When we marched,
Slithered
Through slimy mud past riot-shielded cops in Alexander
While children peered wild-eyed from dark windows,
For some of us these were re-runs of earlier apartheid-burdened days.
But, then, it was defiant resolution that drove our hearts and braced our
feet.
Now, sadness at betrayal sat sadly on our hearts.
Our shouted slogans hung heavy over us in grimy air.
We winced at familiar oft-repeated lies
Oft-repeated lies.
------------------------------------------------------------
AMY GOODMAN:Dennis Brutus, reading from his latest collection of poetry
called Leafdrift. Why "Leafdrift"?
DENNIS BRUTUS:Well, I know people have been a little puzzled, and my own
sense is that I was unable to find a single unifying theme. So, the image
that came to me was more of leaves blowing around in the wind and then
accumulating in a corner, kind of drifting together. So, it's a random
collection. Some of it is personal, some of it is political. But I think
"leafdrift" is a good word which gathers that sense of things together.
AMY GOODMAN:As you look back over your 80 years, your own personal as well
as the state of the world, and you look ahead, do you feel like society,
civilization, is advancing?
DENNIS BRUTUS:Advancing, I'm not sure. But I have a sense of gathering
energy, and a kind of will for change. Almost as if people are saying: This
is intolerable. We have allowed it to go on for too long. When I'm in Porto
Alegre at the World Social Forum or I'm in Lusaka at the African Social
Forum or meeting in Umpumalanga and Soweto, the ghettos of South Africa,
such an impatience, particularly among young people. The world must change.
There really ought to be a more -- greater emphasis on humane values. This
nonsense about hanging around in the shopping malls, you know, and competing
for Nike or whatever, this is nonsense. We have to get over it. Humanity is
about more than material things. And we really must shake off this kind of
almost mystification, the way we've been been caught up in a set of lies and
deceptions, and we must try and recover our own humanity. So, I'm very
hopeful.
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Read and weep Garty.
We gonna shut Barclays down.
Your fat neck is next ;-)
Stat.
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In apartheid South Africa of the 1960s, Dennis Brutus was an outspoken
activist against the racist state. He helped secure South Africa's
suspension from the Olympics, eventually forcing the country to be expelled
from the games in 1970. He was arrested in 1963 and sentenced to 18 months
of hard labor on Robben Island off Capetown, with Nelson Mandela.
Brutus was banned from teaching, writing, and publishing in South Africa.
His first collection of poetry, "Sirens, Knuckles and Boots" was published
in Nigeria while he was in prison. After he was released, Brutus fled South
Africa on a Rhodesian passport. In 1983, after a protracted legal struggle,
Brutus won the right to stay in the United States as a political refugee. He
is now a professor at the University of Pittsburgh.
Dennis Brutus recently initiated the launch of a campaign against Barclays
Bank, demanding reparations for vast apartheid profits. He joined us in our
studio last week and begins by talking about his most recent campaign.
Interview at:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/16/1356201
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