Hamba kahle, Bra Willie
Kgositsile fought injustice through his poetry
DEPUTY President Cyril Ramaphosa has described poet and political activist William Keorapetse Kgositsile as committed and brave.
“After the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960, activists streamed out of the country to wage a fierce fight against apartheid from abroad.
“In 1961, the year in which the ANC established its military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), he was one of the young cadres sent into exile.
“The ANC leadership recognised his potential to be the envoy that would amplify the voice of the liberation movement throughout the world,” Ramaphosa said in delivering a eulogy at Kgositsile’s official funeral in Johannesburg yesterday.
“He associated himself with the people’s resistance struggle at an early age, dating back to the 1950s when he became a member of the ANC.
“He was not discouraged and forever remained committed and brave.”
Kgositsile was one of the trusted ANC cadres and one of the country’s foremost intellectuals, Ramaphosa added.
Kgositsile died after a short illness on January 3, aged 79.
He left South Africa aged 23 and returned after the unbanning of political parties when he was in his fifties. Kgositsile was popularly known by his pen name Bra Willie.
He was inaugurated in 2006 as South Africa’s second national poet laureate after Mazisi Kunene. He was also a recipient of the National Order of Ikhamanga for his contribution to literature.
Kgositsile touched the lives of many through his poetry and political activism.
In his three decades of exile, Kgositsile fought injustice through his poetry, teachings and publications.
He lived in several countries, including the US, Botswana, Tanzania and Kenya.
Upon his return to South Africa in 1994, Kgositsile worked with several academic and government institutions.
In his lifetime, he mentored countless cultural practitioners, academics and political activists.
“When our Kgositsile penned My Name is Afrika, we knew that neither exile nor death had the power to uproot his umbilical cord buried at the sacred kraal of Dithakong in Mafikeng where the spirit of his grandmother, Madikeledi, jealously guards all the children of the village.”
“When we heard that Africa’s last original poet left us for the world of Mazisi Kunene, Pablo Neruda and Agostinho Neto, we said not our Kgositsile because he crosses borders without leaving.”
He said the Kgositsile they knew said the people and jazz music of Harlem reminded him of the marabi, mbaqanga and African jazz pioneers in Sophiatown and Alexandra.
“Today we must say it is well with our soul because this nephew of Bra Tholo at Lomanyaneng, this protégé of Setswana teacher DPS Monyaise at Madibane High, has again returned to the land that sings who he is.
“The brave and indestructible poet of the South African revolution will to the bitter end remain our nation’s light and sacred hope.”