Marie Solange
17 years old
Rwanda
Biography by Angela Bizera

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.

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