Narrative
Memory Is the Weapon
Don Mattera · 1987
Synopsis
An account, in the form of an autobiographical essay, of the adolescent years spent in Sophiatown, from 1948 to 1962. The narrator, grandson of an Italian immigrant, of Tswana, Khoikhoi and Xhosa descent, describes life in a mixed suburb of Johannesburg in the 1950s, the gang of Vultures he led at school, the knife wounds and bullets he received, and those gangs which, by massacring one another, destroyed themselves. The destruction of the neighbourhood, razed to make way for a white suburb, is bound up with the awakening of his political consciousness.
Context
The book appeared in 1987 from Ravan Press, in Johannesburg, and the same year in London, from Zed Books, under the title Gone with the Twilight: A Story of Sophiatown; the American edition of 1989 is titled Sophiatown: Coming of Age in South Africa. The University of the Witwatersrand sees in it a defence of memory against the oblivion imposed by the state, a theme taken up by Black Consciousness and then by the debates of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It was reissued in 2009 and 2010.
Who it is for
An autobiographical essay in English, direct to read, accessible without prior knowledge of the country; not translated into French.
Prizes and reception
Steve Biko Prize, awarded in Sweden; regarded as a landmark of the literature devoted to Sophiatown.
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