Champion of the underdog
Don Mattera, a legendary South African poet, wordsmith, journalist, public speaker, political activist, peace crusader and raconteur recently received a lifetime achievement award and, in an interview with fondly recalls his life and times.
HAVING quit public speaking in 2004, ageing activist Don Mattera returned to the podium recently when he received a lifetime achievement award from the Durbanbased Minara Chamber of Commerce.
“I was taken by surprise. Who would have remembered Don Mattera after all these years when the Struggle had forgotten one of its sons from the trenches of the resistance against apartheid?” asked the octogenarian with a sparkle in his eye.
“I am truly grateful to the president of the chamber, Ebrahim Patel, for elevating me and my work on the level of previous recipients Albert Luthuli and Ahmed Kathrada,” said Mattera after the presentation in Fordsburg, Joburg.
Mattera converted from Christianity to Islam. He is known as Dr Muhammad Ummarudin Mattera.
Well known in the literary and publishing world and academic circles, Mattera’s autobiography, Memory is the Weapon, earned him a trio of honorary doctorates of literature from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, University of the Witwatersrand and Unisa.
With some fire left in his voice, he spoke about growing up in Durban, turning to gangsterism, becoming politicised and taking charge of his life.
He was born Donato Francisco Mattera in 1935 in the western township of Westbury, an apartheid-classified area for coloured people.
In his writings, he narrated his life experiences and traced his biological history to the mixed-race parentage of his grandparents, an Italian immigrant and a Khoisan woman, from the Cape.
Mattera’s grandfather moved to Joburg where his father, who was classified Italian, was born.
His parents sent him to a Catholic school, St Theresa’s, in Sydenham, Durban, when he was nine years old.
“I was Catholicised and Anglicised during my years in Durban. The nuns fed me a daily diet of the dictionary and got me to read, read and read. I was soon writing plays and poetry for school events.
“The nuns at the Mariannhill Monastery also had a say in who I am today. So, Durban and its kind people will always have a special place in my heart.”
But later on, when he returned to Joburg, he got mixed up with gangs, becoming the ring leader of The Vultures, and turned into a streetwise fighter.
“I hurt and maimed a lot of people during this dark side of my life. I was arrested many times. At 20, I was charged with murder and spent time in jail awaiting trial before I was acquitted.”
Mattera turned his life around and embraced antipolitics working on the front lines of the Black Consciousness Movement, the Pan-Africanist Congress and the ANC.
“The ANC Youth League conscientised me into politics. By 1964, I got involved in PAC politics and was arrested and detained 80 times from 1956 to 1987.”
Mattera emerged a changed man, gradually gaining a new foothold in a broader society divided by race, colour and cultures. But while in Joburg, he still had to combat the hard life, poverty and social ills under apartheid.
Mattera later contributed to the formation of the Union of Black Journalists, Writers Association of South Africa and its predecessor, the Media Workers Association of South Africa.
Despite all the hurdles life threw at him, he made his work speak for itself in the mainstream media.
He wrote many interesting colour features and news and human interest stories for publications including The Star, World and Weekend World, the Mail & Guardian and the Sowetan.
Mattera then focused on poetry, music and literature and gained fame and respect from his peers and people through his fearless writings as a champion of the underdog.
Today, his family has various faiths. “My one son is a Buddhist and another is married to a Hindi woman and my granddaughter’s name is Shanti. We are tolerant of all religious faiths and cultures.”