UNITED STATES-BASED Zimbabwean poet and speaker, Jacquelline Nyakunu, has released her debut poetry collection, which she says was inspired by rage and grief.
The collection, Entropic Dreams, comprises 30 poems reflecting on many different themes such as war, genocide, injustice and the erosion of traditional African value systems.
"When I began writing Entropic Dreams, I was full of rage, grief and urgency. I needed to vent — not just emotionally, but politically and spiritually — because the I felt like the world was unravelling," Nyakunu told NewsDay Life & Style.
"Everyday, somewhere on this planet, children are being crippled, lives are being lost and futures are being stolen. We’re living in a time where history is not just repeating itself — it’s bleeding over the present."
Nyakunu said it was unfortunate that wars and genocides continued to rage while those in power kept oppressing the powerless.
"And it’s not just people who are suffering — our planet is crying too. Global warming is no longer a warning; it’s a reality. Natural disasters are louder than our leaders. Injustices multiply like they’re coded into the system."
She said poetry was one of the most powerful tools for activism, adding that her writings were designed to give a voice to the voiceless. Nyakunu said over the past three years, she used poetry to address corruption, inequality and cultural erasure.
"Too many people are still not free. Women, children and people with disabilities are still begging for justice. Young boys are still battling drug addiction. We are still fighting to reclaim our cultural identity," she said.
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She said the poetry collection was her attempt to speak truth and demand more while imagining what freedom could look like. It’s a rebellion in verse, a lament and a vision — all at once.
Nyakunu said as a poet, she was "a mirror and a messenger" called to reveal what mattered most.
"The poet’s role is to notice what others overlook, to question what others accept and to keep reminding society of both its wounds and its wonders," she said.
Nyakunu said as a granddaughter of two traditional healers, her consciousness was steeped in African ethos, as that was a legacy running in her blood.
Born in Mutare, her regular visits to the family's rural home in Chigwizura village where she said she was "surrounded by stories, rituals and the rhythms of rural life" and "first encountered the richness of our culture — not as something abstract, but as something living, present and powerful."
Nyakunu said history studies at school stirred in her the desire to understand her identity as a Zimbabwean and an African.
"Reading about figures like Cecil John Rhodes or learning how human beings were exchanged for sugar and alcohol during the slave trade was not only shocking — it was awakening," she said.
"Some might say I’m too young to think about such things. But I believe that if the youth do not ask these questions, our future becomes uncertain."
The poet said young Africans had a duty to preserve their cultural values through acquiring knowledge about their mother tongues, totems, tribes and clan hosts as well as their national history.
The poetry collection will be available on Amazon soon.
