Look Who it Was Random video

Bra Willie Kgositsile and Siphiwo Mahala at Waterstones Bookshop in London

218 views · Published 11 November 2018 · 4:47 · Indexed 3 October 2026

Channel: Eugene Skeef · 2018 · Music

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In 2011 I took Keorapetse Kgositsile (aka Bra Willie) and Siphiwo Mahalaa around London on a cultural reconnaissance. On one of the days we visited Waterstones bookshop at Trafalgar Square. My erudite brothers did not have enough hands to carry the books they bought after an eternity of browsing the well stocked shelves.

When I asked Siphiwo for permission to share this little vignette that visibly embodies their close creative comradeship he remarked about the tenderness of the memory.

Bra Willie was South Africa's Poet Laureate from 2006 until his death on 3 January 2018. He was a true man of the people who never diverted from the understanding that to reach the vertex of a meaningful intellectualism one's feet have to be firmly rooted in an activism towards real freedom and social justice for all.

He was a warrior till the end for the recognition of the people's dignity at all costs, but primarily through the empowerment that comes from enhanced literacy and cultural education. He never stopped campaigning to transform South Africa into a nation of avid readers. Let us bring his dream to fruition.

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