Earthstepper/the ocean is very shallow – Seitlhamo Thabo Motsapi

Description

“The collection follows a careful, subtle sequence. Opening poems set up the fundamentals of Motsapi’s aesthetic-political concerns (social conflict, black poverty, the values of humbleness, love, hope). Then the journey begins, starting with an exploration of black music as a privileged metaphor of contemporary black identity, assessing concomitantly the forces of cultural amnesia and residual heritage at work in musical production. The collection then moves on to a consideration of political and spiritual expressions of power, in both local and global dimensions, juxtaposing exploitative and regenerative versions of this power. The book ends by detailing the project of emancipation’s journey, the formation of a collective black liberatory subject, an affirmation of hope and the inevitability of triumph; a journey which holistically integrates the political, physical, cultural and spiritual themes of earlier sections into the vision of an organic consciousness-in-process. […] All in all, an extremely exciting, multiply resonant and freshly original collection; a highly valuable contribution to new imaginings for a new country.

– Laura Chrisman, New Coin

Seitlhamo Thabo Motsapi lives in Bela Bela and is married to Monosi Motsapi. They have four children. He has written poetry sporadically since around 1984. He has one collection, earthstepper/the ocean is very shallow.