Marie Solange

Biography

Marie Solange is a young woman currently residing in Dzaleka Refugee Camp. She is a Rwandese by nationality and was born here in Malawi. She is 17 years old. Her family fled to Malawi due to the genocide that happened in her home country.

She is a student and is in her final year of secondary school waiting to sit for the national examinations. She loves poetry because that is where she expresses herself and becomes creative. Everything around her, all that she observes and her experiences, she transfers them into poetry. She learned her poetry through Branches Arts Group where they shared ideas and different arts. She got inspired after seeing other people perform in the group, and it encouraged her to write as well. She did her first performance in the group and still writes until today, and she tries to spread different messages and advocate through poetry.

Featured Poems

DESTINY (Poem 1)

Do you believe in destiny?

It might be a little blurry now But what is yours will surely come

Someday Somewhere Your greatest dream Will come knocking On your door Keep the faith!

DEATH (Poem 2)

You are so cruel You come every day You take one by one But you never bring them back

You never mind The position of the person You take both rich and poor But you never bring them back You take both strong and weak Both beautiful and ugly Both educated and uneducated But you never bring them back

You come unexpectedly You never knock You are never satisfied Yet you have taken many

What made you exist? With this cruelty When will you stop existing For us to continue existing

Biography collected and written by Lisa Gilman