Funo's poetry album about life and society

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     Poetry & Literature

“Poetry is expressing my inner being. I use poetry to relieve stress and educate people,” says the female poet from Tshifulanani, Lufuno Munyai.

Lufuno, popularly known as Funo, has made an impression in Vhembe with her poetry album entitled My Heritage, My Identity.

Her talent for poetry was discovered in 2002 when she was still at Dzondo Primary school. Her English teacher, Mrs Maggie Luvhimbi, asked her to perform during the Grade 7 farewell function. “I performed the poem Dzondo, written Phumudzo Luvhimbi. I also performed the poem Let’s be proud of our own culture,” she remembers. Thabelo Tshikombeni was the one who taught her how to write poems.

In 2005, she went to Mbilwi Secondary School, where she continued with her poetry for two years. She started in the Tshifulanani Youth Fellowship, where she was given the name ‘Mother J’, from the poem she performed, called Mother Jealousy. During this period, she became a regular performer at Khumbe Independent Apostolic Faith Mission Church.

In 2009, she entered a multilingual poetry competition where she took the first place with the poem Iwe Muswa.

The Tshivenda culture and language, riddles, idioms and proverbs have always been her inspiration in poetry. “My poetry is mostly traditional and gospel with a lot of biblical figures, because I know it is God who gave me this talent. I will use it to praise Him,” says Munyai.

Her new album comprises 10 poems, such as My Identity and Iwe muswa, ft Thili Maumela, and is selling very well.

Munyai told Limpopo Mirror that the album was doing much better in the market than she expected. “I thought that, as a new artist from a small village, my CD would not sell that much. I came with something new on top of that, but the CD sales have proved me wrong,” she said.

According to Funo the poem My Identity is all about life in society. “In life, society sometimes makes you feel like you are a certain person. Society can define you and the poem is just a personal realisation of who I have discovered I am not, in spite of what society has labelled me to be,” she added.

By: Mbulaheni Ridovhona

The 22-year-old Mbulaheni (Gary) Ridovhona has been passionate about journalism to the extent that he would buy himself a copy of weekly Univen students' newsletter, Our Voice. After reading, he would write stories about his rural village, Mamvuka, and submit them to the very newsletter for publication. His deep-rooted love for words and writing saw him register for a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies at the University of Venda, and joined the Limpopo Mirror team in February 2016 as a journalism intern.