‘I believe poetry is how my ancestors found me’—vangile gantsho in conversation with Makhosazana Xaba

vangile gantsho, south african women poet, red cotton, sangoma, African spirituality, African poet, impepho press founder

“So this question is part triggering and part … hmmm … how would I do things differently? Because high school was a terrible poetry experience for me. I really hated the exclusionary nature of the poetry we looked at and how prescriptively we were required to examine it. I also hated how the response to my writing made me feel. Like I wasn’t Stevie Smith or Alfred, Lord Tennyson enough. So I would like to find a way of asking questions rather than prescribing or describing anything, as a way of hopefully bringing the reader into the poem rather than possibly locking them out. ” (vangile gantsho)

Read more: Johannesburg Review of Books