Modise Sekgothe’s 'Gabo Legwala' is a memoir of manhood, memory, and healing

Modise Sekgothe performing 'Gabo Legwala' at the 2025 National Arts Festival. Picture: Mark Wessels

In Modise Sekgothe’s poetry-led production, Gabo Legwala, the personal becomes political, the poetic becomes performative, and the stage becomes a space of reckoning.

Gabo Legwala is derived from a colloquial SeTswana proverb: “Gabo legwala a gollewe,” which loosely translates: “there is no crying at the coward’s home”.

The 2025 Standard Bank Young Artist for Poetry, Sekgothe, weaves together verse, movement, memory, and sound in this poem disguised as a play to craft a deeply intimate exploration of becoming.

“This work explores the question of how a young man comes into his own, how he learns to become a man...”

Set against the backdrop of Soweto, one of South Africa’s most historically charged and culturally rich townships, Gabo Legwala traces the formative years of a young boy called Ndish, Sekgothe’s childhood nickname, as he navigates a world marked by tenderness inside the home and turbulence beyond it. 

What unfolds is a lyrical and layered inquiry into what it means to become a man in a context where the archetype of manhood is largely absent.

At the heart of Gabo Legwala is a father wound, an absence that leaves more than just a physical void. In this work, Sekgothe interrogates what happens to a boy’s understanding of masculinity when he grows up in a fatherless household. He is not alone in this experience. Across South Africa and indeed across the world, many young boys come of age without a consistent, caring male role model.

“This work explores the question of how a young man comes into his own, how he learns to become a man, in a context where father figures and positive role models are absent. It draws from my own experiences, as well as those of other young men I grew up with in the township,” explains Sekgothe.

Modise Sekgothe performing 'Gabo Legwala' at the 2025 National Arts Festival. Picture: Mark Wessels

There, boys learn not to cry, to hit back harder, to suppress softness, and to show dominance. The contrast between his home and the outside world creates a painful duality, one that becomes central to his internal conflict and, ultimately, to the poem’s dramatic arc.

Honouring the strong women who raised him, his mother and three older sisters, Sekgothe reflects on a home filled with warmth, care, and unwavering protection.

Although his “mothers”, as he constantly referred to his mother and siblings, offered an emotional sanctuary at home, they could not fully shield him from the harsh lessons of masculinity absorbed in the streets.

“I was raised by my mother and three much older sisters, and together they created a warm, loving home. Outside, I was trying to make sense of being a young boy navigating bullying and the often harsh, aggressive nature of childhood and boyhood, but home was always my refuge.”

Sekgothe’s Gabo Legwala becomes a poetic dissection of boyhood rites of passage in the absence of ritual and guidance. It speaks to a generation of boys who grow up self-teaching their manhood through trial, error, and often, trauma. Bullying, peer pressure, and a desperate search for belonging are not just narrative devices; they are lived realities.

In this poetic performance, we see Ndish attempting to find his place through soccer, martial arts, and eventually, poetry. Each of these interests represents a search for form, structure, and self-expression, an attempt to make sense of masculinity in a world that offers conflicting cues.

Modise Sekgothe performing 'Gabo Legwala' at the 2025 National Arts Festival. Picture: Mark Wessels

The performance does not glamorise these experiences. Rather, it confronts the brutality of boyhood head-on. It shows the psychological bruises that come from failed fights, broken friendships, and silent tears.

And yet, even within this harshness, there’s space for reflection. Sekgothe questions the popular expectations of what bravery looks like. In moments when he is expected to fight, he remembers his mother’s teachings: “Gabo legwala a go llewe”, there are no tears at the coward’s home.

In the play, the vocalist, Phumla Siyobi, who represents Modise’s mother, keeps singing, “Modise ba tlogele”, which means, “Modise, leave them alone or walk away…”

Modise Sekgothe performing 'Gabo Legwala' at the 2025 National Arts Festival. Picture: Mark Wessels

This phrase becomes a quiet anthem of resistance against performative masculinity. Walking away becomes an act of courage.

As the play evolves, so does its message. What begins as a personal memoir extends into a sharp critique of systemic issues: patriarchy, white supremacy, poverty, and educational inequality. Sekgothe reflects on the constructs of masculinity that are deeply embedded in South African society and how they intersect with historical trauma.

“I believe there’s a collective trauma we’re all carrying. Many young people are shaped by the conditions they’re born into, especially in the township, where the complexities of daily life and unstable family structures often don’t provide the foundation needed for a healthy or positive upbringing.”

By bringing this piece to the National Arts Festival during Youth Month, Sekgothe places these discussions on a national stage. He forces us to confront uncomfortable questions: How have we failed young men? What societal structures reinforce toxic masculinity? How do we raise boys differently when the blueprint is broken?

Gabo Legwala premiered at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda on June 28. While official details are still to be confirmed, the production is expected to kick off its national tour in Johannesburg later in the year.