Cover Art: Lauren Shear

whiteheart

Lesego Rampolokeng

Written between 1992 and 1997, whiteheart: prologue to hysteria is a nightmarish plunge into a 1970s Soweto childhood where violence waits everywhere to make its nest in the child-narrator’s mind.

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The rap & rhyme intertwined with the vivid images cause your whole internal system to shiver. […] The words come at you like grotesque radical images straight into your imagination, making you very afraid excited educated & emancipated all at once.

– Sonwabo Meyi, Wordstock

 

Date of publication: 2005

ISBN 9.78096E+12
94 pages
200 x 130mm

R180.00

Biography

Lesego Rampolokeng 2019 © Shepi Mati

 

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 perspective and instantly recognisable voice have brought him a unique place in South African literature.
Rampolokeng won the NIHSS award for his poetry collection a half century thing, and the UJ fiction prize for his novel Bird-Monk Seding. He has performed his poetry in several countries in Europe, as well as in the USA, Colombia and Brazil, and has shared the stage with poets Linton Kwesi Johnson, Amiri Baraka, Jayne Cortez, Jean Binta Breeze and Mutabaruka.

Books published
Poetry
Horns for Hondo (COSAW, 1990)
Talking Rain
(COSAW, 1993)
Blue V's
(English/German, Edition Solitude, 1998)
End Beginnings
(English/German, Marino Verlag, 1998)
The Bavino Sermons
(Gecko, 1999 republished Deep South, 2019)
The second chapter
(Pantolea Press, 2003)
Head on Fire
(Deep South, 2012)
A half century thing
(black ghost, 2015)

Novels
Blackheart (Pine Slopes, 2004)
Whiteheart: prologue to hysteria
(Deep South, 2005)
Bird-Monk Seding
(Deep South, 2017)
Greyheart
(black ghost, 2023)

Playscript
bantu ghost (Mehlo-Maya, 2010)

Additional information

Weight 0.5 kg

Reviews of this book

Review by Sonwabo Meyi of whiteheart by Lesego Rampolokeng     Wordstock, 2005    text PDF

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)"

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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