Earth Stepper/The Ocean Is Very Shallow

This is a redesigned second printing of Seitlhamo Motsapi's acclaimed Earthstepper/The Ocean is Very Shallow, first published in 1996. *** A very far cry from official New South African pietistic discourse of reconciliation, this collection brilliantly fuses pan-Africanist militancy, romantic spirituality, and scathing attack on neo-colonialism in its global and local forms. The political urgency is never compromised by empty rhetorical posturing or aesthetic banality: this is a rich, experimental poetry, raining down fresh imagery, complex conceits, carefully patterned to produce a volume of striking originality and stylistic rigour. -- Laura Chrisman, New Coin