About MOLA

Travelling to Swaziland

Keamogetsi joseph Molapong has been writing poetry since 1990. He was instrumental in establishing the two Windhoek poetry groups Ama Poets and Kitso Poets in 1992 and 1996 respectively. Together, they or­ganised poetry competitions promoted by the publisher New Namibia Books, as well as by the Namibia National Student’s Organization (NANSO), the National Planning Commission, the Legal Assistance Centre, and others.

As part of Ama Poets, Keamogetsi joseph Molapong recorded poetry with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Ama Poets re­ceived public attention through numerous performances, articles in local newspapers, and interviews. The staging of the poetry production Journey of the emancipated in 1992 became a major success of the group.  As a founding members of another poetry group called Kitso “Knowledge” Poets, Keamogetsi joseph Molapong contributed to We Opened the Door and Saw Ourselves, (New Namibia Books, 1998). With Kitso Poets, Keamogetsi joseph Molapong continued to explore poetry at several competitions and workshops. They recorded with both the Namibia Broadcasting Corporation TV and Radio. Further interviews, recordings and poetry broad­casting were done with the Katutura Community Radio (KCR), Radio Netherlands. A number of poems appeared in The Namibian.

Caught by Thoughts in Berlin

In 2002 the poet produced a poetry production called The Black People I Know, his last poetry production. In the same year, he was invited to share his poetry with students from the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland. During his month-long stay a major poetry performance with drama students took shape. The visit came to fruition with Come Talk Your Heart (New Namibia Books, 2005). Keamogetsi j. Molapong, among many other creative ac­tivities in the fields of drama and poetry, participated in the following publications: Action! An Introductory Drama Manual, African Origin and Civilisation; Poetically Speak­ing; Bricks Magazine. Body and soul a poet, he devotes himself to the enrichment of Namibian poetry. Recently, he has credited another collection of poetry entitled In Search Of Questions (BAB, 2005). This was a limited edition of tribute to Carl Schlettwein, the founder of Basler Africa Bibliographien (BAB), which promotes publishing activities and scientific research on the Southern African region, and, in particular, Namibia, focusing on culture and history. In 2007, Keamogetsi joseph Molapong participated in the 11^th Poetry Festival in Durban, South Africa. Together with 20 other poets from the globe Keamogetsi joseph Molapong, read, recited and facilitated poetry sessions with school learners in the townships of Durban. He recently participated in the Poesiefestival Berlin 2009 (26 – 30 June 2009) in Germany, where he shared the stage with poets from Southern Afrika.

In 2008, through an initiative called Township Productions, Keamogetsi joseph Molapong started a poetry publication called POETREE, which up to date has seen 5 Editions. POETREE is published bi-monthly through the grants from the National Arts Council of Namibia (NACN). This project aims to publish poets who otherwise would never see their poetry in published and book form. Additionally Township Productions has also worked on and published 3 other poetry anthologies. Keamogetsi joseph Molapong has started working on his second poetry collection called The Scares On My Skin which he plans to publish next year. The publication will be a result of 3 poetry shows Produced by Township Productions. The Scares On My Skin 1, will be performed before the end of the year with The Scares On My Skin 2 & 3 scheduled for the following year.

Poetry Reading In Durban

The themes of his poetry mainly focus on social critique of the many harsh ineq­uities of post-independence Namibian society.  As such he has contributed recitations to such as Book Launches, Festivals, Commemorations, etc. Because of the nature of his Poetry, Molapong has presented his work at the University of Namibia, for the Department of English and the Department of Sociology respectively.