Memory is the Weapon

by Don Mattera

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 di-verse 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.

214 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1987

Reviews

[Kasonde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible! A breathtaking and humane elegy to Sophiatown and one man's story of struggle and transcendence. Populated with the individuals who laid the foundation for South Africa's resistance movement and vivid images of common people, gangsters, hustlers and lovers.