M.M. Walters

M.M. Walters (1929-2020) was an Afrikaans teacher, poet and playwright

Biography

Born Mattys Michielse Walters on 23 January 1929 in Moorreesburg, where he initially also went to school. voltooi sy skoolloopbaan aan die Hoër Jongenskool op Wellington in die Western Cape. Thereafter he studied at the Hugenote Universiteitskollege in Wellington before continuing his studies with the correrspndence university Unisa and the University of Cape Town, where he completed an MA degree in 1972.

He began work as a teacher in 1950, inter alia teaching in Natal, Cape Town and Ladismith, before being appointed a lecturer of Afrikaans at the teachers' training college in Graaff-Reinet in 1960, followed by stints at the Paarlse Onderwyskollege (Paarl Teachers' training college, 1967-1971) and the University of Cape Town (1972 till his retirement).

After his retirement he settled in Simonston, where he passed away on 28 July, 2020. He was married and the couple had two children.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Walters began his literary career as a poet, his first collection, Cabala (), winning a number of national awards. However, a number of commentators have found his strongest contribution his theatrical works.

He started off by writing occasional pieces for specific festive occasions, beginning with Taalfees ("Language festival") , a piece in which two narrators relate the history and evolution of the Afrikaans language. Commissioned by the Paarlse Opleidingskollege in 1969 as a way of contributing to the building fund for the planned Afrikaanse Taalmonument ("Afrikaans Language Monument"), it was performed by college students in that year. This was followed by another occasional piece in 1970 (this one for the Paarl broach of the Afrikaanse Taal- en Kultuurbond, and was performed at the Language Festival Paarl that year. Die Wingerdstok sal Rank, another occasional piece, was performed at the 1972 Paarlse Taalfees in August and he text was pub;lished in 1975.

The year 1975 also saw Walters writing his first formal drama, Die Vroue van Kores (The women of Kores"), described as 'n spel oor die lot van mense ("a play about the fate of people") .