We found this moving poem in Voices magazine on-line: .http://www.mancvoices.co.uk/issue_9.htm It is by Sean Hosey's father John Hosey. In 1972, finding that his son (one of the London Recruits) had been arrested, he went out to South Africa to support him and wrote this poem after attending the trial. "Joe Boshoff" refers to the judge. "The Actor man" presumably refers to actor David Tomlinson, who also attended the trial.The accused became known as the "Pretoria Six", and John names them in this poem. Sean was sentenced to five years imprisonment, which he served in full.
You smiled quietly as you mounted the steps
From the cells below. I couldn't hear
As your lips moved, but I knew you said
Hello dad.
Your cheeks are pale
The flesh is taut
I will bring you some food tomorrow
Some apples and pears and oranges too
Am I staring too hard?
Have they broken you
With obscenity and cruelty
Joe Boshoff, surrounded
By a dozen Mein Kampfs
A court of jackboots
Make you tremble I will watch your hands To see if they shake
But Wrath"
In submission
Perhaps tis not submission
But wrath
I am no good at guessing
Nor am I psychic
I will wait till I hear
If you condemn or condone.
My brain is afire
I cannot sleep
I pace the room
Accusations, accusations, accusations
That you
Hosey, Moumbaris, Cholo, Mthembu, Sejaka, Mpanza
Did
Conspire
Conspiracies, conspiracies, conspiracies
Did
By leaflet, disturb the minds
Of peaceful people
Leaflets, leaflets, leaflets.
But did you succumb
Tomorrow I will know.
I don't like this V.I.P. box
I would sit with Cholo's mother
And hold her brave black hand
But I cannot hear so far away
And I must hear
To tell the world
The Actor man beside me
Makes me sick
He shouldn't be here
In this land of Apartheid
Regaling the 'Boss-man'
With his actor talents
Then acting still, remarks
They are all very brave
Hypocrite!
You looked at me
As you walked to the stand
And smiled in that delightful way
My heart was bursting
My son, my son
What would it be
Defeat or victory
And then I heard you
Loud and clear
'I'd do it all over again'
I clapped my hands in rapturous
Delight.
John Hosey
