Modise Sekgothe's poetry of transformation

Mail & Guardian

25-04-2025

My word: Modise Sekgothe has been given the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Poetry — the second recipient in four decades.
In a quiet moment on an otherwise ordinary afternoon, Modise Sekgothe found out he had been selected as only the second poet to win the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Poetry in its 40-year history.
'I was in the house writing,' he tells me when we speak at an event introducing this year's winners to the media. 'Then I got the message.'
In a poignant twist of fate, this news arrived only two weeks after he had experienced an intensely personal loss —the death of his mother.
'There was something very powerful about this important moment finding me in this other important moment,' he says reflectively. 'It's a heavy thing to think about but there was kind of a beautiful balance between great sorrow and great appreciation for life.
'It was almost like it connected me with my mother because, if you know anything about ancestry, you understand that the people that came before you continue to contribute to your life. And I feel in many ways like my mother had a hand in this moment in my life.'
Koleka Putuma was the first to win the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Poetry in 2022.
'I think this award affirms my work as an individual but more significantly it affirms the work we have been doing as the poetry community,' Sekgothe says.
'Because this award is 40 years old, and there have been a lot of amazing poets that have come out of South Africa in that time, but it shows that poetry was not seen as a performance art for a long time.
'But it was the poets that came before us that laid the foundation for us as the poets of this generation to be recognised in this way.'
Sekgothe traces his creative lineage to literary giants such as Keorapetse Kgositsile and Lesego Rampolokeng who carved the path for his generation. He honours the voices closer to his time too —Mutle Mothibe and Tumi Molekane — poets whose work helped shape his own evolving voice.
But his influences stretch beyond the traditional page. With equal admiration, he points to underground rap luminaries Hymphatic Thabs and Robo The Technician as artists who left a lasting imprint on his poetic style
'Poetry and underground rap music are two worlds that have influenced me greatly and helped shape my evolution as a performer.'
Born and raised in Soweto, 33-year-old Sekgothe is an award-winning poet, actor, vocalist and percussionist whose work spans mediums and movements. Though he holds a degree in psychology and linguistics, he has consistently turned to writing as his central medium.
'I've always been creative. I've always been writing. I've always, you know, made my albums, did my shows with whatever budget I had.'
He's no stranger to being recognised for his creative excellence, having received several accolades including the Word N Sound Innovation in Poetry Award (2015 and 2016), the WNS Showcase of the Year Award (2014 and 2015) and the WNS Perfect Poem Award (2015) for his piece To Die Before You Die.
To describe Sekgothe simply as a poet would be to miss the layers of his work. He is a performer, a sound artist and — perhaps most profoundly — a healer.
His background in psychology subtly shapes his practice, allowing him to delve into emotional and existential terrains with depth and care.
'Psychology is a modality of healing and art is a modality of healing,' he explains. 'Of finding ways to delve deep into your own psyche and making sense of what it is to be human.'
This therapeutic ethos is woven into his performances. At a recent event — the Ah Men Series at the Inside Out Centre for the Arts in Joburg — Sekgothe explored the shifting landscapes of masculinity.
'It was kind of tackling issues of masculinity and making sense of what manhood is in this current time,' he says. 'Challenging the expectations and really asking questions about what it really means to be a man, to be a South African man.'
He doesn't shy away from the difficult truths: 'As complicated as it is, to be part of a group of men that are among the highest in rape statistics in the world — what makes the South African man that kind of man?'
It's in asking these uncomfortable, but necessary, questions that Sekgothe believes poetry can do more than entertain. It can illuminate, confront and transform.
His performances are not mere readings, they are immersive experiences. He uses a loop pedal to create what he calls 'sonic soundscapes', layering vocalisations to build textured backdrops for his words.
'Part of my performativity is there's this kind of musical element to what I do.'
The result is a hypnotic fusion of sound and speech that pulls audiences into the emotional core of his work. This ability to bridge the cerebral and the visceral is what sets Sekgothe apart.
He brings the internal into the external, creating spaces where audiences can reflect on their own inner worlds: 'By way of all the work I do on myself,' he says, 'it sort of gives and triggers in other people … the opportunity to do that.'
Sekgothe's work has been published in Home is Where the Mic is, an anthology by Botsotso Publishers.
His audio work includes a poetry and music EP titled DIPOKO tsa DIPOKO and a solo album Meera Me.
He has performed at festivals, both local and international, including the Split This Rock Poetry Festival in Washington, Speak Out Loud Festival in Pretoria and the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, where he'll be returning later this year as a Standard Bank Young Artist.
He has also performed at Poets For Puerto Rico, Art All Night Festival, The Kennedy Center, Gothenburg Book Fair, Nobel Dialogue Week, and the Brussels Planetarium Poetry Festival.
For Sekgothe, the Standard Bank Award is not a culmination but a catalyst. 'It becomes an opportunity to scale what I've been doing,' he says. 'To explore some of the big ideas I've had that I possibly didn't have the platforms or the infrastructure for.'
The prize includes a production at the National Arts Festival.
'It's the only thing I care about right now,' he admits, hinting at a work-in-progress that is as ambitious as it is intimate. 'I'm immersed in that process.'
His artistic journey has been anything but conventional. Though he began exploring poetry while studying at university, it was never part of the curriculum. 'When I wasn't in the lecture hall, I was either in the poetry space or in the theatre,' he says. This dual life — academic by day, artist by passion — eventually resolved itself into a singular path.
'For the past 10 years, except for about two years when I lived abroad, I've worked full time as a writer and performer.'
The work he's producing now builds on that foundation but aspires to something even more expansive.
'How far can the message that I've been sort of grappling with reach?' he asks. It's a question that speaks to his deepening sense of responsibility, not just as an artist but as a cultural worker attuned to the pain and potential of his community.
And though his mother won't be at the awards evening in the flesh, her presence lingers.
I ask him what he would tell her about this moment if she was here.
'I don't think it would be about the telling more than it would be about her presence,' he says. 'It would be more about her getting the opportunity to see what this odd sort of work I've dedicated my entire life to has made possible for me.
'To see the magnitude of this work and how meaningful it is for me would speak far more profoundly than anything I could say to her.
'And so it's unfortunate that she will not be at the festival in her actual physical presence but I believe very much that she's here now and she will continue to be by my side.'
Modise Sekgothe stands at a powerful intersection of poetry and psychology, grief and celebration, introspection and outward impact.
He is a poet, yes, but also a cartographer of the soul, guiding others through language and sound toward deeper understanding. In his hands, art becomes not just expression, but exhalation, excavation and ultimately, healing.