On the occasion of Women’s day, we zoom in on Gladys Thomas, a poet from Cape Town well known for her written actions against apartheid.

Copie_de_Gladys_2

We met Gladys in her humble cottage in the previously disadvantage community of Ocean View. Her confidence and her preparation for our interview showcased that she was use to being interviewed. Her affable personality and her humble surroundings made it difficult for us to comprehend that she was a celebrity but SHE IS. She is the one who wrote the first anti-apartheid poem that was banned by the old regime. A poem where she expressed her sad anger to see her own people forcibly removed from their birth place (Simonstown) and moved to the dry and desolate undeveloped areas called Ocean View. Simonstown, because of its beautiful scenery was now too good a place for people of colour (coloured people and blacks) to reside. She had never imagined it, but apartheid drove her to become a writer, a poet, a playwright. Oppression has been a source of inspiration and made her famous! “To write was a need; I had to write down messages, to tell apartheid’s horrors.”

Gladys’s life story touched us deeply. Born from an Irish mother and a coloured dad, she could have been classed as white by the regime and benefit from the white’s community privileges. However she chose to belong to the coloured community and live with the iniquitous consequences. “I didn’t want to be considered as a white” she entrusted without any regrets of her choice at all. "Those who have been successful to be classified as white have been rejected by their own people". She didn‘t want to be uprooted. Social link has always been what she cared about.

Through her writing, Gladys fought this beast called apartheid. For this she received international acclamation as well as international invitations. Her work clearly spoke of the injustices of her people. Along with her husband, she aimed to write theatre plays for teenagers providing them a platform to express themselves and their artistic talents.

Copie_de_Gladys__books

Gladys could have lived in a white community during apartheid, she could have benefited from fame to have an easier life and leave the coloured community, a choice that many would have understood. But she chose to support the victims of this execrable regime, even became one herself, and now her life’s purpose is to dedicate herself to empowering her communities youth.

As it is women’s day today, we thought you deserve to know Gladys! And that Gladys deserved to be known by the readers.

Here is one of her recent poems:

YOU ARE WOMAN

Long, long ago,

When our world was cold as ice,

You were there,

With all your warmth.

Mother, sister, woman, friend,

Reserved, angelic and unassuming.

You, woman, have lived through 2 changes,

From a racist regime, to a democracy.

Mother, sister, woman, friend,

You paced your ground so firm.

Your sacrifice was not in vain,

Woman with your frail purity,

So strong at heart.

Mother, sister, woman, friend,

Life was a ghastly nightmare,

We were lost and far from home,

You were there.

Mother, sister, woman, friend,

Reserved, angelic and unassuming,

You were there to lead us home…

Gladys Thomas, Ocean View, 2007

Translated by Gaëlle Butstraen & proofread by Chantél Daniels.

Women’s day with Gladys Thomas

Partager cet article