Keorapetse Kgositsile

Keorapetse Kgositsile, the original last poet. Became Poet Laureate of South Africa in 2006. A prominent member of the African National Congress who lived in exile in the United States from 1962 to 1975. He was one of the seminal figures in merging African poetry from the continent with that in the United States and fusing it in turn with jazz. He founded the Black Arts Theatre in Harlem. He created the ANC's departments of education and of arts and culture and taught in Zambia, Botswana, and Kenya, continuing his pan-Afrikan work.

Nikitah Okembe-ra Imani
Chair of Black Studies
University of Nebraska at Omaha