By: Sbongiseni Dladla
Durban’s Albany Hotel saw Smiso “Slashfire” Sokhela launch his debut collection Wordography with a Pen (Grashyo Publishers). With his father and numerous fellow poets in attendance, he cited perseverance as the key to his success. Sokhela is poet, writer, and website developer at Awali Solutions. His career as a poet began when he first attended and participated in poetry sessions in and around Durban. Sokhela is a Co-founding member of Peumarella Artists where he nurtures young aspiring writers from surrounding townships in and around Durban. He matriculated from Hillview Secondary and later studied Information Technology at Durban University of Technology. Wordography with a Pen focuses mostly on children and women abuse as Sokhela writes about societal issues which people choose to ignore for fear of losing their lives.
Sokhela cited patience and dedication as instrumental in launching the collection. The collection also focuses on the inspirational people he has met during his poetic career. He mentioned that the happenings and traumatic experiences in the township of Umlazi were the reasons he wrote the collection and, at the launch, spoke of himself as “hope to any kid in the township that it is possible to be whatever that person wants to be as long as they stay focused on what they want to achieve.’’
“Some people never believed in me, saying that writing is for exclusive people and it’s not for me. However, I did not succumb all those pressures by ignoring them’’ Sokhela says. At the launch of his book Sokhela thanked the DDP (Democracy Development Program) which assisted him with funds to turn his ideas into a written artefact.
