Keorapetse Kgositsile (1938–2018)

Keorapetse William Kgositsile was born in Johannesburg, South Africa on September 19, 1938. He briefly wrote for New Age, a left-wing magazine in South Africa, before leaving the country in 1961 as part of an early wave of activists who were sent abroad by the African National Congress. He worked show more as a journalist in Tanzania before moving to the United States in 1962, where he joined the staff of Black Dialogue magazine. He received a master's degree in fine arts from Columbia University and held positions at various colleges across the United States. He wrote several collections of poetry including Spirits Unchained, For Melba, and My Name Is Afrika. He returned to South Africa after the fall of apartheid in the early 1990s. In 2006, he became the second person to be named the country's poet laureate. He was an adviser to the minister of arts and culture until retiring in 2014. He died on January 3, 2018 at the age of 79. (Bowker Author Biography) show less