Jazz was crucial to South African poet Keorapetse Kgositsile‘s most influential idea: his sense of a worldwide African diaspora united by an ear for a certain quintessentially black sound. He wrote of the black aesthetic he pursued and celebrated: “There is nothing like art—in the oppressors sense of art. There is only movement. Force. Creative […]
Tag Archives | Keorapetse Kgositsile
Culture And Resistance In South Africa
by Keorapetse Kgositsile Keynote address from the Culture and Resistance Symposium (1982) held in Gaborone, Botswana A few years ago a fellow South African writer asked me to explain to him how people like la Guma and I could be in the Movement but still manage to write novels and poems. And I replied, with […]
Crossing Borders Without Leaving
by Keorapetse Kgositsile Returning home, even though just for a short visit, for the first time in twenty-nine years, as John Oliver Killens might have put it, is a humdinger. Jan Smuts Airport is a seemingly huge, clean, efficient monstrosity. Its size is more shadow than substance, though. No huge nothing about it. Monstrosity, yes. […]
English Language Visa
by Keorapetse William Kgositsile Some years back, when writers like Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o and Wole Soyinka started arguing about the necessity of African writers writing in African languages, I was one of those who did not consider the issue serious enough to even be interested in participating in the debate as a practicing writer. I […]