Les Lester's Chronicle, Message Board

Les Lester's Chronicle, Message Board
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Let's Say a Prayer for Johannesburg

Posted by Maestro on 6/30/2026, 8:07 pm

Polish poetry comes to South Africa, and it's used to protest the horrors of xenophobia.

A wall in Johannesburg (below) quotes a line from the poem "Report From a Besieged City" by Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert.

"a rat became the unit of currency" describes the grim realities of a city under siege, highlighting how abstract concepts like money and wealth lose all meaning when society collapses and people are just struggling to survive.

May the scoundrels pitting the working class of South Africa against each other one day soon rot in hell.

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Re: Let's Say a Prayer for Johannesburg

Posted by theone on 7/1/2026, 2:34 pm, in reply to "Let's Say a Prayer for Johannesburg"

Apparently despite the country's liberation from apartheid, the historical legacy of division, violence, and economic disparity continues to fuel these tensions.

In the photo below you will see Congolese nationals(immigrants) who have been sleeping in the cold South African winter outside the police department in Durban because they feared for their lives due to xenophobic violence.

They are not undocumented migrants. Many say they possess valid documentation but fear for their lives because, according to them, the anti-immigration campaign is not distinguishing between those who are legally in the country and those who are not.

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