Ret’sepile Makamane is a writer, translator and British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at SOAS, specialising in Sesotho literature, African oral aesthetics and decolonial approaches to the novel. Her research examines the relationship between written literature and indigenous forms of expression, including oral tales, proverbs, praise poetry, repetition, ideophones, symbolism and African metaphysical traditions. She is also the author of numerous published short stories and is currently developing Catford Hill, a collection inspired by the African communities of south-east London.

Makamane’s translation practice is rooted in a deep knowledge of Sesotho language, literature and oral culture. In her translation of the Sesotho tale Tselane le Bulane (Tselane and Bulane), she approaches translation as a process of transformation in which a story changes form while retaining its underlying identity. This reflects the tale itself, in which the protagonist moves between human and elephant forms without losing her essential self.

Translations