Keorapetse Kgositsile

Side by side

Mandela’s Sermon

Blessed are the dehumanized
for they have nothing to lose
but their patience

False gods killed the poet in me. Now
I dig graves
with artistic precision

Keorapetse Kgositsile

(South Africa, 1938 - 2018)

Born in 1938, Keorapetse ‘Willie’ Kgositsile left South Africa in 1961 as one of the first young ANC members instructed to do so by the leadership of the liberation movement. He was a founding member of the ANC Department of Education as well as that of Arts and Culture. The recipient of many poetry awards, he has also studied and taught Literature and Creative Writing at a number of universiti...

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Poems of Keorapetse Kgositsile

Mandela’s Sermon

Blessed are the dehumanized
for they have nothing to lose
but their patience

False gods killed the poet in me. Now
I dig graves
with artistic precision

From: If I Could Sing