For Joe Slovo Informal Settlement in Cape Town, see: Joe Slovo (Cape Town).
Joe Slovo (23 May 1926 – 6 January 1995) was a South African politician, long-time leader of the South African Communist Party (SACP), and leading member of the African National Congress.
Slovo was born in Obeliai, Lithuania to a Jewish family who emigrated to South Africa when he was eight. His full name was Yossel Mashel Slovo. His father worked as a truck driver in Johannesburg. Although his family were religious, he became an atheist who retained respect for "the positive aspects of Jewish culture". Slovo left school in 1941 and found work as a dispatch clerk. He joined the National Union of Distributive Workers and, as a shop steward, was involved in organising a strike.
Slovo joined the SACP in 1942. Inspired by the Red Army's battles against the Nazis on the Eastern Front of World War II, Slovo volunteered to fight in the war, afterwards joining the Springbok Legion, a multiracial radical ex-servicemen's organization, upon his return.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (Xhosa pronunciation: [xoˈliːɬaɬa manˈdeːla]; born 18 July 1918) is a South African politician who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, the first ever to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before being elected President, Mandela was a militant anti-apartheid activist, and the leader and co-founder of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC). In 1962 he was arrested and convicted of sabotage and other charges, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Mandela went on to serve 27 years in prison, spending many of these years on Robben Island. Following his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Mandela led his party in the negotiations that led to the establishment of democracy in 1994. As President, he frequently gave priority to reconciliation, while introducing policies aimed at combating poverty and inequality in South Africa.
In South Africa, Mandela is often known as Madiba, his Xhosa clan name; or as tata (Xhosa: father). Mandela has received more than 250 awards over four decades.
Ruth First (May 4, 1925 – August 17, 1982) was a South African anti-apartheid activist and scholar born in Johannesburg, South Africa. She was killed by a parcel bomb addressed specifically to her in Mozambique, where she worked in exile from South Africa.
Ruth First's parents, Julius First and Matilda Levetan, immigrated to South Africa from Latvia as Jewish immigrants in 1906 and became founder members of the South African Communist Party (SACP). Ruth First was born in 1925 and brought up in Johannesburg. Like her parents, she joined the SACP, which was allied with the African National Congress in its struggle to overthrow the South African government.
She attended Jeppe High School for Girls. The first person in her family to attend University, she received her Bachelor's degree from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1946. While in University she found that "on a South African campus, the student issues that matter are national issues" With this political outlook as a student at Witwatersrand, she was involved in the founding of the Federation of Progressive Students, also known as the Progressive Students League.Nelson Mandela, future President of South Africa and Eduardo Mondlane the first leader of the Mozambique freedom movement FRELIMO were among her fellow students.
Gillian Slovo is a South African born novelist, playwright and memoirist.
Her novels were at first predominantly of the crime and thriller genres, including a series featuring the detective Kate Baeier but she has since written more literary fiction. Her 2000 work, Red Dust, a courtroom drama that explores the meanings and effects of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, was made into a film released in 2004 directed by Tom Hooper and starring Hilary Swank, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jamie Bartlett. Her 2004 work Ice Road was shortlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction. The novel incorporates real events (the death of Sergey Kirov) with a fictionalised rendering of life during the Siege of Leningrad.
Her 1997 memoir, Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country, is an account of her childhood in South Africa and her relationship with her parents Joe Slovo and Ruth First — both famous South Africans and major figures in the anti-apartheid struggle who lived perilous lives of exile, armed resistance, and occasional imprisonment, which culminated in her mother's murder by South African forces in 1982. A family memoir in the form of a feature film, A World Apart, was written by her sister Shawn Slovo and starred Barbara Hershey. With Victoria Brittain, she compiled the play Guantanamo- Honor Bound to Defend Freedom that was put on in theatres all over the world.
