Over the weekend, the bilingual volume of poetry by the late Victor Wessels was launched at Livingstone High School 40 years after his death and banning.
Wessels was an accomplished teacher, writer and a stalwart in the Struggle against racial capitalism in South Africa – one of many voices silenced during apartheid.
The book, titled Testimony, was published by African Sun Media and edited by Allan Zinn, director of the Centre for the Advancement of Non-Racialism and Democracy at Nelson Mandela University (NMU); Denise Zinn, former deputy vice-chancellor of Teaching and Learning at NMU; and paediatrician Doctor Abe Daniels, who were all close to the poet.
Renowned South African writer, poet and activist Diana Ferrus said the collection reflected the experience of suffering, resistance and betrayal from the horse’s mouth and that she regarded it as one of the truest reflections of a South African revolutionary.
Wessels had several encounters with the state security services and received a restrictive banning order which placed him under house arrest and barred him from all public gatherings and publishing any reading matter, as well as from entering schools, universities or public libraries.
The book was dedicated to Wessels’s only son Anton Wessels, who said teaching remained his father’s passion right until the end, and he had vowed to find a way to continue after his restrictive banning summarily destroyed his formal teaching career.
Now, through this book, Wessels would be teaching generations for years to come as some books would also be donated to local schools.
Those in attendance included speakers who included political activists, teachers, family and friends such as Imam Haron’s children and veteran journalist Zubeida Jaffer.
Denise Zinn said Wessels wrote about love, loss and people who had died at the hands of the security police.
Zinn said a few poems were actually about Imam Haron’s death in detention, and that the picture of Wessels on the cover was actually taken while he was speaking at Haron’s funeral.
Poet and activist Mongane Serote said: “While the Struggle against apartheid oppression gave rise to the genre of protest poetry, it also silenced many and significant dissenting voices, like Victor’s, via forced removal and successive banning orders. My thanks to the diligent compilers and editors for bringing this anthology to the light of day.”
