Lesego Rampolokeng
Lesego Rampolokeng is a South African writer, playwright and performance poet.
Early life and education
Lesego Rampolokeng was born in 1965 in Orlando West, Soweto, Johannesburg. He studied law at the University of the North in South Africa, but he has not followed this path any further.Works
Lesego Rampolokeng came to prominence in the 1980s, a very turbulent time in South Africa. He was born and bred in Soweto:"I was born in Orlando West. Bred thorough all across Soweto. Orlando East, White City, Chiawelo, Meadowlands, Diepkloof. I schooledin Jabavu, Moroka, Jabulani… " His poetry stands aside from politics and is savagely critical of the apartheid establishment. His first two books were published by the Congress of South African Writers Horns for Hondo and Talking Rain. Rampolokeng has collaborated with various musicians on stage and in the studio. He has performed in many countries and with musicians such as Julian Bahula, Soulemane Toure, Louis Mhlanga, Tumi Mogorosi and Günter Sommer. He collaborated with the Kalahari Surfers on the Shifty Records album End Beginnings and the Bandcamp release: Bantu Rejex .
Live performances with Kalahari Surfers include:
The Festival PoesieBH’94 _Brazil poetry festival in Belo Horizonte, Brazil
'Sinner and Saint' concerts with Louis Mhlanga, Vusi Mahlasela and Duncan Senyatso at Angoulême in France.
Concert for James Phillips
Dada South! National Gallery, Cape Town
He is directly influenced by the writings of Frantz Fanon and he comes from the Black Consciousness era of the 1970s and 1980s. He is influenced by Ingoapele Madingoane, Matsemela Manaka and Maishe Maponya. 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 of Herman Charles Bosman and even moved to Groot Marico to imbibe the spirit of the man.
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", 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 including Kgafela oa Magogodi, Lefifi Tladi, Lebo Mashile and Natalia Molebatsi. Some academics and critics have compared Rampolokeng to the late Dambudzo Marechera because of his non-complacent and often confrontational writing. Rampolokeng appears in the documentary Giant Steps, directed by Geoff Mphakati and Aryan Kaganof. He participated in the 2001 Poetry International Festival in Rotterdam.
Poetry
Horns for Hondo Talking Rain Rap Master Supreme – Word Bomber in the Extreme End Beginnings Blue V's The Bavino Sermons The h.a.l.f. ranthology The Second Chapter Head on fire – Rants/Notes/Poems 2001-2011 History- ''A Half Century Thing''
Plays
Fanon's Children- ''Bantu Ghost- a stream of unconsciousness''
Albums (with the Kalahari Surfers)
End Beginnings- ''Bantu Rejex''
Novels
Blackheart Whiteheart- ''Bird-Monk Seding''