Kumakanda

Cards (18)

  • Kayo chingonyi
    Accomplished poet who wrote Kumakanda, now in Edexcel's Belonging anthology
  • Chingonyi was born in Zambia in 1987 and the poem Kumakanda is set there
  • chingonyi moved to the UK in 1993 at age 6 after his father died, and lived in Newcastle, London and Essex
  • chingonyi's mother also died when he was 13
  • Kumakanda
    A rite of passage for young Livali boys in northwestern Zambia, where they are expected to cross a river to remove their childish estate and come back as grown men
  • chingonyi first heard about Kumakanda in conversations with an aunt, which opened up a space in his work to write about feelings of loss
  • chingonyi's approach to poetry
    He resists the idea that the poems are his story in an authoritative way, instead wanting the reader to reflect on the poem in relation to their own life
  • chingonyi: '"I resist the idea that the poems are my story in any authoritative way. The act of creativity is to ask how I can move beyond that into sharing with someone a text or a poem that encourages them to reflect on certain things in their own life."'
  • Kumakanda is a free verse poem organised into three six-line stanzas, each relating to different stages in chingonyi's life
  • Kumakanda
    • Sense of continuous thought and reflection
    • Use of personal pronoun 'I' creates intimacy
    • Explores themes of youth, masculinity, family, loss
  • chingonyi did not participate in the Kumakanda ritual
    He matured in "small increments" rather than crossing the river
  • chingonyi's relationship with his biological father's people (Tata)
    He was anxious about being perceived as "unfinished" or childish by them
  • chingonyi's relationship with the "man he almost grew to call dad"
    More distant, with the man shaking his hand rather than hugging him, suggesting issues around masculinity and emotion
  • chingonyi's use of the word "auntie"
    Conveys a sense of familiarity, but also isolation as the adults around him did not show him the affection he needed as a grieving child
  • chingonyi chose a "yellow suit and white shoes" to dress his mother's body, which may reflect his childish innocence or an attempt to remember her in life
  • chingonyi's repeated use of the word "father"
    Highlights the conflict between him and his lineage
  • chingonyi questions how his "alternate self" who never left Zambia would view his "literary pretensions" and use of the English language, suggesting he is not fully comfortable in his role as a poet
  • The poem's circular structure, starting and ending with reflections on the procession of men that came before chingonyi, shows his Zambian roots are still core to his being