Poetry
The Soweto I Love
Sipho Sepamla · 1977
Synopsis
Poems written in response to the uprising of the schoolchildren of Soweto, in June 1976. The township is compared there to a fermenting dough; the children lead their parents and the pupils the community. Pieces such as “At the Dawn of Another Day” or “A Child Dies” speak of the violence of the state, torture and murder, and the tone, more radical and more defiant than that of the earlier books, no longer believes in a peaceful way out offered by the system.
Context
The collection appeared in 1977 simultaneously in Cape Town from David Philip, in London from Rex Collings and in Washington from Three Continents Press, while its author belonged to the writers' association Medupe, and was subsequently banned. Cherry Wilhelm reviewed it the same year, together with Mafika Gwala's Jol'iinkomo, in her journal of the country's English-language literature; according to Mbulelo Mzamane, she treated the black poets there as minor curiosities.
Who it is for
Poems in English, direct and blunt, whose described violence calls for an informed reader; not translated into French.
Prizes and reception
Banned by the apartheid regime, it is counted among the collections born directly of the 1976 uprising.