Lesego Rampolokeng, Zukiswa Wanner feature at Sol Plaatje University Summer School

Lesego Rampolokeng, Zukiswa Wanner, and Moagi Modise were the featured guest lecturers at Sol Plaatje Summer Writing School that happened from January 9 – 13, 2017.

Sol Plaatje, pronounced Sol Plackie, was a South African intellectual, journalist, linguist, politician, translator and writer. He was a founder member and first General Secretary of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), which eventually became the ANC.

South Africa has remembered her famous son by naming the The Sol Plaatje Local Municipality, which includes the city of Kimberley as well as a library and museum. One of the coolest of his honours is the Sol Plaatje University which opened its doors in 2014.

This past week, the university led by Vice-Chancellor, Professor Yunus Ballim started up its inaugural writing program called the Sol Plaatje University Summer School. The program at the new university happened in the fast growing Central Campus is run by the Summer School Coordinator, Sabata Mokae. The guest lecturers at the school program were Lesego Rampolokeng, Zukiswa Wanner and Moagi Modise.

This blogger met Lesego Rampolokeng at the Abantu Book Festival and he is a legend in his time. The Soweto born poet and academic directly influenced by the writings of Frantz Fanon and he comes from the Black Consciousness era of the 1970s and 1980s is one of the most famous poets from South Africa. He has written poetry collections, plays and novels.

Moagi Modise is one of South Africa’s leading thespians with roles in theatre and film in many famous shows in the South African countries like Generations, Witness to a Kill, Joburg and Snitch. Zukiswa Wanner, who will be familiar with many readers of this blog, is an award winning novelist and journalist.

The Summer School included a variety of tools including lectures, film screenings, writing prompts and more. Discussed by students were topics like the basics of writing fiction, on poetry, on Memory and imagination, and more.

The events at the Sol Plaatje University will happen again in the next year.