Poet . Speaker

Based: Johannesburg

Lebohang Masango earned her Master of Arts degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.

She is an award-winning author and poet. Her debut children’s book, Mpumi’s Magic Beads (David Philip, 2018), is available in all 11 of South Africa’s official languages. The book has been awarded the 2019 South African Literary Award for Children’s Literature, the 2019 Exclusive Books IBBY SA Award for Best Writer and a 2020 gold Pendoring Advertising Award in the Publication Design – Whole Publication category. Her debut book for adult-readers, The Soft Life: Love, choice and modern dating (Tafelberg, 2022) is based on her Master’s research into the intersection between our collective socio-economic condition and the romantic lives of young women in South Africa and has been longlisted for The Sunday Times Literary Awards 2023.

She is the author of #EbaSafeOnline (2023), a comic book created by tech company Meta (Facebook) for the promotion of young people’s internet safety in collaboration with children’s publisher, Ethnikids and illustrator, Mfundo Ndevu. She has co-authored Grow to Be Great: Awesome African Achievers with Dr Judy Dlamini (Sifiso Publishers, 2020) and Mpumi and Jabu’s Magical Day! (David Philip, 2020) with Professor Claudine Storbeck, the Director for the Centre for Deaf Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand and it has been awarded a 2021 silver Pendoring Advertising Award in the Publication Design – Whole Publication category. She has written Nanana Boselesele for Wimpy and Ethnikids’ ‘Our Stories, Your Language’ campaign, co-authored O Šomile, Kolobe Ya Ditšhila for Save the Children South Africa in 2020 and written The Great Cake Contest as part of the voluntary literacy initiative Book Dash in 2018.

Her most recent books for younger readers, Can Mpumi Count? (David Philip, 2023), What is Mpumi’s Favourite Colour? (David Philip, 2023), What Does Mpumi Wear? (David Philip, 2022) and What Photographed by Austin MalemaDoes Mpumi Eat? (David Philip, 2022) are also available in all 11 South African languages as a contribution to helping literacy thrive in Early Childhood Development Centres (ECD) across South Africa. As an Anthropologist, Lebohang is published in Connected Lives: Families, Households, Health and Care in Contemporary South Africa, edited by Nolwazi Mkhwanazi and Lenore Manderson (HSRC Press, 2020) and Anxious Joburg: The Inner Lives of a Global South City edited by Nicky Falkof and Cobus van Staden (Wits Univeristy Press, 2020).

In 2023, the South African Reserve Bank commissioned Lebohang to write ‘Deep Ecology’, a poem to commemorate the new series of updated bank note and coin. Earlier, the South African Reserve Bank commissioned her to write “A Purposeful Journey”, a poem for their centenary in 2021. She also hosted and performed in the South African government’s official Women’s Day broadcast in that same year. She is published in Years of Fire and Ash: South African Poems of Decolonisation (Jonathan Ball, 2021) edited by Wamuwi Mbao and To Breathe Into Another Voice (Real African Publishers, 2017), a Jazz poetry anthology edited by Myesha Jenkins. Her poetry, “Ten Thousand Stories” features in MultiChoice/ DStv’s Most Loved Storyteller campaign and has won a gold Mama Africa Award and gold Best Image Promo Award at the Promax Africa Awards (2020). Her poetry also features in Metropolitan’s “Freedom Matters” (2019) video and the Hip Hop song “Endurance” (2015) by Reason alongside the late, HHP. She has read her poetry in South Africa, Zimbabwe, the UK and Egypt.

Lebohang is an inaugural Zanele Mbeki Fellow in feminist leadership. With her immense passion for children’s literacy, Lebohang regularly hosts storytelling sessions in schools, bookshops, community libraries and virtually. She was voted the second runner-up in Daily Maverick’s Youth Champion category in their Person of the Year Awards 2021. She is currently a PhD candidate and a Senior Writing Fellow at two prestigious South African universities., respectively.

 

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