Grandmother’s love for poetry opened her world
Local grandmother and poet Champa Bositsumune never let her passion for poetry die. Instead, she used all the opportunities presented to her to get her poetry out far and wide, resulting in her work being published in numerous books and magazines, both locally and internationally.
Bositsumune is the founder of the Jaagruti Hindi School and a Hindu language teacher. She said her love for poetry started in school, where her creative writing was always read out before her class, and on some occasions, during the morning school assembly.
“I had a love and flair for creative writing, but stopped writing shortly after I got married. I still continued to read a lot. One day, I read an article in the Public Eye about the Poetry Institute of South Africa inviting people to submit their poetry for publication. I sent my first poem called ‘Man O’Mine’ and it was published. Following that, a few more of my poems were published by the institute. Can you imagine my joy?” Bositsumune recalled.
Thereafter she was approached by another poetry institute, El Shaddai, to submit her poetry, and her poem, ‘Through These Eyes’ was published by them.
After entering the True Stories of
KZN competition held by the Witness in 2003, her story was selected as a finalist and published thereafter. She was then approached by writer Alleyn Diesel and her story was documented in a book called
Shakti that was published by the Wits University Press.
Bositsumune’s writing also extends into the Hindi language. In 2009, she presented a paper at the World Hindi Conference in Durban, and thereafter received a call to do an article about Hindi and the promotion of the language in South Africa. The article was published in 2010.
Thereafter she started receiving invites from Bangalore and Mauritius to submit her Hindi articles about poetry, which is published in the Bal Sakha, a children’s magazine. So far, only one of her poems has been published in India in a book called
Viswa Hindi Sahitya, which is considered world Hindi literature. The poem is called
‘Seengh Kee Vyatha’, which means ‘the sorrow of the horn’ and explores Rhino poaching in South Africa.
In November last year, she represented the Hindi Shiksha Sangh S.A (HSS SA) at a function with the high commissioner of India in Pretoria. Her poem was well received by the Indian Commissioner and was published in the HSS.