She had written the poem following a visit to the Philippi police station to see the body of a child who had been shot dead in his mother’s arms by the police in the township of Nyanga in Cape Town. This is shown at the end of the third stanza on the fourth and fifth line:
"Nor at the police station in Philippi
where he lies with a bullet in his head"
It happened in the aftermath of the massacre of 69 people in Sharpeville, south of Johannesburg, in March 1960. They were marching to the police station to protest against having to carry passbooks. This location of Sharpeville is featured in the poem as well on the third stanza on the third line:
"Nor at Orlando nor at Sharpeville".
Writing in Drum magazine about the poem, Jonker said: “I saw the mother as every mother in the world. I saw her as myself. I saw Simone [Jonker’s own child] as the baby. I could not sleep. I thought of what the child might have been had he been allowed to live. I thought what could be reached, what could gained by death? The child wanted no part in the circumstances in which our country is grasped… He only wanted to play in the sun at Nyanga… [The poem] grew out of my sense of bereavement.”
Hope this helps.