Even in the back of a Penske
Style she creates
We've only been here for a little while
And we're already one day late
And we move in single file
On roads that are not small
But aren't first rate interstates
She's never long in her states
Well, I've done my share of dreaming
In fact, that's all I do
I dream of some old God
With keys for this whole zoo
And he's always up ahead
And there's always something else
I've got to choose sinners' blues
She's never long in her shoes
And I stayed up 'til the morning
'Til I saw the sun
The thing that brings her peace
When all else is undone
But the rays will cause disease
They'll tell bad cells to slaughter healthy ones by the
Long showers, in these hours
Standing naked, it's a good time to pray
Shower head, lower case god
Wash it all away
California, what have you done to me?
I'm waiting for the big one, then we can laugh about this
debris
Soft science, I have no alliance
But I've been praying to learn how to pray
It's in the eyes, but when you realise
It quickly goes away
California, what have you done to me?
I'm waiting for the big one, then we can laugh about this
It's just a February sense
It's like the opposite of breathing
I can hear your little voice inside my head
Saying, "Now it's time for change, time to move ahead"
But I've frozen my assets
I've got nothing to give right now
You can save all your money
And then you can buy a house
As for me I'm still waiting
For that perfect piece of mica under a tree
For Thomas Edison with seven heads to come from the sea
And when the tinfoil spits, put your spirit on me
I want your blessing
Whoever you are who has the power
To give me a name, for whatever I am
And you say I only use my head
And the way I disagree, it just proves it
And I've tried to take a different path
But everywhere I turn, it just brings me back
'Cause I've frozen my assets
I've got nothing to give right now
You can save all your money
And then you can buy a house
As for me I'm still waiting
For that perfect piece of mica under a tree
For Thomas Edison with seven heads to come from the sea
And when the tinfoil spits, put your spirit on me
I want your blessing
Whoever you are who has the power
And the sky heard the command
It's obedient like sand
The plane was shaking
And they said, "Please take your seats"
But disobedient like sleep
They kept on standing
And if this is not my place
It's a thought that I can't shake
The ship is falling
The wind is calling out my name
It's an ancient game
"Heaven help me" are just words
That time will make you say
And the sky heard the command
It's obedient like sand
The plane was shaking
And they said, "Please take your seats"
But disobedient like sleep
They kept on standing
And if this is not my place
It's a thought that I can't shake
The ship is falling
The wind is calling out my name
It's an ancient game
"Heaven help me" are just words
And you told me not to talk
And you know my whole family
Just the sound of my voice
Increases your state of anger
I'd like a girl without a family
Like a new country
You went and bought another car
To help with the separation
But the night you got it home
The black blood went all over the pavement
And it was waiting for the tow truck
When it hit me how things are changing
Come back to me in the day
Come back to me in the day
It'll all come back in the day
Come back to me
Now it's 2 A.M.
Driving back from the dealership
And you told me not to talk
So I just look ahead
And I breathe in the new car
I hope it takes you far
From you
And I couldn't sell the bed
So I put it up for free
And this man he came to me
And then the house was clear
But the way you communicate
Makes me feel like a snake
You try to crush my head
And I try to strike your leg
But when you told me that I wasted your 20s
I didn't know what to say
Come back to me in the day
Come back to me in the day
Come back to me in the day
Come back to me in the day
It'll all come back in the day
Come back to me
The way you fall asleep
You fall out fast
You sleep so hard
If these were the last words I told you
Before I shoo you like a stray, hey, hey
With half a mind to try and find my way back
But half of a mind cannot find its own way
Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah
Unused "I love you"s
Build up in my throat
And my apartment smells like divorce
Unused "I love you"s
Build up in my throat
And my apartment smells like divorce
It's bad to not know how to care
But to know how not to care
I guess it's goodbye now
Did I guess wrong?
