About the Author

Lesego Rampolokeng, born in Soweto, South Africa, is the poet of the lost generation of apartheid. Believing that the power of the spoken word can turn into music in itself, he merged many different influences in the beginning of the '90s and thus became one of the most uncompromising artists in the newly blossoming artistical scene of South Africa during that decade. He summarizes his artistical goals as follows: 'Whether that pleases the kings and princes of this earth is absolutely of no importance to me'.

Reviews

Rampolokeng's third novel is a stark portrait of a Groot Marico township two decades into South Africa's democracy. Innovative and violently sensory, one judge noted that he "brandishes his scatting be-bop voice like a fearsome weapon" as he renders the resilience of people marked by apartheid. - Sunday Times Barry Ronge Prize CitationLesego Rampolokeng's latest novel, Bird-Monk Seding, if one can call it a novel, is a rampaging, fast-talking, spontaneous and often opaque window into a dark, dangerous world; a world filled with injustice, suffering and copious amounts of bodily fluids. To try to describe this book in traditional terms is almost futile, given that Rampolokeng cares little for established literary forms. - Russell Grant, Mail & Guardian, South Africa