If the human race was lied upon that, for every tree planted and protected, we shall be
successful, the number of living trees to be in existence would have outnumbered human
wisdom, because we are only interested in what we gain than what gives us the health to
gain what we need.” One sole purpose of creation in most religious crochets (both spiritual
and philosophical) will explain to us a tone and kilo that the creation and existence of
making was to be the caretakers of Nature and its constituents but has integrated to be what
the creator feared of harming its creation instead.
If we humans have the capability of destroying what we eat, what we drink, what we
breathe and draw our inspirations from, then we are no where close to be worthy of being
created as humans, we are animals in disguise confirmed by biology”. If the biotic factors of
our environment had the chance to speak our language in our voice, we would have
understood the damage we create by far but it stands impossible. They are voiceless.
Birthing the reason for EHALAKASA, a denomination of new generational poets stood in as
the bridge of hope to be the voices of the environment in what was dubbed
“ENVIRONWOMENTAL POETRY SLAM” with the stroll of advocating against the pollution of
green environment and the dangers being served in our next hour menus.
The national theatre of Ghana was set ablaze with lyrical fire and punch bars from 10 heavy
weight performance poets. This was a healthy competitive battle dedicated solely to the
environment and its related issues. The 3 round bouts which had the poets delivering within
3 minute was entertaining, challenging and informing, giving audience a treat of their time.
21st December paved the carpets for these seasoned poets to voice out their concerns and
convictions into the night of knights of audiences whose emotions were whirled into the
realms of laughter, of thoughts, of self guilt, of regret and of entertainment.
It ended in cheers, appreciation and distribution of value when the lyrical god and goddess
(WhoIsDeydzi and Philipa aka Phillin-Gee) earned the yeast of points to peak their advocacy
on the environment they were followed by Natty Ogli 2 nd , The Coven (a trio – Sika, Fante Girl
and Native Girl) and Faiba Bernard were both 3 rd the Handsfree and Jewell King Speaks were
4 th and 5 th respectively. The rest were O K de Poet, Amaze, Human Kind and Max de Poet.
The night was grace by two former slam champions from Abidjan, Ivory Coast namely
C’Katcha and Adam-Mots.
Sarah Güsten-Marr, Co initiator of Cultural Crossing and also Director of Gallery GM in the
UK offered a prize package of Five Thousand Ghana Cedis (Ghc 5,000) for the first three
winners; this will assist them to executing their winning projects. Other partners includes
Plastic Punch who gave away free reusable plastic bags to the winners and the audience
while Church of Climate Change offered 500ghc to the winner, a space to performance and
discuss issues related to the environment in 2020.
As part of the package the winner is expected to represent Ghana at the 2 nd Africa Cup of
Slam Poetry in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 2020.
“We are determined and devoted to cry out in the voice of the environment in order to
disturb the comfort of policy makers, until their comfort is disturbed to do something” said
Yibor Kojo Yibor co initiator of Cultural Crossing and Co founder of Ehalakasa.
At the end of it all, the environment won our hearts and earned more soldiers into
protecting Her.
Positions after the Slam
1 – Phillin – Gee
2 – Natty Ogli
3 – The Coven // Faiba Bernard
4 – Handsfree
5 – Jewell King Speaks
6 – OK De Poet
7 – Amaze
8 – Human Kind
9 – Max De Poet
EnvironWoMenTal Poetry Slam: A Case for the Environment
The National Theatre of Ghana in collaboration with Ehalakasa, will be staging a literati lyrical battle; a Case of the Environment dubbed EnvironWoMenTal Poetry Slam. On Saturday December 21, the sun will rise and shine, the sky will be clear and the midair around the Folks Place of The National Theatre of Ghana in Accra will become fresh and breezy. At about 7pm the stage area will be transformed into something similar to the Bukom Arena for the first and last bout of 2019.
Over the years Ehalakasa has been advancing the course of performance Art in Ghana and beyond. We are very passionate over issues affecting the environment and other related matters. As part of our corporate social responsibility, Ehalakasa, working actively in the creative Art industry; which is now considered the verbal space industry, deem it necessary to use this medium to voice out our position and make a case for the Environment. Poetry slam, is a form of art that allows spoken word artists engage in a 3 round competitive creative lyrical battle.
