A Peek Inside a Political Prisoner's Heart: A poetic antholoogy from Robben Island

These poems were never meant to be publicised or published and are all that remain of the author’s poetry, penned mostly on Robben Island during his incarceration there.


“Comrade Martin Sehlapelo has written and compiled a remarkable anthology of intensely personal poems without any trace of pretence and bitterness – they linger in the memory long afterwards.”
Dr Ahmed Kathrada, Isitwalwandwe/Seaparankoe

Since before his teens and whilst in prison, Martin Sehlapelo has been writing poetry. Unfortunately, save for this anthology, all his other work is lost. During his high school period at Pax College, he became overtly politically active and helped found the Seshego Youth Congress. He joined the ANC underground in the eighties and was actively involved in the broader Mass Democratic Movement. Following his guerrilla training with uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) in Angola, he was captured by apartheid forces and sentenced to five years imprisonment which he served on Robben Island Prison, where he penned the majority of these poems.