2019 has been declared the year of indigenous languages by the United Nations. To celebrate our indigenous languages in South Africa, the Language Committee is running a multilingual haiku competition.  The winner will receive a copy of Russell Kaschula’s Displaced, a collection of multilingual short stories!

What is a haiku?

While the form of a haiku poem originates in Japan, haikus are written everyday all over the world. These poems consist of three lines. The first and last lines contain 5 syllables and the middle line contains 7 syllables. Lines do not have to rhyme.

To qualify to enter the competition, you must be a student of Rhodes University.

The haiku will be adjudicated based on:

• adherence to form (i.e. is the entry a haiku, does it conform to haiku conventions?)
• creative content (is more than one language used, what is the theme?)

Preferably, the subject of the haiku should relate to the topic of indigenous languages.

Entries should be original.

Please tweet your haiku or a picture of it with your student number using the handle @RMultilingual or email us at rumultilingual@gmail.com before 31 July 2019.