by Madimetja Selepe
My name is Madimetja Selepe known as kulturekool.
I am a 16 year old boy, from Limpopo in polokwane, attending school at Derek kobe high.
I love to join botsotso publishing as I am motivated by the good work you are doing for the people of my country. Poetry is my passion so i will be humble to be granted an opportunity at botsotso. here attached there is a poem that accompany this letter and its written in N.Sotho but there are some written in English.
THUTO KE LESEDI
Naa bana besu re bo mang ka ntle le thuto?
ke ra yona tsela ya nnete ya bophelo bja rena.
thuto ke seputha bahloki,
sethabisa manyami,
sephurula difahlego,
thuto ga ena kgethuloganyo,
ke se aga maphelo a rena,
lege dikgosi dika busa Goya goile,
lege morena jesu a ka boya lefaseng,
thuto e tla dula ele bogobe bja rena bja ka mehla,
ba bantsi ba palelwa ke go fihlelela ditoro
le ditumo tsa bona,
ba hlokile phisagelelo le kgotlelelo,
mola bophelo ele semphete ke go go fete,
kgotlelelo etswala katlego.
it will be a dream come true if my poems can be published at your organization. i want to make a difference to fellow friends and our country as a whole. the only way to see that happening will be through writing, i see botsotso at my only hope to take the message to the people. I will be glad and happy to hear positive feedback from you.
your faithfully
Madimetja Selepe
A comment from Botsotso
by Deon-Simphiwe Skade
The editorial decision to publish the above e-mail submission as a “found poem” was based on a number of virtues we encountered in the entire submission.
Here we find a young poet, Madimetja Selepe (aka KultureKool), articulating in the clearest possible sense, the great ambition he possesses around literature, and how he would use it to change lives. It is difficult to imagine a similar enthusiastic ambition among other 16 year olds when what predominately occupies their minds is the ever dominant pop culture.
Here is a confident young man who not only submits a poem to Botsotso, but one that is written in what one assumes to be his mother tongue. This is despite the apparent dearth of publications written in indigenous languages. This is an effort worth celebrating, as we know that English has since become the language of ambition among some people of native tongues. The manifestations of such ambitions, do ultimately suggests that is it no longer peculiar for a black household to conduct its domestic affairs in English only; a choice which if replicated in many other households, may in fact lead to the ultimate death of a language/s. Not many young black people take pride in speaking in their mother tongue, let alone writing in it. But this is a phenomenon that the young Madimetja wishes to challenge as one deduces from his stated mission above.
The young poet has an adopted a name. He simply calls himself KultureKool, which we suspect is partly his way of trying to bridge a rift between the ever changing structure of language to a colloquial form as often seen in teenagers, and his need to place his own Northern Sotho culture among “cool” things of this world. Even in Madimetja’s nickname there is great ambition, which one feels extends to the actual poem submitted.
In the poem, Madimetja opens with a pertinent question: “Who are we without education?” Indeed who are we and what do we become? He goes on to articulate all the virtues of acquiring education. But is it when he says: “Education does not discriminate,” that one finds all the elements of his consciousness revealing a cathartic moment. We observe yet again, through the analysis of the poem, along with the content of the young poet’s e-mail and his nickname, that this is truly a moving submission. We call it quasi poem and publish it here so that others may be inspired by the admirable ambition and resolve of this young soul.