Shakun Harris – original poem – read by Sedley Assone
Sedley Assonne – original poem
Priya Hein – original poem read by Cindy Clelie
Jean Lindsay Dhookit – translation of a poem by Refaat Alareer
Haddiyyah Tegally – original poem read by Alain Fanchon
Lionel Lajoie – original poem
Carl de Souza – original poem
Yogmani Dausoa – original poem read and adapted by Darma Mootien
Jean Claude Coret – original poem
Yusuf Kadel – – original poem read by Corinne Camille
Lovenah Beeharry Panray – original poem read by Gary Homet
Alain Ah Vee – translation of poem by Fawaz Turki read by Anne-Marie Joly
Michel Ducasse – original poem
Sheem Sandooyea – original poem
Lindsey Collen – translation of poem by Mahmoud Darwish
Sudha Ramasami – original poem
Umar Timol – original poem
Tania Haberland – original poem
The event was moving, profoundly moving. And, in all the horror of the genocide and the threat of a regional conflagration, it was an inspiration.
It is hard to think of any other organization than LPT that could bring together these brave and generous artists – these writers and readers who know that what we do together is not merely the sum of the individuals, but also something more.
Written up for LALIT by Lindsey Collen
