If I Could Sing

by Keroapetse Kgositsile

South African poet Keorapetse Kgositsile has selected 69 poems from six previously published collections as well as new work. The poems, written over four decades, many while in exile, explore a wide spectrum of emotions and a need to participate in the struggle to liberate the poet's land of birth. In the stunning original rhythms of the poems, the subtle influence of jazz and the Setswana language, the poet's mother tongue, can be heard.

104 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2002

Reviews

[Cameron Krogh Stone · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never have I read such angry, anguished, violent poetry. While the other Apartheid literature I have read so far have primarily started out hopeful and then descended into tragedy and lamenting, this collection of poetry is filled with fire and hatred for the oppressive regime. Spanning over 30 years of life, the mood changes distinctly over these years, granting unique, candid insight into the mind and emotional state of the author as times and political situation shifted. It is therefore such a relief to witness the lifting of the burden of hatred and embracing of a brave new world in his later writings, in the nascent free South Africa.

What's particularly interesting is his experimentation with language and layout: By making the text glide, scurry and leap back and forth across the page, completing sentences halfway through subsequent lines, cutting them off to be replaced by new ones, we are consumed by the spontaneity of his thoughts, his stream of consciousness. By blending standard written English with African-American colloquial slang and seTswana, we experience three voices, three moods, three nuances of the same story - a fight for freedom.

Recommended for anyone curious about discovering resistance poetry in the struggle for emancipation from tyranny, particular with regards to Apartheid in South Africa from the 1960s onwards.