“…The struggle of black people inevitably appear in an intensely cultural form because the social formation in which their distinct political traditions are now manifest has constructed the arena of politics on ground overshadowed by centuries of metropolitan capitalist development, thereby denying them recognition as legitimate politics. Blacks conduct a class struggle in and through race. The BC of race and class cannot be empirically separated, the class character of black struggles is not a result of the fact that blacks are predominantly proletarian, thought this is true…”- (Frank Talk Staff Writers in ‘Azania Salutes Tosh’ – circa 1981)
front cover:
Tosh by Steve Gordon
back cover:
Kippie by Basil Breakey
Sunrise Poison by Phillip Zhuwao (Deep South, 1996)
Philip Zhuwao who died in 1997 aged 27 was a brilliantly original Zimbabwean poet. His poems are visceral, sharp-witted, linguistically playful, and uncompromising in their anarchic aesthetic and intensity. Rich is classical and literary references and following moments of chance, they move fluidly between the poet's inner pain, the scarred landscape of Harare's townships, and unforgettable images of rage and beauty.
Sunrise Poison co-edited with the poet in 1996, is the first of a planned four-volume collected by Zhuwao, which include fiction, essays and letters, as well as poetry.