Botsotso is a grouping of poets, writers and artists who wish to both create art as well as to generate the means for its public exposure and appreciation. We speak particularly of art that is of and about the varied cultures and life experiences of people in South Africa as expressed in the many languages spoken and written in our country.
Botsotso is committed to a proliferation of styles and a multiplicity of themes and characters. Multidisciplinary art forms and performances are similarly embraced.
The transition from a closed, authoritarian society to a pluralistic and democratic one offers artists an opportunity to explore the truths of our inner and social lives with a freedom that has not existed before. Flowing from this, the consequences and lessons of Apartheid must still be examined while the challenges of the current period throw up their difficulties, their complexities.
Botsotso works with interaction: the different elements of the South African mosaic colliding, synthesizing - affected both by social forces and the individual's uniqueness.
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Botsotso notes the death of Dennis Brutus with sorrow. Dennis was an activist in the truest sense of the word, a man of principle who exemplified the unity of theory and practice. He was also a very fine poet and a dedicated teacher. He devoted the better part of his life to combating inequality and racism and was active in not only the South African struggle but the global ones that affect all the peoples of the earth.
We salute his work and will endeavour to keep his memory alive. Below we publish a tribute by JKS Makokha.
Aluta continua!
1: Brutus, Fare On With Hope
By JKS Makokha
(whisper: for Dennis Brutus 1924-2009)
now that you too have departed, Brutus
now that you too have travelled, Brutus,
the invisible islands in the ocean of space
are poised once more to get earth tidings
from this far flung corner of our universe.
(silence)
free souls that swim in the void of space
towards their assigned fate and stations
to inhabit places known only after death:
the various alien tenants of our universe
await you and the tidings that you bear.
(silence)
to yonder all verse, science and religion
where the owners of both life and death
govern the motions of souls and cosmos,
your soul now makes its outward journey.
let this last trip be full of hope from earth.
(silence)
Brutus, go now forth bravely on the path
of your soul's destination and as you glide
from us towards this orbit charted by Fate
for you, let your soul stare not earthwards
you are a poem of hope from earth to them.
(silence)
beyond this earth and its companion moon
beyond neighbour Mars and the Asteroids
beyond our gas neighbours farther a field
beyond this familiar Solar neighbourhood
bear, Brutus, the hope of humanity today.
(silence)
there will be the loneliness of space and its cold
there will be the longing for our familiar humanity
there will be the desire to turn like
there will be the fear of sailing to your own fate
hold hold on to the same hope you passed to us.
(silence)
and even as you overtake the twin Voyagers
on their outward journey to their own destiny
inform them we remember them as we will you
and as these two bear messages from humanity
so do you now for those who await our tidings.
(silence)
on those invisible islands that you will find rest
as you revitalise yourself on your journey away
Brutus, offer those beings of these alien worlds
the verses of hope that govern mankind today,
cite Gandhi, King Jnr, Mandela, Kyi and Obama.
(silence)
Brutus, you are our own gift of verse giving
sense to human struggles of the last century
and let then your soul fill them with our hope,
offer it too to wayfarers of various dimensions
and realms and the beings who you will accost.
(silence)
they may find your verse both alien and unreal
for they will have heard of your protest poetry.
they may find your verse both alien and unreal
for maybe they still believe we love world wars.
tell them that it is peace we now seek in 21st C.
(silence)
and when you complete your time in revolution
around the vast black void in our galactic center
and off you spring from the Milky Way and away
you sail on past various galaxies near and far,
know, Brutus, hope is the verse that fuels Man.
(Shout: Brutus, Fare On With Hope!)
About the Author:
JKS Makokha is a Kenyan writer living in
SUBMISSION DETAILS
Botsotso magazine and website (www.botsotso.org.za)
All submissions are welcome. Please send original, unpublished work in any South African language and be careful to keep a copy as we cannot be held responsible for loss or damage to manuscripts and cannot return work.
Simultaneous submission of the same work to several magazines/publishers (including Botsotso) is not acceptable. However, should you wish to withdraw work from Botsotso kindly inform us timeously. All work received is considered by the editorial board (who work on an unpaid, voluntary basis) but due to the high volume of work received we are not always able to respond to each contributor. As such please bear with us if you do not receive feedback!
No payment for published work is offered as our budget is very limited but selected work will qualify you for a complimentary copy of the magazine.Copyright of all published material remains with the writer/artist but the proceeds from the sale of Botsotso magazine are used for new projects. As a non-profit entity we are struggling to achieve financial self-sufficiency - a very diffciult goal to achieve as the "market" for new, original South African writing (especially for poetry and short fiction) is extremely small.
Please remember to include your contact details: name, postal and email address, telephone number.
Botsotso magazine appears irregularly as a number of important variables have to be satisfied - quality and diversity of submissions, funding, time to edit! - so please be patient after submitting notwithstanding the fact that material is often placed on the website almost immediately when received. Some work is included in both the electronic and hard copy versions of Botsotso but we reserve the right to publish in one or the other as circumstances change.
Send new work to:
Botsotso Publishing
Box 30952
Braamfontein
2017
or
Email: botsotso@artslink.co.za
Website developed by Lynn Danzig
