“I want a man like that.” So ends one of Chris Abani’s poems, which he read for Poetry Africa on 15 October in Cape Town. A poem about the type of man his mother wanted.

Poetry Africa is a tour of international poets with a bias towards African-descended poets that has been taking place all month here in the SADC region. Guyana-born Khadijatou Doyneh, Nigerian-born Jamaican-Nigerian Kwame Dawes, London-based Nigerian Chris Abani and Senegalese hip-hop artist Didier Awadi took part or are still a part of the tour that touched Malawians in Blantyre, Zimbabweans in Harare, and now South Africans in Joburg, then Cape Town and culminates in the week long festival now on in Durban.

What is fascinating about this tour is, as South African poet Lebo Mashile put it, that it is one of the few poetry platforms in the world that takes poets seriously enough to pay them. Capetonians were part of a detour on the SADC tour, with the official festival ending in Durban. At a time when African arts by those on the continent seem well on the way to finally being taken seriously in South Africa, it was wonderful to experience some of the best in African poetry. The tour included seminars, workshops, talks, panel discussions and schools programmes.

Each city had a different line-up on the tour, with local poets in the SADC countries joining South African and international poets on stage. Music is universal as the saying goes, and in Cape Town we were serenaded by Zimbabwean-American Chiwoniso, who made us part of her lovely world as she played the mbira and sang with her beautiful husky voice. Durban’s line-up is no less thrilling and includes spoken word maestro TJ Dema of Bostwana, award-winning poet and feminist Shailja Patel of Kenya (this year’s Poetry Africa Letters to Dennis Poet – in honour of the late great South African poet Dennis Brutus), Durban’s own SlamJam winner Dashen Naicker, the powerful and controversial Chilean poet Raúl Zurita, US-born poet Myesha Jenkins and the magnificent djembe playing, jazz vocalist and dancer Khadijatou Doyneh. Durban will be in for a treat with the musical exuberance of Senegal’s Didier Awadi and his sidekick in Cape Town, Congolese musician Tibass. We definitely hope to hear more from Tibass Djangu as he and Didier brought the house to its feet and had us singing right along with them, even though most did not understand French. The festival runs until Saturday 22 October.

Sex, Lies and History by Khadijatou Doyneh from decibel Performing Arts Showcase on Vimeo.