Sipho Sepamla (Sipho Sidney Sepamla) Biography

South African poet and novelist, born in Krugersdorp. He trained as a teacher, was highly active in promoting writing and the arts in the South African townships, and edited two journals, one of which covered black theatre. His own writing focuses on fear, tension, and political resistance in township life. Books of poetry include Hurry up to It! (1975), The Blues Is You in Me (1976), described by David Wright as ‘spare, ironic, pungent and deadpan’, and The Soweto I Love (1977), which voices the anger and frustration of black South Africans after the Soweto disturbances of 1976. His novel The Root Is One (1979) chronicles the ruthless politics behind the forcible removal of residents from one township (near Johannesburg) to another. His second novel, A Ride in the Whirlwind (1981), about Soweto, was banned in South Africa. Other novels exploring aspects of public and private life in South Africa are Third Generation (1986) and Scattered Survival (1989). From Gore to Soweto (1988) collects poems with the experience of townships as their central theme.