Volume Three Number Three September/Octob Volume Three Number Three September/Octob Story Mtutuzeli Matshoba Njabulo Ndebele Charles Munannhi Staffrider Series Recently published in the Staffrider Series is OGUN ABIBIMAN, by Nigerian poet Wole Soyinka, an epic poem dedicated to the fallen of Soweto. Forthcoming books in the series are MZALA - THE STORIES OF MBULELO MZAMANE, to be published in October, followed by an exciting new novel by MIRIAM TLALI and a collection of plays by prize-winning playwright, ZAKES MDA. are you getting yours? The most effective way to ensure that you receive your latest copy of Staffrider without delay is to subscribe! Simply fill in the subscription form inserted into this issue, indicating the number of issues you would like to receive, and send a cheque or money order to Staffrider Magazine, P.O. Box 31134, Braamfontein 2017, South Africa. Staffrider is published quarterly and costs R1,00 per issue (including tax.) Tune into the voice of South Africa's people - send us your subscription now! DAVID PHILIP, Publishers, P.O. Box 408 Claremont 7735, are now distributors of Staffrider and Ravan Press books in the Western Cape. pini sM heldattheMarketTheatre P;s itra mitted'workbyartistsfrom golden opportunity for you The Maskew Miller Prize R3000,O (three thousand rands) for THE JUNIOR ADVENTURE NOVEL IN ENGLISH THE MASKEW MILLER PRIZE aims to stimulate the writing of English by Blacks in Southern Africa. THE COMPETITION is open to Blacks in South Africa and SWA/Namibia. THE GENRE is a junior adventure novel in English, about 20 000 words in length, aimed at the age group 12-15. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION WRITE TO: F.C.H. Rumboll The Publishing Director Maskew Miller P.O. Box 396 CAPE TOWN 8000 Telephone45-7731 Closing date for 1980: 1 November 1980. Poetry Stories M afika Gwala ............................. 2 Nkos'omzi Ngcukana, Ellinor Joosten, Roy Joseph Cotton, Mogambery Isaac, benjlanga ................... 12 Chirwa P. Chipeya ........................ 14 Morena King Monare, Ed Wilmsen ............... 31 Lionel Abrahams, Zulekha Dinath, Haroon Mohamed . 37 Lindiwe Mvemve ......................... 47 Landi kaThem ba ......................... 48 Columns/ Features VOICES FROM THE GHETTO Mr Petrus Xaba, Alexandra pensioner by Eddie Nhlanc ................. STAFFRIDER REVIEWS Exhibition: East Rand Black Artists by Andy Mason ................. STAFFRIDER PROFILE Katlehong Artists ................ M alopoets ..................... .. .. .. ..3.........23 ......... 24 ......... 38 DRAMA SECTION Theatre of the Dispossessed: James Mthoba and Joe Rahube by Matsemela Manaka ...... TRUTH AND CENSORSHIP Another Glimpse of Slavery by a lawyer ..... ..... 28 ..... 36 STAFFRIDERS SPEAKING A New Day by Thami Mnyele ................... 42 Dilemmas of a Writers Group by Mogorosi Motshumi ..................... 43 THE EARLY YEARS Es'kia Mphahlele and Noel Manganyi WOMAN WRITERS SPEAK Amelia House ............... Lindiwe Mvemve ............. ........ 4 5 ............ 46 ............ 47 The Music of the Violin by Njabulo Ndebele ........ 7 Societa Secreta Subversa by Duncan Foster ......... 13 Some Kinds of Wounds by Charles Mungoshi ........ 15 Jazz by Peter Wilhelm ........................ 20' The Diary of Maria Tholo by Carol Hermer ......... 26 The Betrayal by Mtutuzeli Matshoba ............. 32 Groups MPUMALANGA ARTS, Hammarsdale ............. 2 KHAULEZA, Alexandra ....................... 3 MANGALISO CREATIVE SOCIETY, Swaziland .... 31 MEDU ART ENSEMBLE, Botswana ............. 42 MALIMU, Bloemfontein ...................... 43 Gallery/ Graphics Garth Erasmus ................. Inside front cover Ralph Ndawo ............................. 5 David Goldbladt ........................... 6 Mpikayipheli ....................... 7,11,46, 47 W . Sol M afa .............................. 9 N.D. Mazin ....................... 13, 20, 22, 45 Goodman Mabote ......................... 15 Bhekisani Manyoni ....................... 23, 25 Napo Mokoena ......................... 23, 24 M oss Petlo .............................. 24 Gamakhulu Diniso ........................ 25 Farouk Stemmet ......................... 26 M zwakhe ............................ 32, 36 Thami M nyele ......................... 42,43 Nils Burw itz ............................ 45 Photographs Thabo Serote ............................. 4 Ralph Ndawo ...................... 1, 3, 17, 31 Rose Shakanovsky ..................... 23, 24, 25 Paul Weinberg ......... .................. 38, 39 Judas Ngwenya .......................... 41 Landi ka Themba ......................... 