Lefifi Tladi

Lefifi Tladi (b. 4 January 1949, Pretoria) is a South-African painter, poet, sculptor, musician, and prominent Black Consciousness Movement activist who has been permanently living and working in Stockholm, Sweden, since 2016. His career began in 1966 when Tladi co-founded a youth club, "De-Olympia," in the township of Ga-Rankuwa northwest of Pretoria and began performing with Malombo Jazz Messengers, a local band later renamed Dashiki. De-Olympia subsequently transformed into a contemporary Black art studio and gallery, collaborating with notable local artists and anti-apartheid activists, such as Motlhabane Mashiangwako, Fikile Magadlela and Harry Moyaga. Between 1971 and '74, Lefifi organized numerous exhibitions, workshops and poetry events across South-African universities and schools before the Apartheid government finally shut him down. In 1976, authorities detained Lefifi for participating in the Soweto uprisings. After two months in solitary confinement, Lefifi Tladi fled the country and spent the next few years in Botswana. In 1981, he moved to Europe and studied fine arts and art history at Gerlesborg School of Fine Art in Bohuslän, Sweden. In 1997, following the abolishment of apartheid, Lefifi Tladi returned to South Africa. Tladi appeared in Aryan Kaganof's 2005 "Giant Steps" documentary dedicated to revolutionary African poets and received a lifetime achievement award from the South African Literary Awards in 2021.