In this slam Judges will be selected from amongst the audience present with two environmental activists specially invited to oversee and also judge. 10 pre-selected poets will be slamming their own original self-written pieces (case) with or without props. We are glad to be having 2 young dynamic International Guest Performance poets from Abidjan – Côte d’Ivoire, C’Katcha and Adam-Mots to grace the night with us.
Winners of this slam will serve as Green Ambassadors for a year working alongside our partner organizations such as the Church of Climate Change, Plastic Punch and Cultural Crossing to help create more awareness on the need and how to safe guard our environment. We are also happy to announce that the overall winner of this slam will be representing Ghana in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia November 2020 during the 2nd edition of the Africa Cup of Slam Poetry.
Sarah Güsten-Marr, Director of Gallery GM in the UK has offered a conditional prize package of Five Thousand Ghana Cedis (Ghc 5,000) for the first three winners and this will assist them to executing their winning projects.
Saturday December 21st 2019
Folks Place, National Theatre of Ghana
7:00pm Sharp and a Cool 20ghc
For more information, support and partnership, please call +233205043980, +233208251894 or email: ehalakasa@gmail.com
A poem to serve as a prelude..
Mama Africa
Our home, our joy, our mother
Like a true mother
You birthed and encircled us with all we need to blossom, but rather
We wither under rain, as though in drought
Makes me wonder, in doubt
Perhaps
Are there certain deep secrets to success, you haven’t unearthed unto us?
Please do share, Mama, we are blind
We live in lack, lucky to have it all, yet we lag behind
Natural resources and minerals, we appreciate, but cannot use
I muse in agony as we misuse
Are we really blessed or cursed
O Mama Africa
Our home, our joy, our hope
Sad, isn’t it, that we keep looking forward to a brighter future but our present screams poverty, disasters and hunger.
Even more sad is that we are the richest continent in natural resources. In our present predicament, I wonder if this fact still holds. The increase in temperature has caused floods, drought and severe hunger. With the ozone layer depleting and the sun scorching than never before, we can in deed say that the future is bright. How ironic?
Over the past 25 years, the number of water – related disasters, such as floods and droughts, has doubled, resulting in Africa having a higher mortality rate from droughts than any other region. Between 2011 and 2012, a severe drought affected the entire East Africa region, and was said to be the worst drought in 60 years!
Now tell me, are we moving forward or backwards?
What kind of future are we preparing for our future generations?
Is this the best legacy we can offer and leave behind for the coming generations?
How did we get here?
Our gross disregard for nature, that’s how. Modernisation and civilisation have caused us to deplete the very things that keep us alive — trees! We depend on plants for food, oxygen and a host of other benefits. In fact, as we continue in this vein, we are not killing plants; rather, ourselves and generations after us, even before they are born. The chemicals and pollutants we throw to the sun bounce back to us in consequentially negative proportions. Without plants to protect us, we are doomed!
Despite the fact that the African continent has contributed the least to human factors causing climate change, Africa is the worst hit. It’s more piteous, however, that we are the least bothered about our predicament. We seem not to be aware of the situation; even after millions of people die from floods, drought and famine every year, we refuse to wake up and fight.
Solutions to global warming in Africa include effective planning of land use to avoid forest degradation, developing renewable energy, and limiting the expansion of coal – fired power plants. Although African countries have some of the lowest overall and per capita global warming emissions on the planet, we are also likely to suffer from some of the worst consequences of climate change. These impacts may already be unfolding in the form of droughts, famine, desertification and population displacement. In the context of high levels of poverty and malnutrition, the priority for many African countries is increasing access to energy services and improving the welfare of their people.
Africa, along with South America and Southeast Asia, have experienced a significant loss of forests in the past two decades. The Congo Basin Rainforest is the world’s second largest tropical forest and spans 700,000 Sq miles in 6 countries. Fortunately, deforestation and forest degradation in the Congo basin are historically low. New efforts are underway to ensure effective land use planning, balancing local subsistence needs with conservation. By pioneering new renewable energy projects and establishing forward – thinking innovation centres, many countries in Africa are looking to renewable energy as a solution to meet their growing energy needs in a sustainable way, while working toward practical adaptation strategies to migrate global warming impacts.
Meeting these adaptation challenges is the responsibility, not only of the African nations that are facing them, but also of developed countries that bear the historical responsibility for most global warming emissions. While progress is being made, much more needs to be done to address current and future development and energy needs on the African continent.
