74. MALIBONGWE: Poems From the Struggle by ANC Women
74. MALIBONGWE: Poems From the Struggle by ANC Women
edited by sono molefe (aka lindiwe mabuza)
“In the late 1970s, Lindiwe Mabuza, a.k.a. Sono Molefe, sent out a call for poems written by women in ANC camps and offices throughout Africa and the world. The book that resulted, published and distributed in Europe in the early 1980s, was banned by the apartheid regime. Half-forgotten, it has never appeared in a South African edition - until now.”
Friends,
Am sharing a wonderful South African book of poetry I came across as part of my African Reading Challenge.
A little related backstory — during apartheid a lot of our major roads were named after incredibly problematic National Party Government officials.1 Once apartheid ended in 1994, there was a valid argument by South Africans that roads should be renamed to remove this legacy of hate and division. Two national roads in Johannesburg, Hendrik Verwoed Drive and Hans Strijdom Road were the first to be renamed and for obvious reasons — these two white guys were the absolute worst.2 3
So in 2007 the Johannesburg Development Agency finally changed the names: Henrik Verwoerd Drive → Bram Fischer Drive and Hans Strijdom road → Malibongwe Drive.
‘Malibongwe’, the Zulu word, is said to mean ‘be praised’ or blessed, and for the naming of this book it specifically means to ‘praise the women’.4 We owe a lot to the brave women of the ANC for fighting against the oppression of apartheid — this is a collection of their poems, written during and after that period.
Open Season — Lindiwe Mabuza
After blood-spilling centuries
Decades of trespassing
Seasons of poaching
The uninhibited hunters
Declared open season on African people
Announced wide range opportunities
For trained hunters of children
Turned our stolen fields into hunting grounds
When they brought the game veld
In military hippos
And other death spitting gifts
From Western fellow-poachers
Right to the streets of Soweto
They piled death …
Alexandra
Athlone
Mamelodi
Gugulethu
Langa
The hunters declared
Open season
On June 16 1976
Tribal customs — Phyllis Altman
She was fourteen
When they tore the ovaries
From her living body
Then sent her to a brothel
For the use of Nazi soldiers
She was twenty
When I saw her
She did not speak
Each day
She washed dressed fed
cleaned
Placed in a chair in the garden
When the weather was fine
When I approached she smiled
A smile so apprehensive
So appeasing
A smile of such total terror
That if you had seen it
You would not dare
To presume yourself
Superior
Forget not our mothers — Ilva Mackay
Forget not our mothers
awaiting us with an assured patience
Forget not our fathers
languishing in jails
toiling in mines
Forget not our children
lying dead
dying on the streets
Fist of fury reach out
as we re-affirm:
Africa shall be free!
We shall free her!
https://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/hendrik-verwoerd-drive-is-no-longer-357676
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._G._Strijdom
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendrik_Verwoerd (assassinated in 1966, Prime Minister of South Africa and known as ‘the architect of apartheid’ — may this man never rest in a moments peace.)
In 1956, 20,000 South African women of all races marched to the union buildings in Pretoria, to protest against pass laws which would limit the movements of Black, Indian and Coloured women, and where they were allowed to work. Hans Strijdom was the Prime Minister who was enforcing these laws at the time so it seems fitting (and wonderfully petty) to rename his road to Malibongwe.