Mating Birds is a fine poetical writing that narrates on one of the many crimes of apartheid. To start with, the writer's dedication melted my heart:
For my grandmother, Esther Makatini, who washed white people's clothes so that I could learn to write
In form of a diary, a black man on death row for allegedly raping a white woman during apartheid narrates his ordeal. Like a showcase, he is displayed to anyone who wants to know more about him. Most especially, to know what demons impulsed him to even dare think of a sexual experience with a woman of a "superior race". That is how he drew the attention of Dr. Emile Dufré, a Swiss-German doctor that flew all the way from Europe to inquire about what in his back-ground might have triggered such "reaction". Hence, began his need to keep a diary.
The saddest part of the story is
The saddest part of the story is
