Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Beatnik: Going to College in Durban, South Africa
    Beatnik: Going to College in Durban, South Africa
    Beatnik: Going to College in Durban, South Africa
    Ebook139 pages1 hour

    Beatnik: Going to College in Durban, South Africa

    By M. J. Poynter

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Beatnik is a bohemian memoir set in the city of Durban in 1990. M. J. Poynter is a young college student immersed in the vibrant world of performing arts. Under the bright lights of the theatre the author spends his time designing sets and writing poetry. But offstage his carefree life as a beatnik is about to end. Nelson Mandela has just been released from prison and South Africa is on the cusp of political change. Set in a coastal city overlooking the Indian Ocean, Beatnik follows the exploits of four young students who see the need for political reform but who fear the prospect of an ANC government. Told through a series of amusing anecdotes, the author provides an insightful commentary of political events, captures the pop culture of the 1990s, and provides a creative outlet for some of his poems. Set against a backdrop of township violence and instability, M. J. Poynter recollects the final years of apartheid and the end of white minority rule.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse UK
    Release dateJun 10, 2011
    ISBN9781456776572
    Beatnik: Going to College in Durban, South Africa
    Author

    M. J. Poynter

    M. J. Poynter is an English writer who grew up in apartheid South Africa during the 1980s. He lived in the small coal mining town of Witbank situated a hundred miles east of Johannesburg in what was once called the old Transvaal. From 1976-1988 M. J. Poynter completed his primary and secondary school education during what he often refers to as the thirteen wasted years. In 1989 he moved down to Durban where he completed a three year National Diploma in Theatre Technology at the Natal Technikon. At the beginning of 1992 his family decided to return to the UK where they currently reside in the county of Lincolnshire.

    Read more from M. J. Poynter

    Related to Beatnik

    Related ebooks

    Personal Memoirs For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Tama Muru

      Nov 10, 2019

      Tama Muru
      7 min read

    • Article

      Mandela’s Cape Town

      Feb 1, 2024

      Mandela’s Cape Town
      8 min read

    • Article

      Portrait Of A Marriage

      May 26, 2023

      Portrait Of A Marriage
      11 min read

    • Article

      Winnie Madikizela-Mandela: For Many South Africans, 'She Was The Movement'

      Apr 3, 2018

      The anti-apartheid icon, who passed away Monday, first came to national prominence during her then-husband's decades of imprisonment. But she carved her own legacy as one of the country's most important activists, embodying many black South Africans'

      5 min read

    • Article

      Bird’s Words

      Mar 18, 2024

      Last week I spoke at the Housing Technology conference, run by the magazine of that name. I was asked to go to the East Midlands Conference Centre at Nottingham University to give a short speech and accept an award, which I did. Seemingly always on a

      3 min read

    • Article

      Trevor Noah

      Mar 4, 2017

      Trevor Noah
      3 min read

    • Article

      Keep On Rocking In The ‘Free’ World

      Nov 7, 2020

      OUR MORNING amble through the streets of funky Doringkloof got off to a rather adrenaline-filled start this week. As we got to the gate, a couple taking their three dogs for a stroll had just come past. I waited until they were about 50m up the road

      2 min read

    • Article

      ‘A True Outsider’s Perspective’: Lenora Chu On The Power Of Cultural Influences (audio)

      Dec 23, 2020

      Over time, familiarity can work against a reporter’s essential tool: the drive to discover. New connections bring this writer fresh viewpoints.

      10 min read

    • Article

      We Were Truly Blessed

      Jul 26, 2020

      We Were Truly Blessed
      5 min read

    • Article

      Pedro Almodóvar On Spain’s Tragic Past: ‘You Can’t Ask People To Forget’

      Jan 22, 2022

      Pedro Almodóvar is in Madrid at his production company El Deseo (The Desire). El Deseo could not be a more fitting name: desire has been at the heart of his films. All sorts of desire: for love, sex, justice, acceptance and truth. Behind him are DVDs

      9 min read

    • Article

      The House Of Beauty And Culture

      Mar 23, 2023

      Alan Macdonald was one half of the furniture design partnership Frick and Frack during the 1980s. He was close friends with John Moore and set up the House of Beauty and Culture with him and Judy Blame, making tables both for display and for Moore to

