South African poet Xabiso Vili recently became the first World Poetry Slam champion at an event held in Brussels from September 27 to 29.
Vili, who was competing against 40 slammers from 37 countries, convinced the jury that he was worthy of the big honour.
In a conversation with IOL Entertainment, Vili said he manifested this moment, a decade ago, when he wrote it on his vision board.
“To say that this is a lifelong dream come true is an understatement. I am so happy to represent South Africa and the amazing poetry community we have here.
“This means we get to build such an extensive global network to further share this transformative work with the world.”
Recalling the moment when his name was announced as the big prize winner, Vili said: “I had resigned myself to not winning.
“I had told myself all of the many ways in which I had messed up my performance.
“Every single poet on that stage was magical and was preparing to celebrate whomever one.
“When they called my name and announced South Africa, I felt my knees go weak.
“I stumbled my way all the way to the stage.
“And when I got there, every single one of the 40 poets held me and celebrated with me and that is a feeling I will never forget.
“To be held by the world is an experience like none other.”
It was his through-provoking body of work “Forget How To Die” that made a lasting impression on the jury.
Elaborating on the inspiration behind the poem, Vili said “Forget How To Die is a poem that is a call to arms.
Too many marginalised people are out here dying and being killed by their own hands and those of society at large.
“Be you black, woman, queer, or differently abled, the world doesn’t hesitate to snuff people like us out.
“So, ‘Forget how to Die’ is a call to arms that says enough, that we have done enough dying, that we shall no longer be sacrifices, instead, we have come to live.”
Aside from being a multi-award awarding poet, Vili is a performer, writer, new media artist, producer and social activist.
Vili said he strongly believes that art offers humanity a path toward integration, joy and healing.
“Recently, I have been writing poems about dying black boys.
“I am inspired by life and its beauty and its horror and its joy and its pain and the many many small components that make up its whole, here, we can hope to begin to find the inklings of things that might make sense to us.”
Vili announced as the New Generations Featured Poet at the 26th Poetry Africa Festival presented by the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal from 6 to 16 October.
Commenting on Vili’s win, the director of the Centre for Creative Arts, Ismail Mahomed, said: “At the Centre for Creative Arts at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, we are incredibly proud of Xabiso’s achievement.
“He positions South African Slam Poets and the Poetry Africa Festival at the forefront on the global stages.
“Xabiso represents a generation of young South African Slam Poets who actively use their voices to advocate for more just social order.
“We are also proud of the advocacy work done by Poetry Africa curator Siphindile Hlongwa, to position the Poetry Africa festival on the global stage.”
As part of “Poetry Africa”, the Slam Jam competition this year will select the slam poet that will represent South Africa in the World Championships taking place in Brazil in 2023.
The semi-finals will take place as part of the regional forum in the ‘Our Future: Africa-Europe Dialogues’ series, hosted by the French Institute of South Africa (IFAS) on Thursday at 7 pm at the University of Johannesburg, Kingsway Campus.