Losing His Head: The Poetry of Wopko Jensma and His Reputation

This article focuses on the declining reputation, and the efforts to revive it for a new readership today, of the life and work of the South African Wopko Jensma (1939–93). Principally known for the three volumes of poetry published by the radical Ravan Press in Johannesburg, one of which caused a sensation by being banned under the apartheid authorities, he was also known as a graphic artist who supplied iconic book-covers for the published so-called “Soweto” and other poets, and frequently had work of his exhibited in its own right. His mysterious death, and the myth around it celebrated by the press, is also given attention.