Katlego Rammusa Documents the Rise of Motswako in Defining New Book

It was the soundtrack of the streets in Mahikeng from the late 1990s and to the early 2000s before reaching crossover appeal, finding resonance with music fanatics countrywide and beyond the borders, at some point the Motswako genre catapulted the North West province to the hip hop headlines; and made people sit up and take notice. The fusion of the Setswana language into the hip hop sphere was a unique take that defied tribalism and showed the masses that there’s room for different South African languages at the hip hop table and music at large.

Now, the story of Motswako – a subgenre of the South African version of rap, whose name denotes a mixture, owing to its multilingualism, with Setswana as the main ingredient – is finally being told. It was this despondent realization that led an award winning, nominated and a prolific author Katlego Rammusa to pen down an enlightening book about the Motswako genre and its unique and genius origins.

In a new book titled Motswako: The Beginnings, music enthusiast Katlego Rammusa harks back to the subgenre’s genesis to expertly document this domestic pop culture wonder.

Having enjoyed untrammeled access to some of Motswako’s heavyweights including the late rap supremo HHP and stalwarts such as the Baphixile duo, Prof Sobukwe and Blax Myth, Rammusa takes the reader through a winding journey that culminates in the place that the subgenre now occupies in the modern South African music landscape.

Motswako: The Beginnings Details
Publication Date:20 August 2023
Price: R250
Number of pages:135
Binding: Paperback
Category: Nonfiction – Lifestyle
Barcode:9781998970339
ISBN:13:978-998970-33-9
Edition: 1
Publisher: Mbokodo Publishers

Book Author
Katlego Rammusa is a South African Literary Awards nominee (2023) with an extensive track record as a published author. Rammusa has published over ten books in the Christian living genre. He is also an Information and Communication Technology professional, and businessman. Motswako: The Beginnings is his first offering in the Nonfiction – Lifestyle genre.