13 Facts About Don Mattera

Donato Francisco Mattera, better known as Don Mattera, was a South African poet and author.

Don Mattera's grandfather, Paolo Don Mattera, was an Italian immigrant who married a Xhosa woman from the eastern Cape.

Under the apartheid system, Don Mattera was classified as a "Coloured".

Don Mattera was proud of his heritage and considered himself to be Italian.

Don Mattera was adopted by his grandparents and sent to a Catholic boarding school in Durban.

Don Mattera returned to Johannesburg when he was 14 and then continued his education in Pageview, another suburb that suffered under apartheid when the residents were again forcibly removed during the 1960s.

Don Mattera was detained, his house was raided, and he was tortured more than once.

Don Mattera helped form the Union of Black Journalists as well as the Congress of South African Writers.

Don Mattera joined the National Forum, which was against what it referred to as the "racial exclusivity" of the United Democratic Front.

Don Mattera then worked as a journalist on The Sunday Times, The Sowetan, and the Weekly Mail.

Don Mattera was a director of the black consciousness publishing imprint Skotaville.

Don Mattera, who converted to the Muslim faith in the 1970s, was deeply involved in the community, with a special interest in young people and the rehabilitation of ex-prisoners.

Don Mattera died at his home at Protea Glen, Soweto, on 18 July 2022.