The child is not dead
The child lifts his fists against his mother
Who shouts Afrika ! shouts the breath
Of freedom and the veld
In the locations of the cordoned heart
The child lifts his fists against his father
in the march of the generations
who shouts Afrika ! shout the breath
of righteousness and blood
in the streets of his embattled pride
The child is not dead not at Langa nor at Nyanga
not at Orlando nor at Sharpeville
nor at the police station at Philippi
where he lies with a bullet through his brain
The child is the dark shadow of the soldiers
on guard with rifles Saracens and batons
the child is present at all assemblies and law-givings
the child peers through the windows of houses and into the hearts of mothers
this child who just wanted to play in the sun at Nyanga is everywhere
the child grown to a man treks through all Africa
the child grown into a giant journeys through the whole world
Without a pass
Ingrid Jonker was a South African poet. She wrote in Afrikaans. Most of her work was published in the 1950s and 1960s.
Ingrid Jonker was born on September 19, 1933, on a farm near Douglas, in what is now the Northern Cape province, South Africa. Her father was the author and politician Abraham H. Jonker. Ingrid had a difficult childhood. Her parents divorced when she was young. Then, in 1943, her mother died. Ingrid went to Cape Town to live with her father. She often quarreled with him over politics.
Jonker began to write poems when she was just 6 years old. Some of her poems were published in the magazine Die Huisgenoot ("Housemate") when she was still at school. Her first collection of poetry, Ontvlugting ("Escape"), was published in 1956.
In 1963 another collection, Rook en Oker ("Smoke and Ocher"), was published. Jonker won an important literary prize for that work. She also won a scholarship from the Anglo American Corporation.
Jonker became a member of the Sestigers ("Sixtyers," or writers of the 1960s). These South African writers were known for their opposition to the apartheid government. The Sestigers included Breyten Breytenbach, André P. Brink, Adam Small, and Bartho Smit.
Jonker died on July 19, 1965. The collection Kantelson ("Tilting Sun") was published after her death. Over the years many of her poems were set to music. In 1994 President Nelson Mandela read Jonker's poem "The Child" at his inauguration ceremony. A biography of Jonker was published in 2003. In 2001 a documentary film was made about her life.
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