Nkateko Tshabalala is a self-published author of Poetic Flair, published in December 2018 (Amazon), his first collection of poems written between 1999 and 2018. Born in Soweto & raised in Sebokeng, he went on to study law at Vista University in Soweto in the late 90’s.
It was at this stage of his life where he felt compelled to write down his thoughts and declared his matrimony with words. Influenced by Ben Okri, Langston Hughes and the Hip Hop duo, ‘Blackstar’ (amongst others), he went on to pen down poems such as, ‘for my people’, ‘idol happiness’ and ‘we are before after as we were’, dealing with the plight of black South Africans, pre and post-democracy and the hope for the future. In the poem, ‘we are before after as we were’, he wrote, “we were prophets before we were disciples, foretelling the future with hope, faith and truth”, addressing issues of religion, history and faith.
Whilst in varsity, he participated in poetry sessions as the host of the ‘open mind sessions’ and performed in a few other poetry sessions in Newtown, between the years, 2002 & 2003. From 2004, Nkateko focused on his career as a legal practitioner and is currently a pupil advocate at the Pan African Bar Association of South Africa. Law and poetry have a prominent place in his life, but poetry will always be his first love.
His poems are written on a myriad of topics, revealing his passions, faith, sense of justice and social responsibility.
Since 2018, he has been a regular contributor to the online publishing platform, Poetry Potion, having contributed poems such as ‘Ubuntu, Abantu’, ‘wear a smile like a matador’ and ‘shapes of love’ amongst others. He is also working on his second collection titled, ‘Odes of avatar dreams’.