I guess it's goodbye now
Is a broken man's song
And I said, "for now"
You said, "save your for now"
That's how it goes
And I said, "for now"
You said, "save your for now"
But now's all I know
Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah
The night-time sings the song
I've done you wrong
Right now the roses in my yard
Are moving hard with the wind
I wanna see you again
My bleeding friend
I know bad decisions leave a scar
On the hearts of women and men
I still wanna see you again
I guess I'm that kind of man
Everything that flowers
Everything that flowers soon will end
The perpetual bend
Of a bleeding friend
Then you arranged all my childhood change
In perfect piles on my desk
Dimes and nickels and pennies
Collected since the 1980s
There was about 50 dollars
I know you'll make it last all week
Do you ever tell little lies
When explaining a dream?
Oh no
Oh no
Around the age 10, I had a dream
I was inside of an inflatable tent
Floating in a swimming pool
The girls lined up to come in
I'd never seen a naked breast
Even in the bra ads, they were dressed
The confessions of a little boy
I know how you handle pain
But my heart only has a slow leak
For eleven years, we didn't touch another
And now I can't sleep
'Cause it's the kind of jet lag
That makes a man wanna weep
I found you there
In your hair
Underwear, underwear
The suck of a mouth
The slip of the tongue
Words come out, words fall out
Anxieties stay
There's only one way
Wait for the wait
Wait for the wait
When two mouths touch, they make a big stink
Sometimes the cold comes from the inside
Nobody ever knows until things change
I never like to call you mine
I saw a skull in my ice before we landed
But I don't believe in signs
I found you there
In your hair
Underwear, underwear
The/a suck of a mouth
The slip of the tongue
Words come out, words fall out
Anxieties stay
There's only one way
Wait for the wait
Wait for the wait
The clear lines of a cat
The straightness of a scratch
I'm different than that
Am I giving you
Hardly the wrong queue
Of what my life is
Am I giving you
Hardly the wrong "u"
Of just how nice it is
I just need some time
Away from this race
We drank the best wine
Now we're walking in place
And the grey never waits
For a man to make haste
But the hand doesn't know its own age
When it touches the lines on your face, face
If your season is a reason
Make up your mind
And I'm just breezing ahead
'Cause God's made me blind
And I've been told if I have a plan
State my case
But the hand doesn't know its own name
When it touches your face
You sit like a monument in front of me
These angels drag themselves from my feet
Is a body hung
Once the tongue sits smartly waiting to retreat
You sit like a monument in front of me
These angels drag themselves from my feet
Is the body hung
Once the tongue sits smartly waiting to retreat
Smartly waiting to retreat
When the moment's gone past
You'll have taken my place
It's the sound of the smack of two hands
And we never were good at giving gifts
We never had the sight
Some people drown their kids
And commit their lives to Christ
If I could blur the seam
That separates me from you
And you from me
I'd meet you somewhere in-between
I'd put a bridge across this rift
And offer you the hand that I have left
That I have left
God bless
And Julie, Julie
You move right through me
Salt on your pillow
Rain upon my gravestone
And the one thing I know
Is a thing I forget
It's the way I've been grown
It's the way I regret
And I no longer think that I've
Got half a clue
I just hope that you know
It can happen to you
If it happened to you
And you wear my hair like I'm Halloween
In the seams of your dry-clean onlys
And I've been waiting through the past two Halloweens
For the words that will help you to know me
I saw a biplane flying
It was dragging a sign that read
"You don't have the right"
May 11, June 2nd and August
And Julie, Julie
You move right through me
Salt on your pillow
When it's midday in Kansas
Both oceans look the same
But out West, it's still on its way
What is your name, is it Sadness?
You shave off all my reasons
Right down to the bone
And the sun is so strong
That I can hear the sound of stone
Drying up and dying, alone
Vanishing in the mist
So this is what I missed
The entropy of us
We've been going on and on and on
For such a long time
And most days, we do fine
But today I spit an old eight back up?
From the inside
Somethings that come up, you just can't get them back
down
Untapped clouds coming back from yesterday, surround
Us in the morning
It's a warning
We shouldn't talk so loud
Our words are turning into the mist
So this is what I missed