Poetry Africa is introducing an additional Slam Poetry competition to its annual Slam Jam that takes place in October each year. This time South African Slam Poets can participate in a special Slam Competition to mark the centenary of Nelson Mandela’s first year at school. Nelson Mandela started his school years in a small one-roomed school in the Eastern Cape in 1925. Despite the hardships endured he became one of the greatest leaders of our century. This competition is intended to inspire Slam Poets to celebrate Mandela’s enduring passion for education; and for Top Ten Finalists to win cash prizes and to have their poems broadcast on select radio stations in partnership with the Radiocracy Project.
Competition Rules:
Entrants are free to interpret the theme as broadly as possible. The poem must demonstrate how the poet’s voice works towards strengthening South Africa’s Constitutional Democracy.
South African poets between the ages of 18-35 and living in South Africa are eligible for the competition.
A poet may submit only one entry for the competition. Any additional entries submitted will be automatically disqualified.
Poetry Africa advocates for Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Creativity as enshrined in Section 16 of the South African Constitution. Poetry Africa will automatically disqualify entries that:
Submissions can be in any official South African language; but it must have English subtitles. Poetry Africa is streamed to a global audience and the use of English subtitles is for the purposes of being accessible to the festival’s global audiences. Many Poetry Africa participants have been invited to international festivals as a result of this broad exposure.
Props, costumes and/or instruments are permissible in the presentation of poems. We are looking for innovation, creativity and integration with multimedia that is original, engaging and inspiring.
The poem must be submitted in a video format (MP4, AVI). Poem/video must be no more than 100MB. The video poem must not exceed 3 minutes in total. Poets may not do introductions to their poems. Entrants will be allowed a 10 second grace period. Failure to keep to the length prescribed, the poet might be disqualified.
No, the poem submitted for the competition must be original and it must be the poet’s own work. The video must not contain other people’s copyrighted material. In the event that the poet uses any other person’s content in the video (visuals or sound, etc) it is the responsibility of the poet to secure the rights of use for such content. The festival reserves the right to request proof thereof. The festival is also indemnified against any copyright infringements by entrants.
Yes, you can, but it is your responsibility to obtain their permission.
No, the poem must be new original work. It should not have been submitted anywhere else (other digital slams/projects).
The poems submitted will be adjudicated by an independent panel of 3 judges. The decision of the Jury will be final. Neither the Jury nor Poetry Africa will enter intocorrespondence with competitors.
The following criteria will be used by the Jury to assess entries:
You own all the rights to your poem. However, by submitting it to Poetry Africa you give Poetry Africa the right to share your poem on Poetry Africa’s social media platforms?
Yes, you do have to complete an entry form when you submit your poem. Incomplete forms will be immediately disqualified!