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Unisa SBL CEO on Talk Radio 702
Prof David Abdulai, CEO and Executive Director of the Graduate School of Business Leadership (SBL), was invited by Jenny Crwys-Williams of Talk Radio 702 to her early afternoon show on Monday 1 June 2009. Her programme offers intelligent and versatile conversation and can include anything and everything. She moves from the light and fun, through the more serious, tackling emotionally sensitive topics, presenting face-to-face interviews with a range of thinkers, leaders and celebrities, and opens lines on topical current affairs issues. She interviewed Prof Abdulai to talk about his poetry.
On being asked how the head of a prestigious business school can still find time to go home and write poetry, he responded that he is very proud of the African tradition which is usually "transferred" from generation to generation orally. "Those with education have a responsibility to capture these wonderful stories of tradition and culture told to them by their elders. All these stories have a moral lesson to teach and the challenge is to capture those moral lessons when converting these oral stories into poetry," says Abdulai.
Prof Abdulai is an accomplished poet and philosopher. He has published two poetry books: Sankofa: stories, proverbs and poems of an African childhood and Poetical eurhythmics of an African griot. He is currently working on a new anthology of poems entitled At crossroads on the way to the forbidden city.
During the discussion, Prof Abdulai indicated that he was inspired by South African poet, Dennis Brutus, who encouraged him to write down his stories; since then, he has not put his pen down. He also read two poems from his books.
As he continues to write, he is driven by the passion to inspire, trying to break the culture of isolation between people that is being brought about by technology, as people do not sit around fires and share their experiences anymore. The simplicity of his poetry is its essence, which makes it accessible for all age groups. | 