Africa, let’s effectively plan our land use to avoid forest degradation. Let’s develop renewable energy. Let’s fight for our survival and for our future. Let’s fight the growing canker that seeks to completely wipe out our existence. Let’s come together and champion this cause. For this is the only way we can be victorious in securing a bright future. A bright future for us and future genera
I was invited to participate in the 2nd Edition of the International Slam festival in Abidjan, Ivory Coast as part of my reward for winning the Ehalakasa SLAM in 2017. The event took place between 5th -7th April 2018.
We took off from Accra on the 4th April around 6:36 am and arrived safely to our destination around 7pm. The President of the organization, popularly known as Bee Joe warmly welcomed us and took us to meet the other guests from other countries and those within. It was a refreshing moment to meet amazing folks from other countries. The day ended with dinner. We were served ‘akyεkε’ with fish and chicken, their favorite meal.
Day One, 5th April was the launch of the festival. A conference was held at Goethe institute. Lectures were delivered by dignified persons from the immigration service who informed the audience about immigration and urged citizens to stay in the country to contribute their quota for development rather than illegally travelling outside the country at their peril. The conference was well planned with some poetry recitals from some of the Ivorians.
At mid-day, we embarked on a flash slam to create awareness about slam poetry. My group visited the University of Abidjan, we stormed the University reciting poems to attract students attention and invite them to the show that night. It was a great experience.
The night saw great performances from the slammers from participating countries at the Goethe institute. It was a great joyful night. It was my first performance at the francophone country and it was well received.
Day 2, 6th April was the master class. We visited an institution where we interacted with the students and educated them about poetry. We continued to observe the well-equipped mini library created by the headmistress of the institution.
Thereafter, we were taken to Institute Francais. This was the venue for our show that night. Institute Francais is the state of art theatre not even the National Theater in Ghana would compare itself to. The audiences were amazing that evening. They received us with cheer and smiles during our performances.
Day 3, 7th April, marked the final day of the slam. We had a tour that day to the museum. We were educated about how the colonial masters from France ruled the Ivorians and how the ivorians fought them for their freedom. It was an interesting moment to know about the history of our neighbors. We continued to the beach were we had more fun. Swimming was an interesting adventure. The day was a joyful one.
In the evening, we journeyed to the University for our final performance to veil the slam festival. The students couldn’t hide their joy by the spectacular performances we served them. It was a great night with mixed feelings as it was the final performance and an event to veil the festival for the year.
The next day we left the hotel around 7am to catch our bus back to Ghana. It was time to leave as planned even though we’d wished we could stay longer. Babi Slam was an epic event that would remain in my memory for years. It has been a great privilege for me to travel outside my country for the first time and to perform as a representative for my country.
My Gratitude goes to the Almighty for His Favors, Ehalakasa for this privilege to exhibit my poetic flare, Sir Black for his support, encouragement and guidance and not forgetting Jewellking, the 2016 Ehalakasa slam champion for his encouragement. It was a great time been with you all. It is my prayer that more of such opportunities come our way for us to embrace.
I would recommend that the organizers of Babi Slam should award slammers a citation that would someday prove their participation and also serve as an honor for their efforts. I would also challenge Ehalakasa to bring up such initiative in the coming years because Ehalakasa is the best poetry movement I know in Ghana and it is always here to make great impact. God Bless Ehalakasa! God bless Babi Slam!
The second Ehalakasa TalkPARTY is on Sunday 30th April, 2017, at the Nubuke Foundation. Our first edition was spectacular and a great way to kick off the tradition that Ehalakasa is known for.
Last month we had Kwame Write, who dazzled the crowd with poetry accompanied with music. A performance that is worth seeing again. This month we host the 2016 Ehalakasa Slam Champion, Jewell King.
Jewell, who recently performed in Ivory Coast is our guest artist for the month of April.
In addition to Jewell, Ehalakasa is blessed to have the following acts performing on the night as well,
BMM
Josh Infiniti
Derrick
Treva Reings
Wordrite
Philipa
Chas Boat
Lansah
Erzuah
Dzidefo
Ama
Ehalakasa is proud to paving the way for upcoming artists and hopes that more will come to participate and be part of the show this month. Tickets are 10 GHC.
For more information about the event and directions to the venue, visit our website at www.ehalakasa.com
