Jerome Coetzee
MOMENTS OF JOY
We South Africans have good reason to be proud of our cultural diversity and traditions, together with our hard-won freedom to celebrate them. Sometimes, however, it takes a poet to remind us what it feels like to experience and embody those traditions with our senses as well as our minds.
As we prepare to celebrate Mandela Day on 18 July, the AVBOB Poetry Project pays tribute to the work of Jerome Coetzee – writer, poet and Artistic Director for the Centre of Excellence, Bishop Lavis – who was a finalist for the National Poetry Prize in 2021 for his poem “Koesisters”. In this poem, he reminds us how important our senses are to our experience of freedom and wellbeing. It begins:
Sunday afternoon,
the day of rest,
the time of day when the world
stops
and the atmosphere is filled with a craving,
a tradition
and we go on the hunt,
if the pockets allow it,
but we sometimes las together
to find the antie
who has the sign painted
in bright colours
that says:
Koesisters freshly baked…
Some readers will already know that a koesister is a Cape Malay spiced dough ball that is deep-fried, dipped in syrup and often rolled in coconut. Coetzee describes eating it here both as an established tradition and as a deep, sudden longing.
“The poem was written during COVID lockdown. My aunt said she wanted a koesister, it was a Sunday, and she started telling me about how they would search for koesisters as children. It was the longing in her voice and the way she could describe the act of searching, purchasing and enjoying the koesisters. This poem has a special place in my heart, not only because it won a prize but because it captures my family, my culture and our economy.”
Later, the poem describes recipes for koesisters as ancestral instructions, in case “you feel lost, / an outcast, / a 2nd class citizen.” We are invited to imagine the joy of finding that brightly-coloured sign, advertising what we long for. The poem does not shy away from hard economic realities, cautioning that koesisters are only available “if the pockets allow it.” But even this problem can be solved as long as “we las together.” Coetzee explains:
“I wanted to experiment with the word ‘las’ and its multiple meanings in Afrikaans. It can mean ‘to add on’, but also ‘a heavy load that you carry’. I wanted to express how we can make that heavy load lighter by carrying it together.”
Asked what celebrating Mandela Day means to him, he says:
“I am grateful for the freedom South Africans have today. However, we should not allow ourselves to take this freedom for granted. We often assume a moral high ground in relation to other countries. Instead, we should look inward. In the Cape Flats where I grew up, for instance, there is a serious humanitarian crisis. We should place empowerment in people’s hands, creating something that will last.”
He urges poets to open themselves up to collaboration with different artists in different genres, anything to keep the spark of creativity alive.
“As creatives, let’s be bold and fearless in advocating for justice and moments of joy. Let’s keep creating spaces for poets to perform. Let’s keep opening doors and platforms where we never thought poetry would ever be.”
In the next few days, write a poem that describes a powerful childhood memory. Choose a memory that involves as many senses as possible.
The annual AVBOB Poetry Competition opens on 1 August 2026. Visit www.avbobpoetry.co.za today and find out how to enter.