Don Mattera
Born in 1935 in Western Native Township (now Westbury), Johannesburg, South Africa, Donato Francesco Mattera commonly known as Don Mattera, “Bra Zinga”, The “Zinga Special”, grew up in Sophiatown, at that time a vibrant centre of South African culture. His diverse heritage is derived from his Italian grandfather, Khoisan/Xhosa grandmother and Motswana mother.
Don Mattera's grandfather, Paolo Mattera, was an Italian immigrant who married a Xhosa woman from the Eastern Cape. They moved to Johannesburg, where Mattera's father was born. At the time, he was classified as an Italian but under the apartheid system, Don was classified as a "Coloured". This group was the last to be forcibly evicted from Sophiatown; they were taken to the nearby suburbs of Westbury, Newclare and Bosmont.
Mattera was adopted by his grandparents and sent to a Catholic boarding school in Durban. He returned to Johannesburg when he was 14 and then continued his education in Pageview, another suburb that suffered greatly under the apartheid regime when the residents were again forcibly removed during the 1960s. Atrocities such as these, raised his political awareness and this led to him becoming politically active. As a result of these activities, he was banned from 1973 to 1982 and spent three years under house arrest where he turned to writing as an outlet. He penned poetry, plays, short stories and novels and his works range from political tributes and eulogies, to praise songs and deeply emotional love songs. Don was detained, his house was raided, and he was tortured more than once.
Following the nine years in which Mattera was banned, he became a founding member of the Black Consciousness movement and also joined the ANC Youth League (ANCYL). He helped form the Union of Black Journalists as well as the Congress of South African Writers. He also joined the National Forum, which was against what it referred to as the "racial exclusivity" of the United Democratic Front.
He then worked as a journalist at The Sunday Times, The Sowetan, and the Weekly Mail (now known as the Mail and Guardian) and trained over 260 journalists which include Ferial Haffejee and many other well-known journalists. Don was also a director of the black consciousness publishing imprint Skotaville.
Don Mattera is perhaps one the most revered writers of our time. His autobiography Memory is a Weapon is as relevant now as it was when it was published in 1987. Mattera wrote in Memory is the Weapon: “According to the racial statistics of apartheid South Africa, I am a second-generation Coloured: the fruit of miscegenation and of an in-between existence; the appendage of black and white. There are approximately four million other people like me – twilight children who live in political, social and economic oblivion and who have been cut off from the mainstream of direct interaction with both black and white people.”
Identity, justice, equality, survival of all people lies at the core of Don Mattera’s writing. As a person of mixed heritage, he has an incredible grasp of the challenges faced by people of colour, then and now, in post-Apartheid South Africa. Mattera’s writing are a catalyst for change as he:
1. Uses images of a bloodied earth and a dying sun in juxtaposition with those of fruit, harvests and seasons.
2. He rails at the injustice of apartheid but declares that hate and vengeance only perpetuate vicious cycles of death and further retribution.
3. Mattera’s work reflects the apartheid times; it harks into the current and the future.
4. He has written against the brutality and violence of apartheid.
5. He was one of the most robust critiques of the apartheid establishment – as a journalist, activist and a poet.
6. After 1994, Mattera’s poetic prowess did not abate. He has written about democracy, love, and the black condition.
His Azanian Love Song is a go-to poetry book for many other poets. He is one of South Africa’s most influential and prolific writers and poets. Mattera’s work as a writer is perennial. He has influenced a whole generation of South African writers and journalists.
Don decided to convert to the Muslim faith in 1970 and is now deeply involved in the Eldorado Park as well as the Soweto community where he resides. He has a special interest in the plight of children, the youth and the rehabilitation of ex-prisoners.
In 2020 the Don Mattera Legacy Foundation was established to ensure that Don’s legacy as a liberation stalwart and his literary works as poet, author, journalist, and humanitarian is preserved, celebrated, and consumed in perpetuity.
