Mongane Wally Serote
Mongane Wally Serote (
1944-) is a
South African poet and writer. He was born in Sophiatown,
Johannesburg and went to school in Alexandra,
Lesotho and
Soweto. He was arrested by the
apartheid government under the Terrorism Act in June 1969 and spend nine months in solitary confinement, before being released without charge. He went to study in
New York, obtaining a Fine Arts degree at the University of Columbia, before going to work in
Gaborone,
Botswana and later
London for the
African National Congress in their Arts and Culture Department.
In 1993, he won the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa.
He is currently chair of the parliamentary select committee for arts and culture.
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)
Novels
- To every Birth its Blood (1981)
- Gods of Our Time (1999)
Essays