Bird-Monk Seding
Lesego Rampolokeng
Bird-Monk Seding, Rampolokeng’s third novel, is a stark picture of life in a rural township in the North West province, two decades into South Africa’s democracy. Listening and observing in the streets and taverns, narrator Bavino Sekete, often feeling desperate himself, is thrown back to his own violent childhood in Soweto. To get through, he turns to his pantheon of jazz innovators and radical writers.
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There are new things in this book. The personal voice is not so relentlessly a voice of disgust as it has sometimes been. Though the shifts between affectionate memory and visceral horror still happen fast enough to feel like a punch in the guts, there are more of the former than there used to be. There’s nobility, fortitude and love in the lives of people such as Seding’s Pogisho and Mmaphefo, risking everything to protect their son. […] It declares it’s a novel. Believe it.
– Gwen Ansell
Date of publication: 2017
ISBN 978-0-9947104-0-6 / ebook ISBN 978-1-928476-26-9
192 pages
200 x 130mm
R220.00
Lesego Rampolokeng 2019 © Shepi Mati
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Lesego Rampolokeng is a poet and performer, the author since 1990 of 13 books, including eight books of poetry, a playscript, and four novels. He has collaborated with visual artists, playwrights, filmmakers, theatre and opera producers, poets and musicians. His no-holds-barred style, radical-political aesthetic and instantly recognisable voice have brought him a unique place in South African literature. Books published Novels Playscript |
Additional information
| Weight | 0.5 kg |
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Reviews of this book
Review by Gwen Ansell of Bird-Monk Seding by Lesego Rampolokeng sisgwenjazz, 2017 text PDF
Review by Sam Mathe of Bird-Monk Seding by Lesego Rampolokeng Cape Argus, 2018 text PDF
Review by Sam Mathe of Bird-Monk Seding by Lesego Rampolokeng BKO (pg. 55-57), 2020
Interviews & Articles
Interview with Lesego Rampolokeng by Mphutlane wa Bofelo Daily Vox, 2014 text PDF
Interview with Lesego Rampolokeng by Robert Berold New Coin, 1993 text PDF
Essay by Lesego Rampolokeng on teaching writing ISEA, 2017 text PDF
Special Edition of Alternation on Lesego Rampolokeng's life and work (Open Access):
Article by Danyela Dimakatso Demir: "‘Before the Crimson Downpour’: Reflections on Lesego Rampolokeng’s Oeuvre in Three Fragments"
Article by Warrick Swinney: "Stick-fighting against Extinction: End Beginnings and Other Dada Nihilismus Polemics"
Article by Ayub Sheik: "Word Bomber Supreme! Textual Strategies of Nihilism in the Poetry of Lesego Rampolokeng"
Article by Olivier Moreillon: "Of Solitude, Non-Places, and Mutations, in/and Lesego Rampolokeng’s Poetry of the Nineties" text PDF
Article by Lindy Stiebel: "Lewis, meet Lesego: A Comparative View of Lewis Nkosi (1936-2010) and Lesego Rampolokeng (b.1965)"
Other Links
Social media
"Lucky Majaivane's facebook posts: 'On Aesthetics'" Instagram
Live recordings
"Heavyweight" by the Kalahari Surfers featuring Lesego Rampolokeng Shifty Media Official Channel (YouTube), 2014
"Friends & Opposites (1993)" walkabout with Vusi Mahlasela featuring Lesego Rampolokeng Shifty Media Official Channel (YouTube), 2020
Digital albums
"End Beginnings" by Lesego Rampolokeng with the Kalahari Surfers bandcamp, 1990
"Bantu Rejex (a half century album)" by Lesego Rampolokeng with the Kalahari Surfers bandcamp, 2017
"Babylon Mission Report" by Lesego Rampolokeng with the Kalahari Surfers bandcamp, 2021
Multimedia article
"Stick Fighting against extinction: end beginnings and other dada nihilismus polemics" multimedia article by Warrick Swinney on Lesego Rampolokeng published as a chapter from his PhD dissertation (University of the Western Cape) herri, #10
Other articles
"The fragments of society are filled with poetry" article on Lesego Ramplokeng by Aarti Bhana Mail & Guardian, 2024
"No easy stroll to freedom for SA poetry’s restless howler" article on Lesego Rampolokeng by Miles Keylock Mail & Guardian, 2014
"Post-Freedom Poetry" article on Lesego Ramplokeng by Douglas Valentine CounterPunch, 2013
"English in a Splintered Metropolis: South Africa After Apartheid" (mentions the poetry of Kelwyn Sole, Lesego Rampolokeng and Ike Muila), article by John Trimbur: JAC (Journal of Advanced Composition) (JSTOR), 2009 text PDF
"Carnival and Hybridity in Texts by Dambudzo Marechera and Lesego Rampolokeng" article on Lesego Rampolokeng by Flora Veit-Wild Journal of Southern African Studies (Taylor and Francis), 1997
Special journal edition on Lesego Rampolokeng
Lesego "Papa Ramps" Rampolokeng: Rap Master Supreme special edition of BKO BKO Magazine, 2020
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