The Wonder Wall – a Potch campus student secret

On a hidden staircase on campus students write love confessions, poems, and sketches. This ‘Wonder Wall’ on the Potchefstroom campus of North-West University (NWU) is rich in colour; an inked landscape of soul-baring.

Where students could reach, they wrote. Sometimes the hands with which they crafted their messages were shaky. Sometimes they were steady. Some pieces are written in beautiful calligraphy. Sometimes all the writer could offer were rough scribbles. 

Whether in Spanish, Dutch, English, or Afrikaans – these word artists take the reader on a journey of lines, one poem intertwined with the next, whether the canvas is a wooden door on the second floor or the chipped white wall of the narrow staircase.

It is difficult to count, but there may be about 500 poems.

Drenched in verse, and painted with metaphors, these poems tackle themes of love, sadness, and internal conflict. “Ek kry nagmerries oor die dag wat ek die liefde van my lewe moet huis toe vat. My ouers gaan my onterf as ek nie met ‘n vrou opdaag nie [I get nightmares about the day I have to take the love of my life home. My parents are going to disown me if I don’t show up with a wife by my side],” reads one confession. 

For many years now students from the language faculty – among others – have used this building as a safe space to portray what they learned throughout their studies.

Exactly when students started writing on the wall is a mystery. Many older poems are fading or are not dated. 

The Wonder Wall might be an ode to the beloved Afrikaans poet Theunis Theodorus (TT) Cloete, born on 31 May 1924. Cloete wrote various essays, academic publications, and even translated the Bible in 1993. Even though he was already a poet, he only debuted under his own name in 1980 with the collection Angelliera.

He became a lecturer at the NWU, formerly known as the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education (PU for CHE), at the School of Language and Literature in 1953 until 1963 when he went to Oxford and Amsterdam to do research. He returned to the PU for CHE in 1970.  During his tenure he also won numerous prizes for his literary works including the W.A. Hofmeyr Prize, the Ingrid Jonker Prize and the Hertzog Prize, which he won twice. 

There is more poetry in the snowflake
As in the literature and much more poetry
In the dung beetle and the toktokkie
In the meteorology and entomology
In the morning fog and on the mountain peak
The horizon that disappears in heaven
In the rose cloud there is much more lyric
Earth was made by a poet

English translation of ‘God die digter’ by Cloete

Zané Steyn, a second-year BA in Communication student and published poet, said that she formed part of a community of artists who used to write on the Wonder Wall. She started writing poetry in grade 9 and her first poem was inspired by her boredom while studying for an exam. 

Steyn only writes her own poems on the wall, preferably late afternoons or between classes. “It’s fun to take someone with me, especially my boyfriend because I can tell him the stories behind the poems that I’m writing.” 

She said she often bumps into the same people at the Wonder Wall.

The Wonder Wall may be for poets like Steyn, but NWU BUA! Poetry offers something different. They held their first poetry session in August 2022. In 2023, they are hosting an intercampus performance style workshop and slam competition. A poetry slam and workshop hybrid took place on 22 March on the Potchefstroom campus, and has been followed by prelims on April 5. The finals will follow in September – providing another opportunity for NWU students on all three campuses to share in the art form.

Slam poetry is a form of performance poetry that consists of audience participation, writing, performance and competition, according to BBC Maestro. “(It) creates a sense of communion with others around the words you speak, and individuals come together as in a church, sharing their deepest spiritual longings without fear of judgement,” said Dr Pieter Odendaal, senior lecturer in creative writing at the NWU School of Languages, after presenting the second half of the hybrid event. 

Odendaal said, “Growing up as an outsider, poetry did not only give me the opportunity to express myself but also to find myself. Poetry provides a safe space where you can pour your heart out, where you can simply be who you are. I believe BUA! Poetry can do the same for students.”

Poet and author Dr David Wa Maahlamela of NWU Creative Writing, who presented the first half of the hybrid event, said, “We creatives see things in things”. On why poets write, he quoted novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “We writers are not in the world to be crowned.” He said that “we” see what something can mean, represent, or symbolise, to create art as a form of expression, whilst also serving as entertainment for the audience.

Maahlamela introduced the 20 student participants to the theoretical aspects of slam poetry, and Odendaal taught participants how to prepare for the prelims. This preparation included having the students practise breathing exercises to calm pre-slam anxiety, loosen up the body, and speak with power, so their voice bellows through the locale. 

Maahlamela believes that poetry is everywhere, even in the most mundane of daily language usage. He teased the students, saying that ‘Can I kiss your lips?’ – a line from a song by Eminem – is rather unlyrical, but can easily become poetry by subverting expectations and continuing with ‘The ones between your hips?’ 

Maahlamela quoted poet Robert Frost, “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found the words.” 

NWU honours graduate and singing guitarist of the band Rooksein, Dian Maritz, said during an interview, that poetry and music are forms of art and both make statements. Spoegwolf’s lead singer Danie du Toit’s poetry collection is their (the band’s) “songbook”, according to him. 

Maritz said that if he had the opportunity to write something on the Wonder Wall today, he would write Psalm 8 in the Bible, Praise to the Creator (translated from the 1983 Afrikaans translation). He said, “Every person feels sad, disappointed, happy and mad –  there’s always a song or a poem that depicts what you feel. 

“Try to be true to yourself. Try to write as much as possible, even if it isn’t good. Don’t always take writing seriously and don’t overthink it,” Maritz advised aspiring musicians and poets. 

Vivien Redelinghuys, a singer, songwriter, and former NWU student also shared words of wisdom. “A while back I had the opportunity to talk to Hunter Kennedy, who is a member of [the bands] Die Heuwels Fantasties and Fokofpolisiekar, and his advice to me is to always keep a diary closeby and write down everything that comes to mind. Even if it doesn’t make sense at that point, write it down and put it together later.” – By Janlu Fourie and Amanda Viljoen