For Don M Banned

For Don M. – Banned Mongane Wally Serote

it is a dry white season dark leaves don’t last, their brief lives dry out and with a broken heart they dive down gently headed for the earth, not even bleeding. it is a dry white season brother, only the trees know the pain as they still stand erect dry like steel, their branches dry like wire indeed it is a dry white season but seasons come to pass.

For Don M. – Banned The poem comments on the oppression of the Apartheid system. “A Dry White Season” – title of one of Andre Brink’s novels Serote – introduced Black Consciousness voice (1970’s). He writes this poem in response to Don Mattera’s banning order from 1973 to 1982

What season is this literally ? And figuratively? What are the various connotations of white ? What are the various connotations of dry? Look at lines 2 and 3. What has happened to the “dark leaves’? Who/what may be symbolised by the leaves? it is a dry white season dark leaves don’t last, their brief lives dry out and with a broken heart they dive down gently headed for the earth, not even bleeding. it is a dry white season brother, only the trees know the pain as they still stand erect dry like steel, their branches dry like wire indeed it is a dry white season but seasons come to pass.

it is a dry white season dark leaves don’t last, their brief lives dry out and with a broken heart they dive down gently headed for the earth, not even bleeding. it is a dry white season brother, only the trees know the pain as they still stand erect dry like steel, their branches dry like wire indeed it is a dry white season but seasons come to pass.

it is a dry white season dark leaves don’t last, their brief lives dry out and with a broken heart they dive down gently headed for the earth, not even bleeding. it is a dry white season brother, only the trees know the pain as they still stand erect dry like steel, their branches dry like wire indeed it is a dry white season but seasons come to pass. Who/What may be symbolised by the trees ? What is implied about the trees in these two lines? What point is Serote making in these lines? What is his intended message for Don M.?

The Sophiatown tree, an English Oak believed to be over 100 years old, survived the removals of the community in the 1950s and 1960s. Don Mattera refers to it in his book Gone with the Twilight . Religious leaders and activists also used to rendezvous under its branches. However, there is also a sad side to its history. It became known as "the hanging tree" when two people hanged themselves from its branches, one objecting to the forced removals from Sophiatown.

For Don M. – Banned Questions?

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For Don M Banned

by Andre Oosthuysen on Sep 16, 2008

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