Oganga Mangiti: Creator of Emotional Poetry
“If I imagined a form of transportation that had not yet been created, I would dedicate my entire life’s work in creating it.”
Kenyan poet Oganga Mangiti is another creative exploring the BdA theme “Mi Soon Come” with the rest of the 2020 BdA Artist Fellowship cohort. Mangiti is passionate and engaged in a sustained search to express feelings and emotions through words. He describes himself as belonging to the Luo People of Kenya, who are part of the larger Nilotic speaking group of people, a people who originally migrated from the Sudan. Mangiti shared more about himself.
How did your people get you to where you are today?
From the Sudan, we migrated further south of the Sudan to a place called Bahr El Ghazel. Eventually due to conflict, the Luo people were divided into further different groups. Those who entered Kenya, are mainly identified as the Joka Jok, the Joka Owiny and the Joka Omollo, who are direct descendants of the Luo patriarch, Ramogi, who had three sons, Jok, Owiny and Omollo, who formed the different groups. The Joka Jok were the first people to enter Kenya, followed by the Joka Owiny and finally the Joka Omollo. I belong to the Joka Omollo, who settled in South Nyanza, of the clan, Jo Kanyada, who settled in present day Homabay County.
How do you know who you are?
According to me, knowing yourself, means getting to a point where you are truly aware, comfortable and confident in the decisions you make, and the person you are becoming, as well as getting to a point, where you have made peace with your past.
If there were no restrictions on how you move, how would you move?
My understanding of movement in this sense, means, the decisions I make, and how I physically move. If I had no restrictions on the decisions I made, I would make decisions that truly and solely spoke to my being, and with that in mind; how I moved physically would be directly determined by that, i.e if I felt I needed to move cities or countries, I move without thinking twice; if I imagined a form of transportation that had not yet been created, I would dedicate my entire life’s work in creating it; solely moving and making decisions based on what I truly felt.
What memory taught you about how you move or the expectations of your movement?
When I was a bit younger, I would fly from Nairobi to Kisumu and back to Nairobi. The most distinctive moments for me then, wasn’t really flying, but more of the experience. Whenever I could, I would take evening flights, especially from Kisumu to Nairobi, what stood out for me most then, was evening, orange, setting sun hitting the waiting area at the Kisumu International Airport, creating a nostalgic mood, and in those moments, I would more often drift into reflecting on life, and at times write pieces. Being in that moment felt peaceful and a gentle reminder that there was something greater than me, and a greater purpose to this thing we call life; it made me hope. Presently, whenever I can, I travel in the evenings, trying to recreate that mood and be in that space.
How did you hone/cultivate yourself into the artist and genre you find yourself today?
I tend to think I am lucky, having found poetry as a way of expressing myself and deal with my emotions. It has become an integral and therapeutic part of my life, and a lot of what and where I am today, has been through constant writing, finding and losing myself, in the emotions.
What makes your particular approach to your work stand out?
A lot of what I put out is emotional poetry, poetry that is centered around emotions and leaves the reader feeling something, whether its emotions of pain, love or heartbreak.
What social issues does your art/creative work address?
My work tends to cover varied social and political issues. I have written pieces on police brutality in Kenya; the place of abortion in society, arguing both sides out, pro-life and pro-choice; I have written about searching for cultural identity; as well as different causes such as access of sanitary towels for young, underprivileged, adolescent, girls; and still searching for more social issues to discuss and start conversations about.
If you weren’t a creative/artist, what would you be doing? Or perhaps you are an artist/creative and doing other things. What are those other things?
I am also currently studying architecture, and recently graduated with a Bachelor in Architectural studies. For me, Architecture has come to mean a search on the effects of Light, Scale and Proportion on buildings and humans as well as trying to achieve sustainable design, and thus I am constantly engaged in exploring these four themes and working, to hopefully one day become an architect on top of writing and exploring different forms of expression through words and other mediums.
You can check out some of Mangiti’s work while you wait for the start of the festival.
Link Tree/Website /Instagram/Twitter/Facebook
Oganga Mangiti is one of the core artists of Bakanal de Afrique, the premier global festival of Pan-African Urban culture, community and creatives; see their new work premiering Nov 6- Nov 30, 2020, exclusively on www.BakanalDeAfrique.com.