South African Poetry - Contemporary Poetry

Contemporary Poetry

The genre of performance poetry in present-day South Africa, encompassing the "pop culture" form of the spoken word, evidently has its roots in the indigenous praise poetry traditions of izibongo or lithoko as well as the combined influence of protest poets of the 1970s through to the 1990s, who often collaborated with or were musicians themselves, and American hip-hop culture and rap music coming to popularity across the country in the 1980s. Poets such as Lesego Rampolokeng, Lebogang Mashile, Kgafela oa Magogodi, Blaq Pearl, Jessica Mbangeni and Mak Manaka are household names in the genre. A number of performance poetry collectives have come to the fore over the past decade such as WEAVE (Women's Education & Artistic Voice Expression), And The Word Was Woman Ensemble (initiated by performance poet Malika Ndlovu), Basadzi Voices and poetry quartet Feelah Sista. The staging of professional performances, exposure via national and international poetry and spoken word festivals such as Urban Voices, Poetry Africa, Badilisha Poetry X-Change and more recently badilishapoetry.com podcasting platform have cultivated an appreciation of South African poetry within the country and around the world.

The emergence of several independent publishers and self-publishing avenues, along with new literary magazines, e-zines, arts–related blogs and websites such as Poetry International - SA, Book SA, and Litnet via the internet, have all dramatically impacted on South Africa’s literary landscape. Established mainstream publishers, local and international university presses have also opened channels for new and diverse South African poetic voices, notably Random Struik’s Umuzi, NB Publishers’ Kwela Books, Jacana Media, new feminist press Modjaji Books (whose authors include Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, winner of the 2011 South African Literary Prize for poetry) and South Africa’s oldest literary journal New Contrast.