Head on Fire
Lesego Rampolokeng
Head on Fire is Lesego Rampolokeng’s first book of poems to be published in South Africa since The Bavino Sermons in 1999. It includes the complete text of The Second Chapter, published in Berlin in 2003.
One measure of a poet is the range of his concerns, and Rampolokeng takes on religion, war, street violence, global economics, obscenity, history, wordplay, sexual perversion and, not least, his own contradictions. If he spatters the reader with blood and body fluids, it is to ‘engage with my world in all its manifestations… I want to see all the spluttered blood and gore. So I’m attempting to embrace its beauty. Hopefully.’
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No contemporary South African poet – indeed, no writer – has occasioned more approval or disapproval, partly no doubt due to the confrontational nature of Rampolokeng’s poetic persona and style, and the scatological, irreverent content of much of his work. Eclectic and wide-ranging in his influences (these stretch all the way from the figure of the traditional praise poet to Sotho song forms, from rap to the Beats, from Lautreamont and Artaud to Cesaire and Mutabaruka), provocative – some would say apocalyptic – in his performance style and public pronouncements, unique in his varied usage of acoustic regimes and breath-phrasing, unusual in his line structures and his blurring of conventional syntax, his brand of rapped verse has got him, on occasion, into trouble…
– Kelwyn Sole, Cross-Cultural Poetics
Date of publication: 2012
ISBN 978-0-9870282-0-4
175 pages
215 x 150mm
R180.00
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 Poetry Novels Playscript
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Additional information
| Weight | 0.5 kg |
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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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