On death row: giving voice to apartheid's forgotten prisoners

During apartheid, the South African government judicially executed more than 140 men for overtly political crimes. These 140-plus men are a forgotten part of South African history and very little research has considered these cases. This chapter seeks to address this shortcoming and give a voice to the executed by looking at their writings while on death row.

The chapter is based mainly on primary research. This research consists of first-hand interviews with parents and siblings of the executed, and with judicial officials including judges, prosecutors and defence attorneys. I have also conducted interviews with warders who accompanied prisoners on the way to the gallows, as well as former death row prisoners. These interviews will provide the context for a look at the files that the Department of Correctional Services kept of all condemned prisoners. I have had access to these files and found letters that the prisoners wrote but that were never sent, and letters sent to them but not handed over.

The chapter will be framed within the existing literature and research about the genre of prison writing, focusing mainly, but not exclusively, on the writing of death row prisoners.