Complete Poems is Isabella Motadinyane’s collected work: just over 30 poems. It was first published as Bella in 2007 by Botsotso Publishing in an illustrated edition, and was republished by Deep South without illustrations. The six Sesotho poems and the Sesotho phrases scattered in other poems were newly translated by Lesego Rampolokeng.
Isabella Motadinyane was born in 1963 in Mofolo Central, Soweto. She completed classes up to Grade Five in her formal schooling. She studied piano at the Five Roses Bowl in Soweto, and also attended dance and acting classes.
She was brought up by her grandmother and adopted the surname Motadinyane. At the time of her death on 19 February 2003 – her 40th birthday – she was living with her mother in Orange Farm, south of Johannesburg.
Motadinyane had a style of writing and performing that was entirely her own. On the page her poems are intense, funny, erotic and painful, while her onstage delivery, whether speech or song, was electrifying in its vitality and timing. Her elliptical associative poems mixed languages (English, Isicamtho, Setswana and Sesotho), and cross rural and urban cultures.
She was an active member of the Botsotso Jesters poetry performance group, in fact the group’s name came from one of her poems. Touching tributes to her by other Botsotso members are included in the book.
