Small round hard stones click
under my heels,
seeding grasses thrust
bearded seeds
into trouser cuffs, cans,
trodden on, crunch
in tall, purple-flowering,
amiable weeds.
District Six.
No board says it is:
but my feet know,
and my hands,
and the skin about my bones,
and the soft labouring of my lungs,
and the hot, white, inwards turning
anger of my eyes.
Brash with glass,
name flaring like a flag,
it squats
in the grass and weeds,
incipient Port Jackson trees:
new, up-market, haute cuisine,
guard at the gatepost,
whites only inn.
No sign says it is:
but we know where we belong.
I press my nose
to the clear panes, know,
before I see them, there will be
crushed ice white glass,
linen falls,
the single rose.
Down the road,
working man's cafe sells
bunny chows.
Take it with you, eat
it at a plastic table's top,
wipe your fingers on your jeans,
spit a little on the floor:
it's in the bone.
I back from the
glass,
boy again,
leaving small mean O
of small mean mouth.
Hands burn
for a stone, a bomb,
to shiver down the glass.
Nothing's changed.
Tatamkhulu Afrika
Novelist and prize-winning poet, Tatamkhulu Afrika was born in Egypt in 1920 and came to South Africa as a young child. He was a veteran of World War 2 and, as a member of Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), was active in the South African freedom struggle.
Tatumkhulu was born in Egypt. His mother was Turkish and his father was an Arab. They died shortly after the family's arrival in South Africa and he was raised by a Methodist group who called him John Charlton. At this time he knew nothing of his origins. He also lived in Namibia for 20 years and was given an Afrikaans name Jozua Joubert. When he reloocared to Cape Town he reverted to his Muslim beliefs and had himself categorised "coloured" as he didn't want to be thought white. At this time he changed gis name again, this time becoming known as Ismail Joubert. He recieved his "praise" name Tatumkhulu Afrika after his work with Al Jihaad for apartheid.
His first novel was published at the age of 17 whilst he was still studying and his next publication didn't come for over 50 years. This was his first collection of verse, Nine Lives, published by Carrefour-Hippogriff in 1991. In the interim his poetry had won numerous awards.
In October 1996 he travelled to France at the invitation of La Fondation Royaumont at the Royaumont Abbey to have his poems translated into French. Apart from this collections, his poems have appeared in numerous South African and international magazines and anthologies.
Tatamkhulu Afrika died on 23rd December 2002 as a result of complications resulting from injuries after being knocked over by a car two weeks earlier. His novel, Bitter Eden, had been published by Arcadia (UK) and was launched in Cape Town on 7th December 2002 to coincide with his 82nd birthday.
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