Pikoli wrote his first book,
The Fatuous State of Severity, whilst recuperating from a depressive episode at a psychiatric clinic. The book contains a collection of short stories and drawings. Pikoli self-published the book in 2016, and it was later republished by
Pan Macmillan. His debut novel,
Born Freeloaders, was published by Pan Macmillan in 2019. The title is a play on a common South African slang term, "Born Frees", used to describe the first generation born after the end of Apartheid. Pikoli described the book as exploring "assimilation [and] colonial takeover" amongst the young black middle class in democratic South Africa. The book was awarded the
K. Sello Duiker Memorial prize for a debut novel at the
South African Literary Awards in 2020. Pikoli also worked as a multimedia artist in theatre and film. He contributed to Carla Fonseca’s play
The Same Pain at the Soweto Theatre. He released a multimedia exhibition based on
The Fatuous State of Severity at Johannesburg’s TMRW Gallery and was developing
Born Freeloaders into a film with Diprente Films. == References ==