“…The struggle of black people inevitably appear in an intensely cultural form because the social formation in which their distinct political traditions are now manifest has constructed the arena of politics on ground overshadowed by centuries of metropolitan capitalist development, thereby denying them recognition as legitimate politics. Blacks conduct a class struggle in and through race. The BC of race and class cannot be empirically separated, the class character of black struggles is not a result of the fact that blacks are predominantly proletarian, thought this is true…”- (Frank Talk Staff Writers in ‘Azania Salutes Tosh’ – circa 1981)
front cover:
Tosh by Steve Gordon
back cover:
Kippie by Basil Breakey
Botsotso Publishing
Botsotso was launched in October 1994 by the Botsotso Jesters, a poetry performance group, as an insert in New Nation (one of several weekly newspapers established in the 1980’s to reflect debate and report on the struggles for a free South Africa).
Artists were invited to contribute work that challenged accepted and perceived wisdoms – in all areas, of all classes and cultures; Art that would explore our identities and traditions and do so without inhibition – except with regard to crassness or the giving of gratuitous offence! It was also Art that was encouraged to experiment and perfect itself technically.
Botsotso is a coming together of poets, writers and artists who wish to both create Art as well as generate the means for its public communication and appreciation. The publishing house works with inter-action: the different elements of the South African and broader African mosaic colliding and synthesizing – affected both by social forces and each individual’s uniqueness.
