He spoke and I became.
He spoke return to me
And I shall return to you.
He spoke let there be land
And steadfast I stood
Resembling the soil.
I was there chanting mantra that signified His supremacy
-Refiloe Ramutloa
Today we have the beautiful and gifted Pretoria based artist, Refiloe Ramutloa. She is a poet, theatre practitioner, percussionist, event coordinator and fashion model. In addition, she is also a businesswoman of note. She is the co-founder of Lefoko Book Club, director of Ref Count Entertainment, Sozzi Inc and works with both Plethora Artists and Usuthu Art Lab. Clearly, talent is in truck loads here. Her love for art started from a tender age. It started with storytelling and moved to music where she got to be a backing vocalist for Dr Malinga and be part of the Medumo Ensemble. The State theatre became a second home for her and there she discovered her many other talents.
She quotes the book of Proverbs 18:4 “A person’s word can be a source of wisdom, deep as the ocean, fresh as a flowing stream”. She shares how God is the reason for her art because He has taught her who she truly is. “I wasn’t born to fit in but to stand out”, she adds. She learnt not to let her frustrations of finding an identity in people get in the way of knowing and understanding that her identity is in God alone. “We live for His purpose and not our own”, she says.
She passionately shares that some of the greatest highlights of her art career would have to include performing with an old jazz band called The Voice, in Lesotho, The journey of drums with Medleko Meropa ya Afrika, hosting AFCO Songs and Rhythms with Ngwako Manamela, Vavasati Her Shoes, performing at Winnie Madikizela’s Memorial service and last but definitely not least, opening for Selaelo Selota. Art is clearly her calling and she is heeding it well. She shares with us that words, playing drums and art in general inspire her own art.
Keep a look out for her as she says more music and acting will be a definite in the coming future. She concludes that God will be the One to reveal what else she should be doing. You can keep up with her on social media, she is Refiloe Ramutloa on Facebook.