Isabella Motadinyane was born in 1963 in Mofolo Central, Soweto, and died in 2003 on her 40th birthday. She used English, Isicamtho and Sesotho to create a powerful legacy of performance,
poetry, and song. Complete Poems is Motadinyane’s collected work - just over 30 poems. It was published as Bella in 2007 by Botsotso Publishing in an illustrated edition, and is republished by
Deep South without illustrations. The six Sesotho poems and the Sesotho phrases scattered in other poems have been newly translated by Lesego Rampolokeng. Motadinyane had a style of writing and
performing that was entirely her own. On the page her poems were intense, funny and painful, while her onstage delivery, whether speech or song, was electrifying in vitality and timing. Her
elliptical associative poems mixed languages, and crossed rural and urban cultures. Isabella Motadinyane was an active member of the Botsotso Jesters poetry performance group, in fact the
group’s name came from one of her poems. The touching tributes to her by other Botsotso members are reproduced in this edition.
