Agringada: Like a Gringa, Like a Foreigner

Zimbabwean poet Tariro Ndoro presents a series of emotive yet thoughtful experiments in what can and can’t be said in poetry – and indeed, words in general – in Agringada: Like a Gringa, Like a Foreigner. ‘Severing’, about a young girl’s experience of her mother’s absence, is especially memorable, but this varied collection contains much to ponder and savour. The widely acclaimed poems of Inheritance, by Athambile Masola, also offer the reader much that is evocative and affecting; her use of nature imagery and ability to convey intense emotion via spare, minimal description are especially noteworthy. In addition, readers conversant with both languages are able to compare the (original) isiXhosa versions printed on each left-hand page with Masola’s own translations of them into English on the right-hand one, which adds extra dimensions to their meanings overall. Finally, the multivalent voices of the 19 women poets featured in Gathered Seams make dipping into this collection a treat worth repeating regularly. Abigail George’s ‘Why does a Woman Write?’ – which includes the glorious line, ‘She writes to birth a country, read that again’ – and ‘A Corpse on My Shoulder’ by Tshifhiwa Hellen Munyai are particular highlights. Robyn Alexander