For Don M. – Banned

Mongane Wally Serote 

it is a dry white seasondark leaves don’t last, their brief lives dry outand 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 erectdry like steel, their branches dry like wireindeed it is a dry white seasonbut 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 Consciousnessvoice (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 seasondark leaves don’t last, their brief lives dry outand 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 erectdry like steel, their branches dry like wireindeed it is a dry white seasonbut seasons come to pass.

it is a dry white seasondark leaves don’t last, their brief lives dry outand 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 erectdry like steel, their branches dry like wireindeed it is a dry white seasonbut seasons come to pass.

it is a dry white seasondark leaves don’t last, their brief lives dry outand 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 erectdry like steel, their branches dry like wireindeed it is a dry white seasonbut 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?