South African poetry

Our list of South African Poets (biographies) Wikipedia: South African Poetry

 

Some examples of South African poetry:

On 27 April 1994, in his inaugural address at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, former president Nelson Mandela read one of Ingrid Jonker's poems:

The child who was shot dead by soldiers at Nyanga - Ingrid Jonker

The child is not dead
The child lifts his fists against his mother
Who shouts Afrika ! shouts the breath
Of freedom and the veld
In the locations of the cordoned heart

The child lifts his fists against his father
in the march of the generations
who shouts Afrika ! shout the breath
of righteousness and blood
in the streets of his embattled pride

The child is not dead not at Langa nor at Nyanga
not at Orlando nor at Sharpeville
nor at the police station at Philippi
where he lies with a bullet through his brain

The child is the dark shadow of the soldiers
on guard with rifles Saracens and batons
the child is present at all assemblies and law-givings
the child peers through the windows of houses and into the hearts of mothers
this child who just wanted to play in the sun at Nyanga is everywhere
the child grown to a man treks through all Africa

the child grown into a giant journeys through the whole world
Without a pass

Black as I am - Zinzi Mandela

There's an unknown river in Soweto
some say it flows with blood
others say it flows with tears
a leader says
it flows with health and purity
the kind of water
that nobody drinks in Soweto

There's an unknown tree in Soweto
some say it bears sorrow
others say it bears death
a leader says
it bears health and purity
the kind of fruit
that nobody tastes in Soweto

There's an unknown river in Soweto
there's an unknown tree in Soweto
the body
the blood
both unknown

Cry Rage - James Mathews

Freedom's child
you have been denied too long
fill your lungs and cry rage
step forward and take your rightful place
you're not going to grow up
knocking at the back door
for you there will be no traveling
third class enforced by law
with segregated schooling and sitting on the floor
the rivers of our land, mountain tops
and the shore
it's yours, you will not be denied anymore
Cry rage, freedom's child.