Weeping Becomes a River

by Siphokazi Jonas

Siphokazi Jonas is a weaver of seemingly discordant worlds; growing up in an Afrikaans dorpie, attending an English boarding school, and going on annual holidays to a village emaXhoseni during the transition years of South Africa’s democracy made this a necessity.
In Weeping Becomes a River she confronts the linguistic and cultural alienation experienced as a black learner in former Model C schools in the 1990s and early 2000s, then fashions the fragments to reclaim and rewrite her place within a lineage of storytellers.
Migrating between forms, between poetry and intsomi, she navigates the waters of tradition, religion, intergenerational experiences of rural and urban spaces, and the ways in which family dynamics affect the body. She is not only a referee of the raging tensions within her, but she also pieces together a language for pathways of leaving and returning.
Her poems grapple with the past, the present, and possible futures without forgetting that “the body is marked territory from birth, and the scent of it never leaves”.

Genres: Poetry

84 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 1, 2024

Reviews

[Diana Boynton · Rating 5 out of 5]

unique writing and wild book structure. Each chapter, words so carefully selected, reaches a climax and then boom it stops and I am faced with thought provoking verse before returning to the story and onto the next climax. As a white South African who grew up in the old Transkei the settings and stories were so relatable but oh so challenging. My head is spinning. Stumbling on the book at a fun launch a few days ago was fate. This book has earned a special place on my bookshelf.

[Jalisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was recommended to me by the staff at the Book Lounge in Cape Town. It is a poetry and folklore collection written in a mixture of English, Xhosa, and Zulu that interrogates what is lost, broken, and reimagined as one navigates the loss of their mother tongue to assimilate in South African culture. It's been a good practice in slowing down, researching, translating and really sitting with the work. It requires a bit more rigor which is really good. I rarely read poetry, but I want to step outside of my comfort zone a bit. I rate it a 3.5/5 and would likely rate it higher if I had more cultural context so it the rating is more a reflection of my shortcomings than anything.

Some excerpts that stuck out to me:

Her brother will leave for the mountain
And return to ululation
The girls are sent into the wilderness
With warnings of unseen, shepherds in heat
Whose eyes tend to both cattle and our bodies
Our mothers baptizing us in the name of
Their wounds and other hand me downs
We emerge from the watery grave
Eyes opened and we cross our legs when we sit

--

Look at all these pages
I am heir to women
Who bore the weight of the river
On their heads
Without spilling

--

Grief is a widow with long legs that needs to stretch when she sits.

[Letticia Collet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh Siphokazi Jonas. This was so refreshing. I have read two poems a while ago. Then the audio came. What a privilege it was to be immersed in this experience; audio and physical book in hand.

It's definitely different to the norm of what I know of a collection of poems. Jonas migrate from poetry to storytelling with a mix of vernacular, staying true to her roots, culture, home, upbringing, and all she had experience both past and present. It's nuanced, it's lyrical, it's language for our time.

Siphokazi Jonas is definitely a voice to listen to if you have a big love for poetry; and especially when you're South African.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know very little about poetry, but these poems have a way to speak to your heart and evoke poignant images. They are relatable yet foreign, hers but also sometimes mine.

Thank you for writing this.

[Hannah McDonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful.