Blog
Unfinished work | Vonani Bila
15 days ago
Throughout history, writers have been persecuted, imprisoned or silenced for describing what they see and hear. Even today, an important measure for the health of any society is how well it treats its artists and poets.
As South Africans prepare to celebrate Mandela Day on 18 July, it is important to consider the enormous sacrifices that have been made to create a new and inclusive society. Because of this, poets who would have been banned under a more repressive government can freely write, publish and speak truth to power today.
Vonani Bila is a poet, lecturer and publisher who has engaged deeply with what it means to interpret and carry out Mandela’s ongoing legacy. He has published four solo collections of poetry and eight collections of short stories in English and Xitsonga. He is a tireless supporter of marginalised voices, which he promotes through his imprint, Timbila Press. In April 2025, it published ‘Xilamulelamhangu’, a monumental English-Xitsonga dictionary that has already been called an important stride in the preservation of indigenous languages.
Once, at the end of the 1990s, Bila wrote an impassioned poem called ‘Mandela, Have You Ever Wondered?’ It was a direct challenge to the then President at a time when the government’s economic policy was being hotly debated at all levels of society. After finishing the poem, first published in his debut poetry collection No Free Sleeping (with Donald Parenzee and Alan Finlay, Botsotso, 1998), he faxed it to the great man’s office.
It begins with an image of people picking up “the dead, heavy / Weight of the ugly brutal past…” A quarter-century later, the urgency of Bila’s voice is still clearly audible. The poem ends:
“Have you ever wondered
As you scratch your skin
Searching for your uniqueness – your own self
That the triumphant crowd returns to ghettos?”
It is almost a reprimand. Read from another angle, however, it represents a necessary confrontation in an ongoing, inclusive conversation about power and transformation that would have been unthinkable a few years earlier.
Bila himself remains unwavering in his commitment to this conversation. Asked what celebrating Mandela Day means to him personally today, he says:
“This day demands for all of us to love our country and the world more by reversing violence and wars, fraud and corruption, growing illiteracy and underfunded education, fascism, climate change, health crises, rampant unemployment, racism, poverty, displacement, natural disasters and xenophobia. We can only be a better people when we realise that peace and justice are possible when we cultivate self-love, distribute resources equitably and cherish our common humanity beyond narrow ideological, ethnic and religious dogma. Mandela is a symbol of peace, sovereignty and reconciliation, so we must emulate these principles and build an egalitarian society.”
The work that was begun by Mandela and his peers remains unfinished. We are still working out its implications as we try to address poverty and inequality both in South Africa and in the world. Crucially, it is because of this work that poets like Bila can speak out and show us how much still needs to be done at a time when the stakes for social transformation are higher than ever. We may not see the completion of this work, but this does not mean that we can afford to abandon it.
In the next few days, write a poem about something in your immediate environment that requires urgent attention. It could be something in the public interest or the mending of a broken relationship. Explore which images come to the surface as you write about this formidable task.
The annual AVBOB Poetry Competition opens for submissions on 1 August 2025. Visit www.avbobpoetry.co.za today and familiarise yourself with the competition rules.
As South Africans prepare to celebrate Mandela Day on 18 July, it is important to consider the enormous sacrifices that have been made to create a new and inclusive society. Because of this, poets who would have been banned under a more repressive government can freely write, publish and speak truth to power today.
Vonani Bila is a poet, lecturer and publisher who has engaged deeply with what it means to interpret and carry out Mandela’s ongoing legacy. He has published four solo collections of poetry and eight collections of short stories in English and Xitsonga. He is a tireless supporter of marginalised voices, which he promotes through his imprint, Timbila Press. In April 2025, it published ‘Xilamulelamhangu’, a monumental English-Xitsonga dictionary that has already been called an important stride in the preservation of indigenous languages.
Once, at the end of the 1990s, Bila wrote an impassioned poem called ‘Mandela, Have You Ever Wondered?’ It was a direct challenge to the then President at a time when the government’s economic policy was being hotly debated at all levels of society. After finishing the poem, first published in his debut poetry collection No Free Sleeping (with Donald Parenzee and Alan Finlay, Botsotso, 1998), he faxed it to the great man’s office.
It begins with an image of people picking up “the dead, heavy / Weight of the ugly brutal past…” A quarter-century later, the urgency of Bila’s voice is still clearly audible. The poem ends:
“Have you ever wondered
As you scratch your skin
Searching for your uniqueness – your own self
That the triumphant crowd returns to ghettos?”
It is almost a reprimand. Read from another angle, however, it represents a necessary confrontation in an ongoing, inclusive conversation about power and transformation that would have been unthinkable a few years earlier.
Bila himself remains unwavering in his commitment to this conversation. Asked what celebrating Mandela Day means to him personally today, he says:
“This day demands for all of us to love our country and the world more by reversing violence and wars, fraud and corruption, growing illiteracy and underfunded education, fascism, climate change, health crises, rampant unemployment, racism, poverty, displacement, natural disasters and xenophobia. We can only be a better people when we realise that peace and justice are possible when we cultivate self-love, distribute resources equitably and cherish our common humanity beyond narrow ideological, ethnic and religious dogma. Mandela is a symbol of peace, sovereignty and reconciliation, so we must emulate these principles and build an egalitarian society.”
The work that was begun by Mandela and his peers remains unfinished. We are still working out its implications as we try to address poverty and inequality both in South Africa and in the world. Crucially, it is because of this work that poets like Bila can speak out and show us how much still needs to be done at a time when the stakes for social transformation are higher than ever. We may not see the completion of this work, but this does not mean that we can afford to abandon it.
In the next few days, write a poem about something in your immediate environment that requires urgent attention. It could be something in the public interest or the mending of a broken relationship. Explore which images come to the surface as you write about this formidable task.
The annual AVBOB Poetry Competition opens for submissions on 1 August 2025. Visit www.avbobpoetry.co.za today and familiarise yourself with the competition rules.
