Decolonial literature scholar Yonwaba Matshobotiyana won the Africa Thesis Award at Leiden University. Dr Matshobotiyana’s (completed at the University of the Free State) is entitled e thesis ‘Of Speaking and Visibility: The Intersectional Resistance and Resilience of Black Women in Koleka Putuma’s Collective Amnesia, vangile gantsho’s red cotton and danai mupotsa’s feeling and ugly‘. We celebrate this award, and the deep engagement with these works, including two impepho press titles.
TSTR: Eleven years ago, you published Undressing in Front of the Window. I see debut books like great teachers. They often leave enduring marks. I wonder now at your book’s maturation over the years, to what it has perhaps revealed to you.
vg: hahaha! eish. ja neh. this book reflects to me how hard i am on myself. i have abandoned her (the book) too many times. felt ashamed of her and forgotten to honour the woman i was when i crafted her. she teaches me that there is beauty everywhere. precious moments in rubble. that i care very deeply for people and about the world i live in. i have always been like this… it is a part of who i am. and the more i lean into that, the clearer the writing becomes.
this is not only the book i learned to write through. it’s also how i learned about publishing and building teams and trusting others with babies. she taught me about community in the isolated vastness of poetry.
Source: The Shallow Tales Review Poetry as re-membering: in conversation with vangile gantsho,
Poet, cultural activist and healer Vangile Gantsho lets us into her home.
“Molweni. I’m Vangile Gantsho. Welcome,” she said.
We’ve discovered a different world with a cosy atmosphere and an intentional feel. The Black Power Station space was filled with lush plants, dimmed lighting, vintage art, comfy furniture, and an intriguing energy that offers a different kind of peace. It felt like being kwa makhulu – it embraced the nostalgia of a Black family under the guidance of a strong matriarch and was a safe space for growth and creativity.
Read the full story by Dideka Njemla (7 March 2025).
Dr Danai Mupotsa, writer and lecturer in African Literature.
As a scholar and a writer Mupotsa is committed to feminist, queer and anti-racist praxis. At the time of the recording of the podcast, the final touches were being put to Danai’s first collection of poetry titled ‘feeling and ugly.’ Dr Alma-Nalisha Cele sat down with the quietly brilliant Dr Danai Mupotsa to discuss the practical application of her politics in both academic and lived practices as both a writer and academic. The conversation touched on motherhood and the interesting ways it has changed her feminism in both lighthearted and poignant ways that may resonate with many of our listeners.Of course, the interview would be incomplete if the literary influences of this scholar of African literature were not explored. There are entire reading lists for young Black readers contained in this podcast.At the time of release, Dr Danai Mupotsa’s collection of poetry had just launched to great acclaim. This podcast in many ways serves as a great prologue to her work, a recommendation of the highest order. “We are the ones we have been waiting for” – June Jordan The works of Danai Mupotsa are proof of just that.
vangile gantsho is healer, poet and co-founder of impepho press – a Pan Africanist intersectional feminist publishing house. She is the author of two poetry collections: red cotton (2018) and Undressing in Front of the Window (2015), holds an MA, from the University Currently Known as Rhodes (UCKR) and is a graduate of the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institute. In 2018, she was named one of Mail & Guardian’s Top Young 200 South Africans. Her poetry has been published in various literary publications around the globe, including New Daughters of Africa (2019). gantsho has participated in festivals and literary programmes across three continents. She has curated and produced in-person and online international programmes and co-created a poetry and film meditation called forgetting. and memory. with Toni Giselle Stuart and Vusumzi Ngxande. She has taught at institutions including UCKR, Wits University, New York University, Rowan University, CUNY La Guardia and State College. gantsho dedicates herself and her work to creating and/or supporting spaces that encourage (black feminine visibility and) healing. Her current obsessions include Ukuthula, a creative writing resistance to gender based violence, and smallgirl rising connecting the Divine Black Feminine, an international intergenerational poetry healing initiative.
Source: Biographies of the ten chosen residents – Roger Robinson (UK), Jaimee A. Swift (USA), Keston Perry (Trinidad & Tobago), Lori L. Tharps (USA), Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza (Zimbabwe), vangile gatsho (South Africa), Nzube Nlebedim (Nigeria), Noor Elfaki (Sudan), Abdulrazak Salihu (Nigeria), Denoo Edinam Yawo (Ghana)
“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)
