Dede Kamkondo contest draws mediocre entries

The inaugural Dede Kamkondo Memorial Poetry Competition, which is being run by the Wisdom Dede Kamkondo Foundation (WDKF), came to an end on Tuesday with judges Stanley Kenani and Shadreck Chikoti lamenting the poor quality of material submitted for the contest.

In his judgment, chief jury Kenani said none of the submitted poems deserved a prize.

“Strictly speaking, none of the poems submitted deserved to be named winner. Each poem has weaknesses you do not expect to see in works that want to be considered as winners in any competition. While the three winning poems have mostly been picked on the basis of creativity, the desire to use rhyme led to mediocre poetry,” said Kenani.

A combined judgment statement from the two judges reads: “For those poems that were written in perfect grammar, the themes were weak. The poems that fitted this category lacked creativity and sounded insipid. In some cases, such poems were too preachy and overly moralistic. Winning works ought to be good in all respects. In international competitions, for instance, a short story that has grammatical errors is disqualified automatically, no matter how creative. It would be better for us as a nation to raise the bar and be at par with international standards. Mediocrity should never be rewarded.”

The contest, which is run in memorial of the late writer and author Dede Kamkondo and sponsored by her daughter Towera Kamkondo who is based in USA, attracted 38 entries.

After thorough scrutiny, the judges settled for three poems to be awarded.

The poems in are Bitter Tales by Blantyre-based Paul Sizzie Phiri, Raped Dreams by third year Mzuzu University student Martin Zoloni and Desperate by Capital City’s Meryvn Naphiyo.

Phiri has received $100, (K40 000) Zoloni $30 (K12 000) and $20 (K8 000) has gone to Naphiyo.

According to national coordinator of the competition Pius Nyondo the money has been deposited in the winners’ bank accounts.

Nyondo revealed that they are already planning for the next edition and their focus is on how to improve quality of material to be submitted.

Kamkondo died on March 12, 2006. He is remembered for his poetry, short stories, novels, plays and children’s books. His novels such as Children of the Lake, Truth Will Out and For the Living continue to be read all over the world and can be found in US libraries, local bookshops and at the Michigan State University where he went in 1995 to pursue his doctoral studies.