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20 February 2023 | Story Gerda-Marié van Rooyen | Photo Supplied
Nthabiseng (JahRose) Jafta, a Publishing Coordinator at the University of the Free State (UFS), recently received the Silver Medal Award and other accolades at the Eurasian Literary Festival held in Egypt. She says writing is a way of life for her and she writes anywhere and anytime.

Nthabiseng (JahRose) Jafta, a Publishing Coordinator at African Languages Press in the Library and Information Services at the University of the Free State (UFS), recently received the Silver Medal Award and other accolades at the Eurasian Literary Festival held in Egypt. Jafta, an MA scholar (Creative Writing) at Rhodes University, describes herself as an international performing poet, artpreneur, teacher, festival curator, content developer, and creative strategist born in the Free State.

Being an introvert, she says her love for writing gives her a voice. “I can echo my thoughts and colour my grey sky,” she explains poetically. She feels writing is as natural to her as breathing. She is comfortable writing anywhere and anytime. “There’s no physical area needed. We type on WhatsApp in the taxi. We catch brainwaves whenever they appear.” Jafta's creative juices seem to be overflowing, as she confessed to even getting an idea while contemplating her love for writing. “Life throws you prompts from all spheres, but you have to be present to recognise its call. And sometimes the piece decides if it wants to be happy, erotic, or sad.”
 
Her literacy cap serves Jafta's career as a publisher and her creative writing when time allows. “I read and write. Publish what I read or write. I also happen to recite, read, and sing what I write. It’s all in alignment.” This Deputy President of the National Writers Association of South Africa and founder of the Poetic Blues Virtual Festival writes in her mother tongue, Sesotho, and English. She also has additional experience in the poetry industry, as she was previously the Curator of the Macufe Poetry Festival. She also attended the International Writing Centre at Beijing Normal University part time. Her poems have also been translated into Mandarin and published in Chinese literary magazines.

Jafta says besides the growing catalogue of more than 40 publications, she also has an upcoming multilingual poetry compilation featuring Spanish, Danish, Mandarin, Arabic, KiSwahili, IsiZulu, and Sesotho translations from English. This poet believes poetry is a gift that feeds lyrics to melodies. “And that song carries us to humanity's highs and lows. Prose is how we navigate that gift daily. They are rainbows on melting clouds, events plants rejoice on their rhythmic drops.”

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Award-winning artist and UFS intertwine
2017-06-10

Description: Nomusa Makhubu Tags: Nomusa Makhubu

Nomusa Makhubu’s work will be exhibited for the next
few weeks at the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery.
Photo: Kara Schoeman

“It is this sense of ownership, or the loss thereof, that I would still like to explore.” Exploring issues of identity, and more particularly, the sensitive issue of representation through the medium of photography, is exactly what Nomusa Makhubu sets out to do in her exhibition entitled Intertwined 2005 – 2017.

The issue of self-representation
This solo exhibition is a survey of Makhubu’s practice as a lens-based artist working mainly with portraiture, performance and space-time politics. Her exhibition includes the series entitled, Trading Lies, Self-Portrait Project, Inquietude, The Flood and In Living Colour.

The exhibition, in association with Erdmann Contemporary, is on display in the Johannes Stegmann Art Gallery at the University of the Free State from 24 May to 23 June 2017. She has exhibited in Africa, Europe, the US, and China.

Throughout this exhibition, Makhubu focuses on the issue of self-representation, but also brings in geographical locations to question the assumed universality and objectivity of time and place.

Not only an artist, but a writer too
As an award-winning artist, academic and a full-time lecturer at Michaelis School of Fine Art at the University of Cape Town, Makhubu is a force to be reckoned with in the art world. She has also contributed her writing to Critical Arts, African Arts, the Journal of African Cultural Studies and Third Text, as well as other book projects and catalogues.

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