Mandible

TJ Dema
Mandible

In Mandible, TJ Dema extends her performance space to include, powerfully, the page. Her poems emerge as fully rooted in the quite specific land- and cultural-scape of her country, Botswana, but confidently explore what can only be called a new and dynamic cosmopolitanism, one that is refined by flowing through the prism of traditional cultures and ideas. Her poetry is unabashedly about women, about the role of the artist in society, and about the uses of poetry. Mandible is a splendid introduction to one of the most assured and inquisitive poetic voices emerging in Africa today.

—Kwame Dawes