in 2016 he felt poignant to write anymore books after he was diagnosed with a mental illness disorder and stayed in hospital for three months due to stress and deppression he ended up in a psychiatric ward, there was a seclusion cell where he was kept hostage for many days and this would happen everytime he refused to take medication, he felt isolated, dizzy, confused, alone in despair. ” They would strip me naked and inject me, that injection last for a long time, it made me dizzy and not seeing what was happening around me, it was a very painful experience not only for me but for my mother as well who did don’t give up on me, everytime she came to the hospital she would cry, and she would take holy communion and pour it on me while praying for my recovery. I was diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder 2, I remember some nights there was this another mentally disturbed patient nearby who did not sleep who use to come into our room talking to himself and looking back today I cannot believe I survived that horrific experience. After getting mental help from professionals at the hospital, months of therapy and God saw me through God healed me , I have even forgotten of that traumatic experience.
After he came out of hospital and reconnecting back with friends and his family, he didnt know where to start, unemployed and no motivation or self esteem to do anything with his life. It was through a friend who studied journalism who helped him and encouraged him to put all his anger, thoughts,feelings and everything he experienced in life into a book to help him deal with the trauma he was going through. Not knowing that this would then build him into a writer and today a self published author, nominated by SA Literary Awards.
“I had written two tittles on my computer however I could not come up with a single sentence, then in 2017 when my friend came to my house to check on me, that was the day I started to writing, I started with my first autobiography titled ‘Born poor but rich in mind’, explaining my struggles in life when I was growing up, especially being raised by a single parent who did not work so we were depending on my grand mother’s pension which was about R300, and we survived by the grace of God, so growing up I never had much, and I developed a hobby of hunting in the bush with my friend growing up in the villages where there is lack of transport, growing up without electricity, using my candle to study, using fire wood to cook to warm water and old fashioned iron to iron clothes, being a sherperd of goats, it was really challenging time, going to tertiary was also a challenge because you meet different youth from all kids of back round, and it was my first time touching a computer at tertiary, I’ve learned from the scratch how to type and operate it, I had the dermination, when I started to write my first book, I was criticised by people whom I regarded as my mentors, they said I must not write a book, the other one said the book will not sell, after it was published I was also criticized, then I wrote my second one to the seventh now they are quite, they don’t have words anymore, the challenge about writing books is that one must have patience because I had to write Motswako the beginnings Book for five years, patience and perseverance, when I first heard that it was nominated at the SA LITERARY AWARDS, I was over the moon because there were people who undermined me, I have started Master classes in Atridgeville to teach the youth how to read and write, the Pretoria community is behind me and cheering me on my endeavours.”
Katlego Rammusa launches his latest book on 30 August 2023 in Menlyn Mall to celebrate the nomination this year and also help other men dealing with trauma, stress and deppression who cannot find the words or tears to express how they are feeling to read and to start writing their own journals in order to let out everything they are going through.