Poet Muse: Angifi Dladla (1950-2020)

zamantungwa | November 11th, 2020 | poet muses | No Comments

(Poet, playwright and creative writing teacher)

“You flew away,
never bothered.
I went my way,
never bothered
once we were one.” PHRRR 1

courtesy of Facebook

Poet, playwright and teacher Angifi Dladla passed away on 17 October 2020. Dladla was the author of eight plays and was best known for his community work in the East Rand where he founded the Bachaki Theatre in 1997 as well as an organisation called Community Life Network in 1998 2

His poetry was widely anthologised and also published in collections such as The Girl Who Then Feared to Sleep (Deep South, 2001), Lament for Kofifi Macu (Deep South, 2017), and an isiZulu collection titled Uhambo3.

Dladla was the director and writing teacher of the Femba Writing Project. FWP published both school and prison newspapers and the anthologies Wa lala, Wa sala and Reaching Out: Voices from Groenpunt Maximum-Security Prison.


“I’m an alien;
beings are made of dust, 
smoke, noise here.

Planet Dukathole has an ear 
of sound. Ghetto-blasters
compete with one another
blaring smoky hits,
blaring away poverty.
All is kwaito.
No kwasa-kwasa,
no mbaqanga, 
no reggae and no
jazz…” Son From Dukathole 4

Dladla was a Pan-Afrikanist whose activism in the 80s, led him to use the names Muntu wa Bachaki or Udibi Lwase Sandlwana in order to evade capture by the Apartheid authorities. He is mourned by his family as well as the many young writers and theatre-makers he has touched.

Poetry Potion salutes you. 

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  1. Dladla, A. (2020). PHRRR Poem by Angifi Proctor Dladla – Poem HunterPoemHunter.com. Retrieved 7 November 2020, from https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/phrrr/.[]
  2. Angifi DladlaEn.wikipedia.org. (2020). Retrieved 7 November 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angifi_Dladla.[]
  3. Malec, J., 2020. Angifi Dladla, 1950—2020, RIP. [online] The Johannesburg Review of Books. Available at: https://johannesburgreviewofbooks.com/2020/10/26/angifi-dladla-1950-2020-rip/ [Accessed 7 November 2020][]
  4. DUKATHOLE, S., & Dladla, A. (2020). SON FROM DUKATHOLE Poem by Angifi Proctor Dladla – Poem HunterPoemHunter.com. Retrieved 7 November 2020, from https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/son-from-dukathole/.[]