48 CHILDREN'S SECTION The Dustbin Baby by Landi kaThemba Molo Songololo - Two Tales by Lloyd Zarry and Barisha Karlic ... Cover Photographs: Front: Ralph Ndawo 48 Back: Paul Weinberg Staffrider magazine is published by Ravan Press, P.O. Box 31134, Braamfontein 2017, South Africa. (Street address: 409 Dunwell, 35 Jorissen Street, Braamfontein.) Copyright is held by the individual contributors of all material, including all graphic material, published in the magazine. Anyone wishing to reproduce material from the magazine in any form should approach the individual contributors c/o the publishers. This issue was printed by The Mafeking Mail, Mafeking. Poetry/ Mpumalanga Arts AFRIKA AT A PIECE (On Heroes Day) You can't think of a solution Without your mind spelling revolution Unless your mind is steamed with pollution So much that you drop the notion As our heroes die As our heroes are born Our history is being written With the black moments given Looking the storm in the eye Our hope is not gone Our blackman's history is not written in classrooms on wide smooth boards Our history shall be written at the factory gates at the Unemployment offices in the scorched queues of dying mouths Our history shall be our joys our sorrows our moroseness scrawled in dirty Third Class toilets Our history will be graffitti decorating our ghetto walls where flowers find not peace enough to grow Our history shall be written on laps in the bush Or whizz out of a smoking steel mouth Our history is being written Our history is being written As the Bergies refuse to bend to white civilization below Table Mountain Our history is the freedom seed being sown across the Karoos With our Kaapenaar brothers refusing to mix the milky way But blocking blows Right into 'die duiwel se skop' Our present is the lavatory blues we so love to sing in our matchbox houses Our present is the Blue Light flashing operations high up at Groote Schuur Our present is those heart operations with guinea-pig donors from ghetto deaths and from deaths called 'accidental' Our present is naked ribbed stomachs and TB coughs at Limehill, Dimbaza, Winterveldt It is panga attacks and rape at Tin Town, Malacca Road, Crossroads It is ritual murder at Richmond Farm, Rooigrond, Klipspruit Mafika Gwah Our history glosses W_ the rail tracks at Effingham and Langlaagte Our history is black women marching on Pretoria Building lifting fists shouting: 'Amandla!' Our history is being written with indelible blood stains with sweeping black souls in the streets at John Vorster where Timol dived thru the window at Auden House where Mdluli made a somersault stunt at Sanlam Building where Biko knocked himself against walls at the Kei Road copshop where Mapetla thought hanging was fun at Caledon Square where the Imam Haroon slipped on a bar of soap We sing our present We sing the dark-lit rooms where the 'Free Mandela' chant is mounting truth We sing the New Truth The New Truth is! Those 1976 bullets were not sacramental bread meant for the faithful... We've heard the Bullet Refrain vibrating walls at Silverton On the sidewalks of Goch Street We shall sit down and sing We shall sing songs Tiro would have loved to hear Songs Ma Ngoyi would have sung Songs Mthuli kaShezi would have composed Songs Songs that lead us on And when it's Time To Rise The Isle of Makana will be flooded by the swelling tide of Kwancha Batho ba Sechaba, hora e fitlhile! The Hour has come! Mafika Gwala UNB Residence (Austerville) Heroes Day - 21 March 1980 STAFFRIDER, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 198( VOICES FROM THE GHETTO ALEXANDRA SPEAKING Mahlaba Eddie Nhlane of KHAULEZA talks to Mr Petros Xaba, a pensioner of Alexandra. How fair is it for a man to give hi blood, sweat and tears to uplift trc face of a cityand make it one of the most beautiful in the world? How fi is it for a man to build schools and cburches only to be deprived of the it to education, and religion? How toar is it for a man to build skyscrapers and mansions for his master, and i:mself live in ghettoes? Worst of iw, how fair is it for that very man i, be told he belongs to a certain ihmeland and not to the place he h is helped to build? That is the gratioide the black man in this country trns. Yet Johannesburg, as it stands ,oday, tall, proud, with its neon lights tickering and reflecting its beauty, is the result of the blood, sweat and tears of our disability pensioners. Forty-four-year-old Mr Petrus Xaba Alexandra is one such victim. Born in Alexandra in 1936, he had difficulty in ..tting permission to stay in Alexandra. Ls parents had divorced, so his father vas staying at Dikathole and his mother vas still in Alex. Police started arresting -cople under Section 29 known as oaferskap' or 'Julle Bantoes'. He had to flee from Alexandra and went to Dikathole, where his father was, and obtained a reference book. After two months, he came back to Alexandra and applied for a permit to live with his mother. This time the application was considered, as influx