      13 min read

    • Article

      Adjoa Andoh

      May 1, 2023

      Adjoa Andoh
      5 min read

    • Article

      Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

      Apr 16, 2018

      THE HISTORY OF THE ANTIAPARTHEID struggle cannot be written without the name of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, who died on April 2 at 81. When Nelson Mandela was sent to prison at Robben Island, his young wife, left with two little children and no financ

      1 min read

    • Article

      Jon Snow

      Mar 6, 2023

      Jon Snow
      5 min read

    • Article

      The ScoMo DIARIES

      May 24, 2022

      The ScoMo DIARIES
      9 min read

    • Article

      'Bearing Witness Is Really All We Have': Memories Of Covering The Tiananmen Aftermath

      Jun 4, 2019

      NPR's Deborah Amos arrived in Beijing days after authorities cracked down on Tiananmen protesters. She stayed for six weeks and shares her memories of covering a critical time in China's history.

      8 min read

    • Article

      Salute To Women In The Struggle

      Oct 10, 2020

      “ONE time we refused to move away from the cell and the police called in reinforcements. They came in with Alsatians to force us out. The only thing we could do was strip naked, all of us stripped and then they left us for a while. Otherwise the Alsa

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Beatnik

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Beatnik - M. J. Poynter

      © 2011 M.J. Poynter. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      First published by AuthorHouse 06/07/2011

      ISBN: 978-1-4567-7656-5 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4567-7657-2 (e)

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

      and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Contents

      ONE

      Walk to Freedom

      TWO

      Adapt or Die

      THREE

      Zombies and Poetry

      FOUR

      Hot Chocolate

      FIVE

      The Love Shack

      SIX

      Bombs and Boutiques

      SEVEN

      Dodging the Draft

      EIGHT

      The South Beach Stabbings

      NINE

      The Final Curtain

      About the Author

      This story is based upon a series of events which took place in the city of Durban in 1990.The names of characters have been changed in order to conceal their true identity but the names of streets and locations are accurate so as to create an authentic sense of time and place. The beat poems were all written under the pen-name of Scarecrow Joe and many appeared in underground ‘zines during the mid-1990’s. While an element of fantasy has been used in creating this story all of my recollections are based upon real events that actually occurred!

      M. J. Poynter

      ONE

      Walk to Freedom

      I still remember the day that Nelson Mandela was released from prison. It was a rather ordinary day sometime back in February of 1990. I was studying Theatre Technology at the Durban Polytechnic in Durban, South Africa. In studying towards a three year National Diploma I was training to become a sound and lighting technician in the hope that one day I would be able to work in a recording studio.That morning, as I sat in front of my portable black and white television set, I had no idea that my whole world was about to change! The National Party government had just lifted its ban on political parties and South Africa was on the cusp of radical reform; but at the time I had absolutely no idea as to what was going on. My family had arrived in South Africa two weeks after the Soweto riots of 1976. I had grown up in a small coal mining town in the Transvaal and like most white South Africans I had very little understanding of the apartheid regime. For a small town boy like me, politics was considered a dirty word, Communists were all in cahoots with the devil and the word apartheid simply didn’t exist.

      I had heard the name Nelson Mandela mentioned a few times in relation to Robben Island where South Africa’s most dangerous political prisoners were kept. It was a name that didn’t really hold any significance for me and appeared to be associated with acts of terrorism and township violence. I knew that Mandela was some kind of criminal because a boy in my high school history class had once asked Mr Vorster if Mandela would ever be released from prison. Not in my life time my boy…not in my lifetime, declared Mr Vorster. But despite the fact that this declaration was obviously not based upon any real understanding of political developments, we all breathed a sigh of relief. The week before Mandela’s release there had been an article in the Sunday Times newspaper informing readers that Mandela was currently being detained on a farm somewhere down in the Cape. Out of the twenty-seven years that Mandela was in prison he spent eighteen years on Robben Island before being moved back to the mainland. Since 1988 Mandela had been living at the Victor Verster Prison in the Cape Province; but at the time everybody had been under the impression that he was safely locked up on Robben Island with no possibility of ever being released! However, it now transpired that he was living in a small two roomed apartment, complete with a kitchen and a swimming pool. According to the newspaper he was allowed to correspond with the outside world and even had access to a radio and a television set. The news article also provided a detailed description of how Mandela would spend his time at the prison house. Well looking back, this story was probably a carefully crafted piece of government propaganda, preparing the public for Mandela’s imminent release, but at the time, I could not see the connection.

