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08 April 2021
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Story Thabo Kessah
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Photo UFS Photo Archive
Dr KPD Maphalla with former UFS Chancellor, Dr Franklin Sonn, during the graduations in April 2007.
The University of the Free State is sad to learn of the passing of alumnus and award-winning Sesotho literary giant, Dr KPD Maphalla.
The literary works of Dr Khotso Pieter David Maphalla, like many other African writers and artists, were influenced and characterised by his own era of powerful forms of oppression and exclusion from dominant literary discourses. In his own right and through his writings of poetry, novels, short stories, and kodiamalla (dirge), he articulated a deliberate political and social protest and pushed for a place for African languages in literature at the height of apartheid.
“He entered the professional scene with his ground-breaking novel, Kabelwamanong, in 1982 at the age of 27. His career actually started in 1971 while he was still at school. Since his first novel, he has produced at least two books annually, covering the genres of poetry, novels, dramas, and short stories. As a dramatist, Dr Maphalla has written a number of excellent and educative radio dramas for the then Radio Sesotho (now Lesedi FM),” said his long-time friend and Head: African Languages at the University of the Free State, Dr Nyefolo Malete.
“It was for this writing prowess that he received recognition from the UFS when he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Literature by the Department of African Languages during a momentous ceremony on the Qwaqwa Campus in 2007,” added Dr Malete.
Dr Malete also revealed that, despite losing the use of his right hand after suffering a stroke following a car accident in the late 1990s, Dr Maphalla continued writing using his left hand. “He was adamant that, what he referred to as his ‘supposed disability’, would not deter his passion for writing.”
Dr Maphalla’s work has also produced numerous scholarly studies by the likes of Profs Moleleki Moleleki (protest poetry), Thapelo Selepe (lament and protest poetry), and Dr Seema Seema (process of cross-cultural communication). He was a committed Qwaqwa community member, who was also instrumental in the founding of Qwaqwa Community Radio (2000) and Metjodi Writers (2006), among others. He has written more than 70 books, many of which have been prescribed texts in schools.
Some of the awards he has won include:
South African Centre for Digital Language Resource (SADiLar) Sesotho Lexicographic Unit (Sesiu sa Sesotho) Lifetime Award for outstanding literary works and for promoting Sesotho literature (2019).
The Literature Festival and the University of the Free State Award for enormous contribution to Sesotho literature by a South African writer (2019).
Lifetime Achiever Award in Literature awarded by the Department of Arts and Culture (2005).
M-Net Book Prize for Sesotho poetry (2005). The first and thus far the only Sesotho author to have received this honour.
M-Net Book Prize for best novel (1996).
De Jager-HAUM Literary Award for his volume of short stories, Mohlomong Hosane (1993).
Thomas Mofolo Trophy for Best Novel, Best Poetry, and the Overall Award (1992).
Thomas Mofolo Trophy for Best Poetry (1991).
Dr JJ Moiloa Floating Trophy for Best Sesotho Poetry Book of the Year, Kgapa tsa ka (1985).
British piano duo perform at Odeion
2016-10-19
David Nettle and Richard Markham, better known
as Nettle and Markham, will be performing in the
Odeion on 20 October 2016.
Photo: Supplied
The Odeion School of Music (OSM) at the University of the Free State (UFS) will be hosting one of the world’s foremost piano duos. Nettle and Markham perform in the main concert halls of Europe and with major British orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, the RPO, the CBSO, and the ECO as well as other international orchestras. They also participate in major international festivals such as the Bath, Harrogate, Berlin, Schleswig-Holstein, and BBC Proms.
The British duo have been delighting audiences throughout the musical world for nearly forty years and will perform at the Odeion on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus on 20 October 2016. David Nettle and Richard Markham are considered one of the most entertaining and musically satisfying partnerships performing today.
"We have not heard here until now a piano duo of such exceptional quality. The understanding of the music by both partners is so good that you cannot distinguish by hearing which of them picks up the musical theme. At the same time it is playing full of colour and spontaneous musicality, stirring and ravishing," Vecemi Praha said.
Nettle and Markham's varied recital and concerto repertoire encompasses not only standard works, but also their own distinctive transcriptions. Their highly praised recordings reflect the range of styles they are known to assimilate effortlessly, from Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring to Sir Malcolm Arnold’s Concertos for two pianos.
In addition to their regular concert schedule, recent seasons have seen them devoting large amounts of time to preparing new recordings - the complete four-hand works of Schumann and Saint-Saëns being the first in a series of projects designed to keep them busy from now until their 40th anniversary seasons in 2017 and 2018.
Event: Nettle and Markham – two pianos
Date: 20 October 2016
Time: 19:30
Place: Odeion (Bloemfontein Campus)
Cost: R130 (adults), R90 (pensioners), R70 (UFS staff members), R50 (students and learners), R50 (group booking of 10+). Tickets available at Computicket.
For more information contact Ninette Pretorius at +27 51 401 2504.