This was my first trip to Ivory Coast.In my mind I wasn’t bothered about an English boy visiting a francophone country, all that mattered to me is that I got there.
I was accompanied by Sir Black who I was to meet Tuesday 28th February,2017 around 9AM. I was late. I arrived at Accra-Madina, Zongo junction to be precise at 12 noon. Talk about making a good impression.
Upon meeting Sir Black, he asked whether I had a yellow fever card. With no as my answer, we had to visit the 37 military hospital to get the yellow fever injection before departure.
I told Sir Black that I hate syringes so he scared me into believing that it was going to be painful but it wasn’t lol.
From there we called the 2 idiots, met at the STC station in Accra, got our tickets and went straight to Busua to lodge at Africa Rainbow hotel.
We were up early the next morning. As we took off to catch the bus at Takoradi, I sketched a short love poem which was an inspiration from our beach visit.
The bus to Ivory Coast was 90 minutes late. Lateness however wasn’t going to spoil my little adventure. In three hours we were at the border about to cross over to Ivory Coast. I had to pay to get an injection for meningitis,then another amount for not having a passport.
A man named Saed picked us up and took us straight to the Goethe Institut. I met a couple of people from different countries there.We stayed in a hotel where I had my own room. There I marveled at Abidjan’s beauty under the night sky. That night I ate my first Ivorian meal, aky3k3 and chicken.
Not long the morning was here. I attended a conference about entrepreneurship. Three ladies during the conference recited their poetry. The first one was Line from Ivory Coast, second was Nira Blessing from Burkina Faso and third was Lydol from Cameroon, they were all great.
From there we went to a school to have The Master Class. It involved poets teaching the students the importance of poetry. I performed a poem called “The Harm” and even though the students didn’t understand what I was saying, they were screaming so much that I had to pause for a very long time before I continued. It was awesome.
That evening I alongside other acts had to perform. We each had fifteen minutes to deliver. Sir Black introduced me and I exploded on the stage. I did 4 poems non stop. I heated the place up even though they didn’t understand my words. The audience were shouting and clapping. Actually they called me the fire man lol. It was a great night to be a poet.
On Friday we went to the theatre to prepare for a show. I performed two poems and nailed it with some robotic dance as I performed. It was crazy. The place was all fire and lit you just won’t understand. I was surprised and confused as to whether it was the speaking that did the magic or my movement. Like Lydol from Cameroon will say, “You are full of surprises because anytime you climb the stage you do something different”.We give thanks to God.
All I will say is that if you get the chance to be involved with slam take it. Don’t do it for winning but you might not know, you can tour the world with poetry. I know some are scared to get involved but just come and play, it even helps you write better more poems. For me I will always slam. I did one collaboration with ma Cameroonian friend called “They Can’t Imagine”, it’s coming out soon watch out.