SocialistStories حكايات اشتراكية

Tell Me News
by Sipho Sepamla

Tell me of a brother
who hanged himself in prison
with a blanket
was he punchdrunk

Tell me of a brother
who flung himself to death
from the ninth floor of a building
did his grip fumble with the loneliness up there

Tell me of a hooded man
who picked out others of his blood on parade
was his skin beginning
to turn with solitude

Oh, tell me of a sister
who returned home pregnant
from a prison cell
has she been charged under the Immorality Act

Tell me of a brother
who hanged himself in jail

On Fear
by Sipho Sepamla

for days
we were run on fear
a fear of the unknown
we would turn day and night around
only to find
fear stares us in the eye
those were the days
when we walked through dense suspense
fearing the rustle of trees even
for leaves have been known to be ears
those days
fear spun us around her finger
unleashing us at will
tightening the grip unfeelingly
at night
each footfall in the yard
was a cold treading on our souls
each knock on the door
a hammering on our spirits
at the height of the detentions

A Child Dies
by Sipho Sepamla

He was a mere kid
consumed by curiosity
which brought him one morning
to a burning scene of a shop
the fire raged before his eyes
is was angry
eating up every article
then came an alarm
because a monster was know to stalk the streets
unthinking
the child fled
he just ran and ran
away from the fire
but his mind was engrossed by the fascination
his eyes fixed on the burning scene
unthinking
the child ran and ran
until he fell smack
into the hands of a towering giant
he was grabbed
he was hurled to the ground

This novel (241pg) by Black South African writer Sipho Sepamla, was written about the 1977 Soweto Uprising (they normally call them "riots" because the participants weren't white). It discusses both the students' movement which led the uprising, as well as the armed resistance groups which operated in South Africa during the period of white-rule (and now, thanks to the heroic sellout of Mandela, there is Black rule over economic apartheid, with the white torturers and murderers still free, and white ownership of an vastly unproportionate amount of land still continuing).