Looking back

ZAPP was established in 2013 as a collaborative project involving Cambridge University, the Commonwealth Education Trust, and the University of the Witwatersrand. Its goals were to investigate the status and practices of poetry teaching at secondary schools and universities in South Africa, and to foster a love of South African poetry in learners, teachers, teacher-educators and scholars.

In 2016, the UK partners in the ZAPP enterprise withdrew from the collaboration due to financial constraints, and ZAPP applied for funding from the National Research Foundation (NRF). This was successful, and funding was secured for three years under the NRF’s Indigenous Knowledge Systems call. Using this grant, ZAPP conducted extensive research with secondary school teachers of English, as well as conducting a number of interviews with South African poets as indigenous knowledge holders and practitioners.

In 2019, ZAPP convened a colloquium on the topic of “Poetry in/and Education”, which was held at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital. ZAPP poet Malika Ndlovu, Prof. Leketi Makalela, and Prof. Pitika Ntuli, the patron of ZAPP, delivered the keynote addresses.

Partly issuing from the papers delivered at the colloquium, Denise Newfield, Katleho Shoro and Deirdre Byrne guest edited a themed issue of Education as Change on the topic of “Decolonising Poetry in/and Education”. The issue was published in 2020 and is available on https://unisapressjournals.co.za/index.php/EAC/issue/view/324.

You can explore more about ZAPP on our “History and Mission” page.