Lesego Rampolokeng | |
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| Born | (1965-07-07)7 July 1965 (age 59) |
| Occupation | Poet, writer, musician and artist |
| Nationality | South African |
Lesego Rampolokeng (born 7 July 1965) is a South Africanwriter,playwright andperformance poet.
Lesego Rampolokeng was born in 1965 inOrlando West,Soweto,Johannesburg. He studied law at theUniversity of the North in South Africa, but he has not followed this path any further.[1][2]
Lesego Rampolokeng came to prominence in the 1980s, a very turbulent time in South Africa. He was born and bred inSoweto:"I was born in Orlando West. Bred thorough all across Soweto. Orlando East, White City, Chiawelo, Meadowlands, Diepkloof. I schooledin Jabavu, Moroka, Jabulani… " (Bird Monk Seding p20) His poetry stands aside from politics and is savagely critical of the (post)apartheid establishment. His first two books were published by the Congress of South African Writers (COSAW)Horns for Hondo (1991) andTalking Rain (1993). Rampolokeng has collaborated with various musicians on stage and in the studio. He has performed in many countries and with musicians such asJulian Bahula,Soulemane Toure,Louis Mhlanga andGünter Sommer. He collaborated with theKalahari Surfers on theShifty Records albumEnd Beginnings (vinyl, cassette and CD:1990) and the Bandcamp release: Bantu Rejex (2017) .[3]
Live performances withKalahari Surfers include: (i) The Festival PoesieBH’94 _Brazil (1994) poetry festival in Belo Horizonte, Brazil (ii)'Sinner and Saint' concerts withLouis Mhlanga (Music ye Afrika),Vusi Mahlasela and Duncan Senyatso (Kgwanyape Band) at Angoulême in France. (iii) Concert for James Phillips (September 1995/Shifty Records)(iv) Dada South! National Gallery, Cape Town (2009)
He is directly influenced by the writings ofFrantz Fanon and he comes from theBlack Consciousness era of the 1970s and 1980s. He is influenced byIngoapele Madingoane,Matsemela Manaka andMaishe Maponya.[4] Ingoapele Madingoane, in particular, had an immense influence on Rampolokeng becoming a writer. He is a PhD candidate at Rhodes University working on a thesis about Mafika Gwala. Controversially he is also a fan of the writings ofHerman Charles Bosman and even moved toGroot Marico to imbibe the spirit of the man. (this explained in a live radio interview for 'Mushroom Hour')[1]
In one of his poems, he claimed to "shoot the English with bullets that are British". In another piece of work, "Riding the Victim's Train" (on the CD/albumThe H.a.l.f Ranthology), Rampolokeng calls himself "a leper cast out in the desert, and cold, without a snout or paw in the pot of gold".
He has shared a stage with local and international poets includingKgafela oa Magogodi,Lefifi Tladi,Lebo Mashile andNatalia Molebatsi. Some academics and critics have compared Rampolokeng to the lateDambudzo Marechera because of his non-complacent and often confrontational writing.[5] Rampolokeng appears in the documentaryGiant Steps (2005), directed by Geoff Mphakati andAryan Kaganof.[6] He participated in the 2001Poetry International Festival inRotterdam.[7]
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