Haunted Walls, holding unspoken truths
Brimming as soundproof rumours
Dressed in skirts of nothingness
The cracks of ghetto streets
Hoist gravity.
At the cost of the lives before us
Which ponder whether the rain has a father
To cleanse the dried crops calling
To nourish bleeding deserts
And crumbled clemency
“First we bow
Then you put your hand in mine
Then we hold the moon hostage
While you move a little closer”
To humble my twisted tongue goodbyes
Trying to drink an ocean of dried tears
When memories crumble
The seabeds welcoming
Your drowning insomnia
Swim with the confidential files
Of life beneath SpongeBob nightmares
At life’s end
Snatched birthday’s from a distance
Platoon to a marching orders
Of smoking mirrors
Happily ever afters
Marketed for subscriptions
To Nestlé infatuation
Let us dance
To Marikana
Let us dance
For Hector Peterson
Let us dance
For Mama Winnie
Let us dance
To the wounds the Truth
And Reconciliation Commission
Could never recover
Let us dance, because big brother
Is still watching…
18 Years as Ancestral Messenger
Since age 13, Malibongwe has carried the imbongi tradition into contemporary spaces, understanding that poetry is not performance — it is prophecy, preservation, and political intervention.
His 18-year tenure has graced stages that serve as modern-day tribal gatherings:
Pietermaritzburg Poetry Festival — where the city’s colonial architecture trembles under Zulu cadence
Cup ‘O Thought — intimate ritual spaces where vulnerability becomes resistance
Tree of Poetry — grounding verse in the natural world, remembering that trees are ancestors too
C.S.P. Poetry Slams (Durban Edition) — competitive formats that sharpen oral tradition for digital age battles
U.K.Z.N. (Howard & Pietermaritzburg Colleges) — bringing sacred language into academic spaces that tried to erase it
The Backyard Arts Session — reclaiming informal spaces as legitimate creative infrastructure
The Live Experience (with 95 Photography) — documenting ephemeral performance as permanent archive
Bloom SA Launch Event — celebrating emergence, growth, the patience of seasons
Each platform is not a “gig” but a ritual obligation — the work of keeping stories alive so they can guide the living.