POLOKWANE – Daniel Matsepe Motlala made the conscious choice to write poetry in his mother tongue and believes it will promote the use and love of the language.
Finding inspiration from other Sepedi poets such as Oliver Kgadime Matsepe, Daniel (26) wants to share his love of the language with others.
“I find inspiration from the daily lives of others and from my surroundings. I not only write Sepedi poems but English poems as well. My true passion, however, lies with Sepedi. I express everything I feel on paper as it is not always easy to express what I feel in words,” he told BONUS. Daniel grew up in Moeding and later moved to Motetema and in 2009 he founded a non-governmental organisation (NGO) at Mogadime High School in Moeding Rakgwadi Circuit.
The NGO, he explained, will be officially named and launched later this year. Through the NGO they identify less fortunate people from the communities and schools around Sekhukhune who they help with donations.
“Despite being labelled a ‘naughty boy’ in primary and high school, constantly being suspended from school I repeated my Gr 11 and finished my matric at Mogadime High School. Here I was awarded a Top Learner certificate which made me realise the importance of education and not taking life for granted because it was too precious to waste,” he said. Daniel enrolled for a BCom at the University of Limpopo (UL) which he completed in 2014. He now has his sights set on studying a linguistics course because he wants to “address the lack of Sepedi in the world and it will be made easier through these studies”.
Along with poetry he plans to write short stories for radio, scripts for talk shows, and books in both Sepedi and English in the near future.
“Another of my dreams is to be a radio presenter, especially if I can do my show in Sepedi.” One of the challenges he has come across while doing research for his poems is the lack of material available in Sepedi, something he said he plans to change through his works.
