South South Dialogue
A collaboration of our South African branch with cultural institutions, partners, artists and writers with other countries of the global South.
A collaboration of our South African branch with cultural institutions, partners, artists and writers with other countries of the global South.
John Waromi
Enhancing the South South Dialogue -
Papuan/Indonesian poet John Waromi is writer-in-residence in Johannesburg
John Waromi will be staying in Johannesburg in April 2016 and two performances and a workshop with SKY (Soweto Kliptown Youth) are part of his residency.
John Waromi was born in the Indonesian part of Papua in 1960.
He studied law at the Cendrawasih University in Papua. As a scout he trained in the marines tasll sail training ship KRI Dewa Ruci in 1983. In 1986 John Waromi moved to Jakarta as a scout but left in 1987 to join Bengkel Teater Rendra, those days the most prestgious theatre group in Indonesia, leb bet he famous poet and playwright WS Rendra. The fllowing years he participated in guest appearances in the USA, Japan and Korea. Parallel he began to write for Gorong Gorong Budaya in Depok, a cultural journal of West Java. In 2006 he participated in the Ubud Writers Festival, 2008 in the Northern Territory Writer´s Festival in Darwin/Australia, was curator of the „What is Poetry“ Festival in Indonesia in 2012.
In his poetry he mourns the struggling individual, cut off all roots, far away from nature and social security. The background for this can undoubtly be found in the neo-colonial invasion by foreign mining companies in Waromi´s homeland Papua, where he now lives as an activist.
