| Intro | South African poet and writer |
| Is |
Poet Writer |
| From | South Africa |
| Type | Literature |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 8 May 1944, Sophiatown, City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, Gauteng, South Africa |
| Age: | 76 years |
Mongane Wally Serote (born 8 May 1944) is a South African poet and writer.
Biography
Serote was born in Sophiatown, Johannesburg, South Africa, and went to school in Alexandra, Lesotho, and Soweto. He first became involved in the Black Consciousness Movement when he was finishing high school in Soweto. His presence in that town linked him to a group known as the “township” or “Soweto” poets, and his poems often expressed themes of political activism, the development of black identity, and violent images of revolt and resistance. He was arrested by the apartheid government under the Terrorism Act in June 1969 and spent nine months in solitary confinement, before being released without charge. He went to study in New York City, obtaining a Fine Arts degree at Columbia University, before going to work in Gaborone, Botswana, and later London for the African National Congress in their Arts and Culture Department.
After contributing poems to various journals, in 1972 he published his first collection, Yakhal’Inkomo. It won the Ingrid Jonker Poetry Prize in 1973.
He was a Fulbright Scholar and received a fine arts degree from Columbia University in 1979. He was not able to return to South Africa and he began a life in exile, living in Botswana and London, where he was involved in the Medu Art Ensemble.
In 1993, he won the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa. In 2004, he received the Pablo Neruda award from the Chilean government.
He has served as chair of the parliamentary select committee for arts and culture, and was also the CEO of Freedom Park, a national heritage site in Pretoria opened in 2007. He has founded a few NGOs, iIKSSA Trust where he is the Chairperson, IARI which he is also the CEO. He sits on a few advisory boards in the country dealing with Arts, Culture, Indigenous Knowneldge and African Renaissance issues.
Awards
- 1973 – Ingrid Jonker Poetry Prize for the best debut collection in English
- 1993 – Third World Express wins the Noma Award for publishing in Africa
- 2003 – The English Academy of Southern Africa Medal for contribution to the English language
- 2004 – Pablo Neruda Medal for Writing
- 2007 – The Order of Ikhamanga in Silver, awarded for “Excellent contribution to literature, with emphasis on poetry and for putting his artistic talents at the service of democracy in South Africa”
- 2008 – Third World Express selected for Africa Book Centre’s 100 Best Books of the Twentieth Century
Poetry
- Yakhal’inkomo (1972)
- Tsetlo (1974)
- No Baby Must Weep (1975)
- Behold Mama, Flowers (1978)
- The Night Keeps Winking (1982)
- A Tough Tale (1987)
- Third World Express (1992)
- Come and Hope With Me (1994)
- Freedom Lament and Song (1997)
- History is the Home Address (2004)
- “City Johannesburg”
- “Alexandra”
Novels
- To Every Birth Its Blood (1981)
- Gods of Our Time (1999)
- Scatter the Ashes and Go (2002)
Essays
- On the Horizon (1990)