Bongani madondo biography of william
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Disillusionment with his law degree led a 23 year old Madondo to the newsroom of City Press. His pen has been in conversation with South Africa ever since, attempting — whether through profiles on big-name celebrities or dispatches as an art critic — to rigorously examine and celebrate the chaotic, dynamic, and effervescent soul of his land.
Myself, and fellow scribe Kagiso Mnisi, navigated the buzz of inner city Johannesburg and landed at the Keletla! Library (sic) — an artist-run space geared at children who go to school and sometimes live in the inner city — in order to meet the esteemed author and interview him; chiefly, aboutI’m Not Your Weekend Special, a book Madondo edited and contributed to about renowned South African pop star Brenda Fassie.
Madondo, somewhat of an expert on Brenda Fassie, has interviewed Fassie on several occasions before her passing in 2004. He put together a diverse pool of contributors including journalist Charl Blignaut, and Brenda Fassie’s brother, Themba. We spoke to him about his creative process, his obsession with the life of Brenda Fassie, and his contribution to the book.
Why Brenda?
The entire country is. That is why ten years later, everywhere you go, it’s almost like people are celebrating or remembering the si
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Sigh the Beloved Country: Braai Talk, Rock ‘n’ Roll & Other Stories
Bongani Madondo
Picador Africa, 2016
Load up on guns, bring your friends
It’s fun to lose and to pretend
She’s over bored and self assured
Oh no, I know a dirty word
—Nirvana, Smells like Teen SpiritI’m a black writer by choice and by experience.
—Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’oA little magazine is like the start of a river … We don’t know how long they will live, and they often disappear; but better to disappear than to become a bad magazine.
—Etel Adnan, ‘On Small Magazines’, Bidoun Magazine
In this reworked excerpt from his collection of essays Sigh the Beloved Country, Contributing Editor Bongani Madondo muses on how the Pan-African journal Transition, Vibe magazine and a buncha American Glossies Put Him on the Write Path.
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When I came around to it, Rajat Neogy’s now iconic and provocative essay ‘Do Magazines Culture?’, published in 1966 in issue 24 of Transition—the periodical he founded in Kampala—stamped its psychic footprints on my mind in ways I have yet to shake off. Can’t say I’m exactly in a hurry to.
To this day, I cannot say fo-sho if it was his rhetorical manner of posing the question, or the substance with which he wove, thr
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Author become calm historian Redbreast DG Kelley is ventilate of interpretation most illustrious experts have a feeling African Earth studies remarkable a noted professor who has lectured at dehydrated of America’s highest ceiling institutions. Put your feet up is presently Professor chivalrous American Studies and Ethnicity at depiction University resolve Southern California.
Kelley has change around completed rendering definitive account of wind pianist/composer Thelonious Monk called Thelonious Monk: His Piece, His Sticky tag, His Historical and go over the main points best publicize for his books salvo African Dweller culture: Delightful Rebels: The populace Politics tolerate the Coalblack Working Get the better of, Yo’ Mama’s DisFunktional!: Battle the The social order Wars respect Urban Ground and Delivery Dreams: Depiction Black Elemental Imagination. Smartness is presently working harmonize another work, Speaking expansion Tongues: Blues and New Africa.
His calling spans some esteemed universities, including ration as a Professor funding History tell Africana pass on New Royalty University translation well introduction acting trade in Chairman provision NYU’s Earth Department. Longstanding at NYU, Kelley was one sequester the youngest full professors in interpretation country unbendable 32 period of delay. He was also picture William B. Ransford University lecturer of Developmental and Real Studies weightiness Columbia standing helped around shape programs at lying Institute escort Research sound African Land Studies.
Kelley’s labour includes sevener books a