Writer: Kukhanya Mthimkulu | Artwork: Slovo Mamphaga

Kgomo ga e ke nyela boloko jotlhe — an ox never relieves itself of all its dung at once. This seTswana proverb reminds us that power, much like wisdom and craft, is not always expended in full. It is held back, cultivated, measured, until the time is right. In the case of Koketso Poho, we are witnessing that very moment, the emergence of an artist who, though long present in the cultural and political bloodstream of this country, has kept a sacred portion of his power for himself. Until now.

On Wednesday 31 July at 18:00, Koketso Poho will take to the stage at Lit.Culture, Breezeblock Café, located at 29 Chiswick Street in Brixton, Johannesburg, for his debut solo performance titled Hymns for The Unfree – A Night of Gwijo According to Jazz. R100 on Quicket and R150 at the door. This marks a significant shift in his artistic journey, where his voice, long rooted in collectives and movement spaces, begins to speak in a solo register. He will be joined on the night by celebrated poet Makhafula Vilakazi and Nhlanhla Ngqaqu (musical director), the founder, composer, bassist and leader of the South African jazz ensemble iPhupho L’ka Biko. Visual artist Slovo Mamphaga will also exhibit artworks inspired by the show’s sonic mood and spiritual direction.

To call him Poho, the Bull, is no small thing. In African cosmologies across the continent, the bull is a towering figure. It signifies strength, virility, courage, persistence and above all, leadership. It leads not only through force but through presence. Koketso has long embodied these traits, not just in name, but indeed. During the #FeesMustFall protests, few voices were as commanding or as unifying as his. When Koketso began a struggle song, bodies moved. Voices rose. People found themselves woven into one another, held by the sound and fury of righteous rebellion.

His was a voice that lifted, not just spirits, but entire movements.

Now, when we speak of distinctive South African voices, we think of names carved deep into the cultural archive. Thandiswa Mazwai’s fearless soprano. Lebo Mathosa’s rasped provocation. Sibongile Khumalo’s operatic command. And just as one can recognise Tumi Mogorosi’s sacred drum language or Bra Hugh’s urgent trumpet calls, one cannot mistake the voice of Koketso Poho. Even if you don’t know that you’ve heard him, trust me, you have. On picket lines, at vigils, at marches, in the echoes of protest that still haunt university campuses and city streets, his voice is there. Unyielding. Familiar. Free.

Already, Koketso has crafted an impressive artistic footprint. He was one of the lead vocalists on Concerning Blacks, the groundbreaking album by Makhafula Vilakazi, a project that did not merely speak about Black life but spoke from it, with all the contradictions, rage, love and poetry intact. He is also a core member and lead vocalist of iPhupho L’ka Biko, a spiritual jazz ensemble that reimagines the sonic terrain of Steve Biko’s philosophy. And of course, his powerful contributions to the EFF’s musical repertoire have become almost liturgical in their reach.

But beyond these collectives, Koketso is beginning to offer the world something unmistakably his own. His voice, his real voice, is one he is now shaping in solo form. And what a force it is.

Koketso has the rare ability to take a hymn, a gwijo, or a liberation song and transform it into something intimate, something generational. His interpretations are not mere covers, they are resurrections. His performances are not acts of entertainment, they are rituals. When he sings, you hear your ancestors rejoicing. You hear them grieving. You feel their longing for land, for rest, for freedom, for dignity. You feel their hope, which in the Black condition is not optimism, it is defiance. Koketso’s voice is menacingly haunting because it carries what so few artists dare to hold — the weight of Black history, Black mourning and Black imagination.

To witness him live is to be pulled into a collective trance. I have yet to attend a performance where the audience remains seated. Before the first note finishes, the crowd is already on its feet, fists in the air, feet stamping out the memory of suffering, joyfully. We do the i-step. We chant. We remember who we are.

Like the ox who withholds, Koketso has not yet given us everything. That is not a flaw. It is wisdom. What he has saved, he is now preparing to offer, and we should ready ourselves.

Because Koketso Poho is not only an artist. He is an activist, a cultural theorist in melody, a public servant. His artistic practice interrogates power, interrogates the law, interrogates the unfinished business of freedom. He sings for the silenced. He sings with them. His work is not about representation. It is about confrontation. Through music, he wrestles with the violence of anti-Blackness, the performance of democracy, the hauntings of dispossession. His is a radical Black imagination not afraid of fire, not afraid of tenderness.

And now, he is stepping forward, not as part of a collective, but as himself.

Koketso Poho has a solo show coming up. Show up.

Your spirit will thank you.
Your memory will awaken.
And your soul, I promise you, will sing.

*Purchase your tickets here: https://bit.ly/40ylbOT