The Dictator and the Heretic

Abstract

Building on the author’s first poetry book, Innocent Questions, this collection of poems as implied in the title The Dictator and the Heretic, muses and ruminates on the way things are and the need to question the logic of convention. In a poignant, palpable and provocative way, the author pierces the sacred “logic of the system” and with his rhyme and lyrics, lays bare a range of themes: corruption, exploitation and dependency in Africa; surviving under dictatorship and oppression; post-colonialism and decolonisation; the beauty of Africa; love, heartbreak and hopelessness; and struggle, both internal and external. Using a range of powerful poetry techniques, the author refuses to surrender and instead promotes heresy against a heartless, soulless system of exploitation, unashamedly.

Readers will be introduced to critical counter orthodoxy ways of knowing and being; and new ways of perceiving and understanding their constructions of reality if they are able to find the treasures buried in this collection of poems.