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. Yet diversity was hardly being celebrated at that time. In one of apartheid's most infamous actions, the vibrant multicultural Sophiatown was destroyed in 1955 and replaced with the white suburb of Triomf, and the wrenching displacement, can be felt in Mattera's writing. The story of his life in Sophiatown as told in this essay is intricate. Covering Mattera's teenage years from 1948 to 1962 when Sophiatown was bulldozed out of existence, it weaves together both his personal experience and political development. In telling the story of his life as a 'coloured' teenager, Mattera takes on the ambitious goal of making us recapture the crucial events of the 1950s in Sophiatown, one of the most important decades in the history of black political struggles in South Africa.

Memory Is the Weapon

Biographies & Memoirs

Mattera, Don

Historical

African Perspectives Pub

The Politics of South African Football is the story of people whose vehement resistance and declaration that there could be eno normal sport in an abnormal societyi proved to be a powerful antidote to the apartheid governmentis assurances that eall was welli. Oshebeng Alphie Koonyaditse gives an inspiring account of the event-filled journey that led to that memorable Saturday of May 15, 2004. For the first time in World Cup history South Africa, and indeed Africa, won the right to host the nations of the world at the FIFA World Cup in 2010. Yet, South African football history began long before that, and in fact goes back to before the formation of FIFA in 1904.

The Politics of South African Football

History

Koonyaditse, Oshebeng Alpheus

Africa

The strength of Mandela the Spear and other Poems lies in Okai's burning desire to celebrate the black experience and culture, through the iconic figures who symbolize those struggles and triumphs. Thus, not surprisingly, one encounters names like Mandela, Nadine Gordimer, Amilcar Cabral, Patrice Lumumba, Kwame Nkrumah, to name a few. Okai has long established himself as one of the towering figures in the field of modern African poetry in English. He is regarded as one of the pioneers of a vigorous reinvention of the poetic genre that revolutionized the poet/audience relationship, changed the mode of expression from scriptography to narratology, and the role of the audience from that of passive reception to active participation.

Mandela the Spear and Other Poems

Literature & Fiction

Okai, Atukwei

Poetry

It's not everyday that we are blessed with a poetry compilation that encapsulates 13 years of work from an accomplished African activist elder. As the title suggests, Homage publicly gives honor and shows respect and admiration for a host of souls who have impacted the author Charlotte Hill O'Neal or Mama C as she is affectionately known by many. In this collection of poems and writings, Hill O'Neal pays tribute to her parents, aunties, iconic historic figures such as Lil Bobby Hutton and others. She also gives insight into her world travels, such as her time spent in China, and writes about her life in Tanzania as a U.S. transplant. O'Neal sprinkles words from other languages throughout this book including Yoruba, KiSwahili and more which adds to the journey.

Homage

O'neal, Charlotte Hill

Sowing in Tears: A Documentary History of the Church Struggle Against Apartheid, 1960-1990

Lamola, M. John

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Books by African Perspectives Pub