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Mongane Wally Serote Quotes
born 1944 South Africa
Mongane Wally Serote (born 8 May 1944) is a South African poet and writer. He became involved in political resistance to the apartheid government by joining the African National Congress (ANC) and in 1969 was arrested and detained for several months without trial.
South Africa Novelists Poets Also known as: Third World Express
Random Mongane Wally Serote quote
15 quotes
The quality of life of the people—the way people lived—affected me.
Writing, which is a segment of culture which is life itself, cannot be divorced from economics or politics.
What's in this black shit expresses that deep feeling of wanting to fight and trying to articulate what one does when one fights.
Writing is a segment of culture which is life itself.
The first commitment of any writer is to politics; the second, which makes the writer, is in writing.
It is how societies are organized that says how they will eradicate ignorance.
At primary school, I had very good teachers that had us tell stories.
You can't be an observer just because you are a poet. You must also contribute to the fighting.
One had this very strong feeling that one had to fight this one way or another.
I am primarily known as a poet. I have, though, written short stories, a novel, and plays and am preparing a manuscript of essays on culture.
It becomes necessary as a writer to examine this, and be able to look at our movement and say: are we learning from the experiences of others?
It is that wind it is that voice buzzing it is whispering and whistling in the wires miles upon miles upon miles on the wires in the wind in the subway track in the rolling road in the not silent bush it is the voice of the noise here it comes the Third World Express they must say, here we go again.
I was inspired by English poetry, but then I discovered that I could write about our own situation and that's what I set out to do: to write about South Africa and to write about the life that we live.
O, go away, you steely monster! Why must you arrive so soon When I, at the moment, am lost in thought And wish that I could hide myself At home among the mielie-stalks, Covered with cobs, surrounded by pumpkins; For there I should never be disturbed By bustling crowds of chattering people Passing noisily on their way: I see them at dawn, I see them at dusk – At sunrise and sunset they pass me by.
It becomes the role of the writer to look at the under-developed sections of our movement and deal with them truthfully. And look at the highly developed elements of our movement and also deal with them truthfully.
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