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    Azanian Love Song
    Azanian Love Song
    Azanian Love Song
    Ebook143 pages54 minutes

    Azanian Love Song

    By Don Mattera

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Donato Francesco Mattera has been celebrated as a journalist, editor, writer and poet. He is also acknowledged as one of the foremost activists in the struggle for a democratic South Africa, and helped to found both the Union of Black Journalists, the African Writer's Association and the Congress of South African Writers. Born in 1935 in Western Native Township (now Westbury) across the road from Sophiatown, Mattera can lay claim to an intriguingly diverse lineage: his paternal grandfather was Italian, and he has Tswana, Khoi-Khoi and Xhosa blood in his veins.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAfrican Perspectives Publishing
    Release dateDec 29, 2007
    ISBN9780992187569
    Azanian Love Song
    Author

    Don Mattera

    Don Mattera, is a South African poet and author. He was awarded the PEN Award for his poetry collection Azanian Love Song in 1983, and the Noma Award for Publishing in Africa for his children's book The Five Magic Pebbles in 1993. His much acclaimed autobiography Memory is the Weapon was awarded the Steve Biko Prize when it was first published in 1987. He has worked as a journalist on The Sunday Times, The Sowetan, and The Weekly Mail (now known as the Mail and Guardian) and trained over 260 journalists. Don decided to convert to the Muslim faith and is now deeply involved in the Eldorado Park community where he resides. He has a special interest in young people and the rehabilitation of ex-prisoners.

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      Book preview

      Azanian Love Song - Don Mattera

      For the children

      of our beautiful land,

      and to the memory

      of our freedom fighters

      who gave their lives.

      May freedom reign!

      The Department of Arts and Culture (South Africa)

      has contributed financially to the reprinting of Azanian Love Song.

      African Perspectives Publishing

      PO Box 95342

      Grant Park 2051

      South Africa

      www.africanperspectives.co.za

      in association with

      African Morning Star Publications

      PO Box 562

      Florida 1710

      South Africa

      © Don Mattera 2007

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may

      be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system

      or transmitted in any form or by any means,

      electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise,

      without the prior written permission of the publisher.

      First published by Skotaville Publishers 1983

      Second edition published by Justified Press 1994

      This edition (revised) published by African Perspectives Publishing

      in association with African Morning Star Publications 2007

      ISBN (soft cover) 978-0-620-39486-4

      ISBN (hard cover) 978-0-620-39489-5

      Edited by Paul Sulter

      Typeset by Gail Day

      Cover design by Design Mill

      Cover photograph courtesy of The Star

      Printed and bound by Intrepid Printers (Pty) Ltd

      Contents

      About Don Mattera

      Introduction

      Previous publications

      Blood River

      Day of thunder

      Sophiatown

      I feel a poem

      The Day they came for our House

      Submission

      Fall

      I saw a man

      Demented

      Ashamed

      Protea

      Vietnam

      Friday night

      On a man hanging

      Let the children decide

      Mine workers’ song

      Black plum

      Man to man

      At least

      For a cent

      The sun has died

      Cry of Cain

      Departure

      Sowing and Reaping

      Futility

      Gelvandale

      Weave

      Degrees

      Lament

      Weekend

      Quest

      Strange rhythm

      Limitation

      I am not there

      Blackness blooms

      Journey

      Burning train

      Offering

      Fallen fruit

      Truth

      And yet

      After the flowering

      I watched

      You would know

      No time, Black man

      They think us happy

      Comparison

      Expectation

      Embryo

      Even I

      Remember

      Final hour

      Child

      Old woman

      The poet must die

      Do you remember

      Of reason and discovery

      Tokologo

      Contamination

      Mystery

      I am

      First victim

      At the mortuary

      Heat of our chains

      If we seek to be free

      Azanian Love Song

      No children

      Curfew

      A new time

      I stood

      Sobukwe

      I am infinite

      I sing

      Dry your eyes

      Shadows deepen

      Ordeal

      Sea and sand

      Sea of shadows

      New vision

      Dying ground

      Singing fools

      Deluge

      Softly

      Morning

      Your gift

      Kumbaya

      Elegy for Beirut

      Freedom Fighters

      Sometimes

      Giovanni

      Our sons, our daughters

      Zimbabwean Love Song

      Bitter seed

      Salute the warrior

      Namibian Love Song

      A gift of words

      I am nothing

      Exiles

      I will think of you

      A Song for Mandela

      I have been here before

      About Don Mattera

      Donato Francisco Mattera has been celebrated as a journalist, editor, writer and poet. He is also acknowledged as one of the foremost activists in the struggle for a democratic South Africa, and helped to found both the Union of Black Journalists and the Congress of South African Writers.

      Born in 1935 in Western Native Township (now Westbury) across the road from Sophiatown, Mattera can lay claim to an intriguingly diverse lineage: his paternal grandfather was Italian, and he has Tswana, Khoi-Khoi and Xhosa blood in his veins. Yet diversity was hardly being celebrated at that time; in one of apartheid’s most infamous actions, the vibrant multicultural area of Sophiatown was destroyed in 1955 and replaced with the white suburb of Triomf, and the wrenching displacement can be felt in Mattera’s writing.

      Writing was certainly

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