ABOUT THE COLLECTION

In the shadow of Israel’s genocide of the people of Gaza (almost all refugees from the ethnic cleansing perpetrated by Jewish settlers in 1948), this collection, drawn from poems written over several years and culminating in the fire of the current onslaught, captures the agony and suffering of a defenceless people attacked with high precision weapons and a propaganda machine dedicated to advancing US/NATO control over the ‘non-white’ world. By turns lyrical (in evoking the hopes and pain experienced by a civilian population) and satirical (in describing the monstrous criminality of Israeli leaders like Benjamin ‘Netanyaope’), Ntuli gives free rein to his intense empathy for victims of unending injustice and the horror of life in their concentration camp. This blend of tones is complemented by different structural devices involving dialogues, elegies and laments, and draws on a range of South African references which bring the subject matter close to home. It is a testimony to Ntuli’s creative powers that this single subject (solidarity with Palestine) does not lead to repetition or sentimentality. In this regard it is well worth quoting from his introduction:

They are huddled not just for warmth, but for remembrance. 

For a heartbeat that defies the drone, 

for a whisper that resists the thunder of missiles dressed as policy. 

They hold each other like broken stars trying to reform a constellation— 

not just of survival, but of spirit. 

These children, these mothers, these lovers under siege, are not statistics. 

They are Thina Sobabili entangled in one breath, bone of bone, prayer of prayer. 

They do not cry alone. 

Their tears trace ancient rivers from Gaza to Sharpeville, from Jenin to Boipatong. Their hope, however faint, is not foolish. 

It is the last wild seed buried in scorched soil still daring to bloom. 

We are them. They are us.

Another key aspect to this book is the plethora of reproductions of his eye-catching and profound sculptures. These images capture the delicacy and grossness of the human form as it struggles with raw emotion – the agony of the people of Palestine being crucified by an implacable enemy.

ABOUT THE POET

Pitika Ntuli is a renowned sculptor-poet whose work bridges the visceral weight of carved bone and stone and junkyard metal with the lyrical fire of resistance poetry. His sculptures are vessels of ancestral memory and political testimony, forged in exile, honed in the crucible of African spirituality. His poetry moves between elegy and incantation — a voice that mourns, mocks, remembers, and reclaims. Blending satire, lament, and prophetic rage, Ntuli’s verse is  both invocation and weapon: shaped by Ubuntu, sharpened by Sumud, and carried on the breath of Sunsum. He is the Boneblower of the Living Stone — where art becomes ritual, and every poem is a return.