A Komani author whose poetry was confiscated while he was serving time for killing his girlfriend in an East London prison years ago, has now published it in a book called Arrested Poetry.
Mzukisi Silandela, 44, began his writing career in prison after he was convicted in 1997 of culpable homicide and sentenced to 10 years behind bars for stabbing his student girlfriend to death because he was jealous of another man.
He was a third-year student at Walter Sisulu University at the time.
“I regretted it and confessed in court,” said Silandela. “I was ready to pay for what I did.”
In jail Silandela became involved with rehabilitation programmes and wrote scripts for school outreach visits alerting schoolchildren to the grim reality of prison life.
Silandela then took to writing poetry about what he claimed was “corruption in prison”.
“I thought prison was a rehabilitation facility, but I discovered even prison officials participated in wrongdoing. Women warders slept with male prisoners for money.”
He said about 50 poems were confiscated during a raid on his shared cell in 2003.
Silandela served seven years of his sentence and went on to write a handful of books. Published in 2012 Ulutsha Nentolongo (Youth and Prison) dealt with his experiences behind bars, while Amabanjwa Namadindala (Prisoners and Jailers) was his take on corruption and drug smuggling in jail.
He presents motivational talks at schools, churches and prisons and it was during a 2013 television interview that he spoke about the poems which had been confiscated 10 years before.
“A warder who saw me on TV, got hold of me and gave me back my manuscript.”
A selection of 30 of these poems now form the bulk of Arrested Poetry, which Silandela published through his publishing company AT 40 Publishers, and which will hit the bookstores next week.
“When I appeared on TV I got a call from a friend of my girlfriend who was furious to see me on TV because I had killed her friend,” he said.
“I do understand, but to me this is not profiting . It is about proving that if you do something wrong you can change your life and inspire others.” — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
Replacing crimes with rhymes
A Komani author whose poetry was confiscated while he was serving time for killing his girlfriend in an East London prison years ago, has now published it in a book called Arrested Poetry.
Mzukisi Silandela, 44, began his writing career in prison after he was convicted in 1997 of culpable homicide and sentenced to 10 years behind bars for stabbing his student girlfriend to death because he was jealous of another man.
He was a third-year student at Walter Sisulu University at the time.
“I regretted it and confessed in court,” said Silandela. “I was ready to pay for what I did.”
In jail Silandela became involved with rehabilitation programmes and wrote scripts for school outreach visits alerting schoolchildren to the grim reality of prison life.
Silandela then took to writing poetry about what he claimed was “corruption in prison”.
“I thought prison was a rehabilitation facility, but I discovered even prison officials participated in wrongdoing. Women warders slept with male prisoners for money.”
He said about 50 poems were confiscated during a raid on his shared cell in 2003.
Silandela served seven years of his sentence and went on to write a handful of books. Published in 2012 Ulutsha Nentolongo (Youth and Prison) dealt with his experiences behind bars, while Amabanjwa Namadindala (Prisoners and Jailers) was his take on corruption and drug smuggling in jail.
He presents motivational talks at schools, churches and prisons and it was during a 2013 television interview that he spoke about the poems which had been confiscated 10 years before.
“A warder who saw me on TV, got hold of me and gave me back my manuscript.”
A selection of 30 of these poems now form the bulk of Arrested Poetry, which Silandela published through his publishing company AT 40 Publishers, and which will hit the bookstores next week.
“When I appeared on TV I got a call from a friend of my girlfriend who was furious to see me on TV because I had killed her friend,” he said.
“I do understand, but to me this is not profiting . It is about proving that if you do something wrong you can change your life and inspire others.” — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
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