Súgán Sneachta

Publication Instance Details #2428

Publication Overview

Translation	Is Multilingual	Explicit Irish Context?	Ekphrasis	Has Paratext?	Reference to News, Media or Technology
No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes

Details

Human Rights Issues	HR & Colonisation/Colonial Legacies Death Penalty/Unlawful Detention/Incarceration Racism/anti-Semitism/Sectarianism State Violence
Languages	Irish
Genre	Short Lyric
Medium	Print Collection
Paratext Text	Ar bhás Benjamin Moloise, file gorm, a crochadh i bPretoria, 18/10/'85
Notes	The poem laments the death of poet Benjamin Moloise, who was killed by the South African state for the alleged murder of a policeman. The ANC claimed responsibility for the deaths, yet Moloise was still executed, despite international pleas for clemency. On his execution worldwide protests broke out. This poem describes Moloise's understanding and writings about racism and oppression from the South African State. There are interactions between 'Seanmhogha' (old slave) and 'Macalla' (Echo) in the poem - for instance, 'seanmhogha' asks about freedom, while 'Macalla' states that freedom is only for the whites. Is this an internal dialogue in Moloise's head? There is also an interesting metaphor of the 'cinema of the blind', in which reels of Moloise's life are played repeatedly by the 'projector of life'. At the end of the poem, the projector appears to break, and the 'reports' of Moloise's death are heard over the film reels.