The Child is Not Dead – Ingrid Jonker
Ingrid Jonker – was a South African poet. Although she wrote in Afrikaans, her poems have been widely translated into other languages. Jonker has reached iconic status in South Africa and is often called the South African Sylvia Plath, owing to the intensity of her work and the tragic course of her turbulent life.
See also African history online
Song of the Grave Digger see a photo of her on the beach and read her poem.
Black Butterflies is a Dutch film about the life of South-African poet Ingrid Jonker.
The film focused on her messy life and not enough on her early development as a poet.
Nelson Mandela recited a poem by Ingrid Jonker.
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 heartThe 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 prideThe 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 brainThe 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 Africathe child grown into a giant journeys through the whole world
Without a pass