Sipho Sepamla
{{Short description|South African poet and novelist (1932–2007)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Use South African English|date=April 2012}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Sipho Sepamla
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| image =Sipho Sepamla en Antonio Skarmeta (1981).jpg
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| caption =Sipho Sepamla (l.) and Antonio Skármeta (1981)
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| birth_name = Sydney Sipho Sepamla
| birth_date = {{birth date|1932|09|22|df=y}}
| birth_place = Krugersdorp, Union of South Africa
| death_date = {{death date and age|2007|01|09|1932|09|22|df=y}}
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Sydney Sipho Sepamla (22 September 1932 – 9 January 2007) was a contemporary South African poet and novelist.[http://www.dac.gov.za/speeches/minister/Speech22Jan07.html Message of Condolences on the passing of three prominent South African writers, Department of Arts and Culture, Government of South Africa]. Retrieved 1 March 2007.
Biography
Born in a township near Krugersdorp, Sipho Sepamla lived most of his life in Soweto.[http://people.africadatabase.org/en/profile/3483.html Sipho Sepamla] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070223041012/http://people.africadatabase.org/en/profile/3483.html |date=23 February 2007 }} (Contemporary Africa Database) Accessed: 15 January 2007. He studied teaching at Pretoria Normal College and published his first volume of poetry, Hurry Up to It!, in 1975. During this period he first joined the Medupe Writers Association, and later was active in the Black Consciousness movement. Here, he wrote his 1977 poetry collectionThe Soweto I Love, partly a response to the Soweto Uprising of 16 June 1976, which was subsequently banned by the apartheid regime.[http://home.luna.nl/~poetry/part/91/index.html Sydney Sipho Sepamla] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070114142227/http://home.luna.nl/~poetry/part/91/index.html |date=14 January 2007 }} Accessed: 15 January 2007. The Soweto I Love often centered around themes of the Black anti-apartheid struggle and the resulting backlash by the apartheid regime. He was a founder of the Federated Union of Black Artists (now the Fuba Academy of Arts) and editor of the literary magazine New Classic and the theatre magazine S'ketsh.
He published several volumes of poetry and novels. He received the Thomas Pringle Award (1977) and the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his writing. More recently in democratic South Africa he was a member of the government's Arts and Culture Task Group.
Works
Poetry
- Hurry Up to It! (Donker, 1975)
- The Soweto I Love (1977)
- Selected poems (Donker, 1984)
- From Gorée to Soweto (1988)
Novels
- The Root is One (1979)
- A Ride on the Whirlwind (1981)
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20070224001528/http://southafrica.narod.ru/engels/sepamla.htm 2 poems]
References
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Category:20th-century South African poets
Category:South African male novelists
Category:University of Pretoria alumni
Category:20th-century South African novelists
Category:South African male poets
Category:International Writing Program alumni
Category:20th-century South African male writers
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