Kgositsile, Keorapets

Keorapetsse Kgotsitsile was born on September 19, 1938 in Johannesburg . His mother had a job in the white quarter of the city and the family rented an extension in the backyard of the house. In a 1974 interview, Kgositsile notes how this affected his early rejection of apartheid . On the other hand, according to him, he did not have that degree of freedom of communication as his peers in black quarters. He was supposed to go not to a neighboring school, but to another district to a school for Negro children, and after school he mostly stayed at home, and did not play with his peers in the street. Such a forced imprisonment, he said, had its own positive effect, as it forced him not only to think about what was happening, but also to join reading early, and then to the first samples of the pen ^[2] .

As a young man, Kgositsile became a member of the African National Congress , worked as a columnist in the political weekly New Age, which was repeatedly closed by the authorities. In 1961, after another closure, he was warned by his comrades about imminent imminent arrests and moved to Tanzania , where he worked as a journalist in Dar es Salaam . A year later, he received permission to enter on a student visa in the USA , and a residence permit was later obtained. The next 13 years of his life were connected with America.

Kgositsile arrived in the USA in 1962 and first entered the University of Lincoln (Pennsylvania) . It should be borne in mind that in the USA itself there were still the last years of the “ Jim Crow laws ” and separate training for white and African Americans was practiced. Lincoln University was historically famous for its liberal approach to applicants, the first to allow women to enter at the beginning of the century, and color in the 1950s. All the time after class, Kgotsitsile disappeared in the university library, trying to “read as much black literature as my hands could grasp” ( trying to read as much black literature as I could lay my hands on ) ^[2] .
Kgositsile later transferred to the University of New Hampshire , and even later to the New School for Social Research in New York . The further American part of Kgositsile’s life will be associated with this multinational metropolis, here he becomes known as the new English-language poet with his own style. In 1969, the first collection of his poems, Spirits Unchained , was released. In 1971, he received his Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University .

For friends and acquaintances, Keorapetsse Kgositsile offered a simpler middle name, William , from where the creative pseudonym Bra Willie of his choice came from. The author’s performances of Bra Willie’s poems became popular, in which he tried to combine the traditions of African and African American cultures without linking them with the requirements of “white aesthetics”. He attached particular importance to jazz , as an important element of his idea of ​​the global African diaspora, capable of uniting its members with sounds that only for them have a full true sound.

There is no art - as our oppressors understand it. There is only movement. Strength. Creative charge. Tsotsi's walk ^[3] along Sofiatown ^[4] - or my American brother from Harlem on Lenox Avenue . Hollers . Blues Riff Train . Marvin Gay or Mbakanga . Suffered by happiness. The creative charge, in whatever form is released, moves like the muscles of a dancer.

Original text

There is nothing like art - in the oppressor's sense of art. There is only movement. Force Creative power. The walk of Sophiatown tsotsi or my Harlem brother on Lenox Avenue. Field Hollers. The blues. A trane riff. Marvin Gaye or mbaqanga. Anguished happiness. Creative power, in whatever form it is released, moves like the dancer's muscles.

Kgositsile followed the same principles of Keorapetse in the style of his poems, and made their public readings a synthesis of recitation, chant and dance ^[5] .

Despite growing recognition in the United States, in 1975, Kgositsile decided to return to Africa. Since he was denied entry to South Africa , he went to Tanzania and got a job as a teacher of English and literature at the University of Dar es Salaam . He later worked as a teacher in Kenya , Botswana , Zambia . In those same years, he reestablished ties with the ANC .

In July 1990, after 26 years of the ban, Kgositsile received permission to return to his homeland in South Africa, where he immediately became actively involved in the literary and public life of the country. He outlined his impressions and thoughts about apartheid in the end of 1991 in the essay “ Crossing borders without leaving ” ⁽⁶⁾ .
For his literary and social activities, Kgositsile in 2006 received the title Poet Laureate of South Africa . In 2008 he was awarded the Order of Ihamanga 2nd degree "for outstanding achievements in the field of literature and for the use of his extraordinary talents in this field to expose the evil of the apartheid system to the whole world" ^[7] .

Died January 3, 2018 in Johannesburg .

First wife Melba ( Melba Johnson Kgositsile ) was a lawyer in New York and an activist for the equal rights of the black population of America. She was dedicated to the second-time collection of poems “For Melba”. In this marriage, the daughter Ipeleng was born, also mentioned in the title of the 1975 collection, Places and Blood Stains: Notes for Ipeleng. Melba died in 1994 at the age of 54 from cancer ^[8] .

The previous marriage broke up before Kgositsile returned to the African continent. In 1974, in Tanzania, his wife was Baleka Mbete , who worked in the same place , a political activist and future vice president of the Republic of South Africa . This marriage broke up in 1992.

For a long time, Keorapetsse Kgotsitsile lived with Cheryl Harris, a well-known professor of law at the University of California ^[9] . They had a son, Thebe Neruda Kgositsile . The second name was chosen by his father in honor of his beloved Chilean poet Pablo Neruda . For 2019, their son, a popular American rapper , is better known by his pseudonym Earl Sweetshot .

The last wife was Baby Dorcas Kgositsile . Keorapetse Kgositsile left seven children and several grandchildren ^[10] .

• Liberated Souls (Spirits unchained, 1969)
• For Melba (For Melba, 1970)
• My name is Africa (My name is Afrika, 1971)
• The Present is a dangerous place to live, 1974
• Places and bloodstains: Notes for Ipeleng, 1975
• When the clouds disperse (When the clouds clear, 1990)
• If I could sing (2002)
• So I salute you (This way I salute you, 2004)

• Keorapetse Kgositsile (neopr.) . Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
• Karin Berkman, Cynthia Gabbay. The story of an alliance between two poets - one Cuban, one South African (neopr.) . The Conversation (February 3, 2019).