Hungry on Arrival

'My collection embraces different kinds of poetry. Some poems come via my home in Pimville Soweto, the urban sounds and multilingual speech patterns as I move through it. Other poems draw on Sesotho culture and tradition, which still run strongly in my family, and at times, I integrate the different kinds of sounds and associations of Sesotho and English in the same poem. Another important aspect is my retracing the rural and forgotten footsteps of Mzanzis legendary artists, in the same way that Zim Ngqwana's Abomagoduka narrates the journey of men leaving their homesteads to seek work in the mines and cities. I believe poetry like jazz, allows one to knock on the void of silence. In this way I celebrate the lives of artists and poets such as Mafika Gwala, Jackson Hlungwani, Kippie 'Morolong' Moeketsi and Fana Zulu. Other poems are dense and self-reflective in the manner of Arthur Nortjie or Angifi Dladla.' (Kabelo Mofokeng) Kabelo 'Jazzmeneer' Mofokeng is a practising poet and a trained photographer with a deep love for music. He is a graduate of the MA in Creative Writing Course (2014) offered at Rhodes University. He has published poetry, prose and photo-essays in a number of Pan African literary journals, as well as written and produced the play, Taxi Poetry (2003).