      I continued looking at the television screen anxiously waiting to see what was going to happen next. As the minutes slowly ticked by I sat looking at a small crowd of people who had gathered in front of a large metal gate. This metal gate sealed off an entrance to a dirt road which simply disappeared into the distance. In the distance there appeared to be a few trees and cluster of buildings which simply remained in the distance. A rather bland news reporter holding a microphone provided a rather dull and dreary commentary. I can still remember him saying that Mr Mandela will be released any minute now, but nothing appeared to happen! The news reporter kept on repeating his announcement for the next thirty minutes but still nothing appeared to happen. As I sat looking at the small black and white television screen I was unaware that this dreary programme was being broadcast all around the world. As the minutes slowly crept by the reporter kept on saying that Mr Mandela will be released any minute now, but still nothing appeared to happen! I was beginning to wonder if the government had suddenly changed its mind and had decided to keep Mandela locked up for another twenty-seven years.

      Today Nelson Mandela is regarded as an icon of liberation, a man of great integrity who fought for the freedom of South Africa; a noble individual who would go on to liberate South Africa from the tyranny and oppression of the apartheid regime. But for ordinary people like me, who were actually living in South Africa during the 1980’s, Nelson Mandela and the ANC were a group of terrorists. Just like the PLO or the IRA, the ANC was a terrorist organization which sought to destabilize the country through mindless acts of destruction. As the leader of the ANC’s military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (the spear of the nation), Mandela had begun a campaign of armed resistance since the early 1960’s. During this time Mandela was responsible for coordinating a campaign of sabotage and violence against a series of military and government targets. Mandela was later arrested in 1962 and charged with the capital crimes of treason, sabotage and plotting a foreign invasion. Since 1976 the ANC had been actively engaged in a campaign of armed resistance and by the end of the 1980’s this campaign had escalated into a catalogue of mindless violence in which car bombs exploded in city centres killing and maiming dozens of people. The ANC was also responsible for organizing campaigns of civil disobedience designed to undermine South Africa’s economy. During a series of planned strikes called stay away the workers on the townships would be ordered to remain in their houses and not go into work. Anyone caught disobeying these orders would be severely dealt with by the ANC’s militant youth. It was not unusual for a gang of teenage thugs to attack an ordinary working man who had defied the stay away and sentence him to a necklace. This would involve placing a car tyre over the victims head, dowsing them in gasoline and setting them alight. The militant youth would then break into a frenzied chorus of song and dance as the victim burned to death at their feet. The charred body would later be seen on the television news and the victim would become just another statistic in the catalogue of township violence.

      After twenty minutes of staring at the television screen and getting a stiff neck, I decided to step outside onto the balcony and get some fresh air. I lived in a studio flat on the fifth floor of an apartment building overlooking the Greyville race track. Technically speaking I actually live on the seventh floor as the first two floors were covered parking. On the ground floor there was a Spar Supermarket which made shopping for daily provisions like bread and milk very easy. I looked down towards the street and watched the cars as they slowly drove along Avondale road towards the Greyville race track. On the opposite side of the road there was an apartment building called SusieQ. In a country where everything had a formal sounding Dutch name like, Bloemfontein or Potchefstroom, a quirky name like SusieQ sounded very hip. Each time I looked across the street and saw this sign written on the side of the building it always reminded me of a song by Credence Clearwater Revival. And even when I didn’t look at the sign I could almost hear the sound of John Fogerty’s gravelly voice singing inside my head.On a clear day I could see the sea with its flat horizon separating the sky from the ocean. But today the Durban skyline was shrouded in a blanket

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1