Publisher: Deep South, South Africa
Prologue to hysteria
my mother scraped asked & begged
& did what not & took me to a
sangoma. the healer had flames in
her eyes & the smell in her little
room full of bones & dark bottles &
herbs & animal skins sat down
heavily on my stomach. with a dirty
rusty razor she made incisions on
my elbows forehead chest & ankles.
she rubbed snuff mixed with
something other in the little wounds.
i drank litres of water plus some
other medicine on her order stuck
two fingers deep in my mouth &
vomited. she saw stories of early
death & foreboding times for me in
my vomit… when they slaughtered
two chickens & smeared the blood
over me i didn’t lose consciousness.
but i have been doing so ever since.
“I’ve never celebrated nor embraced negativity in
my life. Every single thing I have tried to do or
written has come out of a need to actually
eradicate or wipe out whatever it is that seeks to
destroy the soul of other people.”
“I respect the WORD. People talk about wordplay, I
don’t play with it… it’s one of the most powerful
weapons in the world.”
£15.00
About the author
Born in Orlando West, Soweto, in Johannesburg, Lesego Rampolokeng is a poet, novelist, playwright, filmmaker and writing teacher who rose to prominence in the 1980s, a turbulent period in South Africa’s history. He is the author of several pioneering collections of poetry including Talking Rain (1993), The Bavino Sermons (1999), Head on Fire (2012) and A Half Century Thing (2015). He is also the author of three novels, two plays, screenplays and has collaborated in performances and recording with several musicians.