Railway Poetry

The Railway Magazine was a journal produced by South African Railways for its employees. Amongst a range of topics it also contained poems written by workers and management, mostly on subjects related to the railways such as work, trains and travel. This volume is a selection of poems from the journal, written in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and it presents a fascinating insight into the lives and ideas of ordinary railway workers from that period. Railway Poetry was conceived as a motivational tool for employees of Spoornet during this period of transformation, but is likely to find a much larger audience, especially amongst railway enthusiasts. Zolani Mkiva became South Africa's best-known praise poet after performing at Nelson Mandela's inauguration in 1994. Since than he has performed at many international functions, including the World Council of Churches in Harare (1998) and the OAU Special Summit in Libya (1999). He is currently Spoornet Communication Specialist. He hopes to follow up this selection - which includes one of his own poems, written for the Renaming of the Paul Kruger building - with another, based on the oral railway poetry and songs of black railway workers.