To Whom it may Concern
by

Sipho Sepamla                


Bearer
Bare of everything but particulars
Is a Bantu
The language of a people in Southern Africa
He seeks to proceed from here to there
Please pass him on
Subject to these particulars
He lives
Subject to the provisions
Of the Urban Act of 1925
Amended often
To update it to his sophistication
Subject to the provisions of the said Act
He may roam freely within a prescribed area
Free only from the anxiety of conscription
In terms of the Abolition of Passes Act
A latter-day amendment
In keeping with the moon-age naming
Bearer's designation is Reference number 417181
And (he) acquires a niche in the said area
As a temporary sojourner
To which he must betake himself
At all times
When his services are dispensed with for the day
As a permanent measure of law and order
Please note
The remains of R/N 417181
Will be laid to rest in peace
On a plot
Set aside for Methodist Xhosas
A measure also adopted
At the express request of the Bantu
In anticipation of any faction fight
Before the Day of Judgement.




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“I Remember Sharpeville” by Sipho Sepamla      

On the 21st March 1960
on a wrath-wrecked
ruined-raked morning
a black sea surged forward
its might ahead
mind behind
it had downed centuries-old containment…
it sucked into its core
the aged and the young…
into a solid compound
of black oozing energy
in a flash
of the eye
of gun-fire…
they fled they fell…
our heads bowed
our shame aflame
our faith shaken
we buried them for what they were
our fallen heroes and our history
  
Both the above photographs © Drum Social Histories / Baileys African History Archive / Africa Media Online
(Photographs by Peter Magubane, Ian Berry, G.R.Naidoo and W. Calder BAHA)
 
The  above  2  photographs  taken  from  : http://globalprep.wikispaces.com/Nelson+Mandela
Both of the above photographs taken from  : http://globalprep.wikispaces.com/Nelson+Mandela

 The  following  is  referenced  from  Wikipedia.org :

Sydney Sipho Sepamla,born 1932, Soweto, Johannesburg- died 9th January, Brakpan, South Africa. He was both a poet and a novelist and published his first volume of poetry, Hurry Up to It!, in 1975. Sepamla has been grouped with poets such as Oswald Mtshali and Wally Mongane Serote, the group is often referred to as the “poets of the big cities” or “new city poets”. These “big cities” are not Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, but rather the “Black” cities of Soweto, Langa and Kwa Mashu.
Sepamla's early poetry was not entirely focused on political themes, unlike the other “big city poets”. However, in 1976 Sepamla became a member of the Medupe Writers Association (banned along with 16 other black consciousness movements on the 19th October 1977 by Jimmy Kruger, South Africa's Minister of Justice at the time)and after this more of his poems, developed a political undertone. The collection ‘The Soweto I Love' (1977) was banned during apartheid. 
He was a founder of the Federated Union of Black Artists (now the Fuba Academy of Arts) and editor of the literary magazine New Classic and the theatre magazine S'ketsh.
He published several volumes of poetry and novels. He received the Thomas Pringle Award (1977) and the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his writing. More recently in democratic South Africa he was a member of the government's Arts and Culture Task Group.

Poetry
  • Hurry Up to It! (Donker, 1975)
  • The Soweto I Love (1977)
  • Selected poems (Donker, 1984)
  • From Gorée to Soweto (1988)
Novels
  • The Root is One (1979)
  • A Ride on the Whirlwind (1981