Poet fires up his voice

2008-10-14 12:00

Duncan Alfreds

Cape Town - Don Mattera is an angry poet - and he will deliver some of his work at the Urban Voices Poetry festival.

"Our government has destroyed any hope of socialism," he tells News24. "And this leaves me with an angry spirit."

It's this fiery spirit that theatregoers can expect to see when Mattera performs at the festival. He plans to focus his poetry around issues related to the coloured people.

"When I was labelled 'coloured' I hated the word, but I realised that I responded to the way people were treated, rather than the word itself."

His poetry speaks to cultural awareness and he has some ideas about understanding culture.

Culture

"People speak flippantly about culture, but culture has been used to destroy people. We were destroyed by Afrikaans culture and when our memory becomes a weapon, we are not in concert with Western thinking."

"We learn from history that we don't learn from history," he says.

"I feel a deep love for humanity. I'm a cultural, social, political activist," Mattera says when asked about his poetry.

"I feel for the murdered Somalis - it hurts us," he says in reference to the xenophobic attacks.

As a young person, Mattera had his own brushes with the law and uses his experience in poetry, advocating for youth social programmes.

Poetry can change people

"I was a street fighter growing up - no-one ever cared for me. In fact, I nearly got the death sentence.

"But poetry can change the psyche. We should have children join writers' clubs because you can touch nerves in them with poetry. That's why poetry is relevant.

"Adults have stopped being role models and through poetry we can redeem if our words are followed by actions."

Urban voices is on from October 16 to the 19, and Mattera will be performing at the Bassline in Johannesburg and Baxter in Cape Town on the 17 and 19.

Mattera will also be holding poetry workshops for school students in Cape Town.

- News24