Alfred Themba Qabula (1942–2002) was a poet, writer and trade unionist in Durban, South Africa in the 1980s.
Qabula is best known as a "worker-poet" who managed the adaptation of traditional Zulu poetic forms to the gritty themes of daily life.
[1] Qabula moved to the gold-mining town of Carletonville and entered the construction trade, living a meager existence in the hostels and compounds of the area.
[1] From 1985 through 1988, Qabula was forced into hiding due to his outspoken support of the United Democratic Front, an organization which fought the continuation of the apartheid system in South Africa.
As he also discovered that his talents as an oral person were lost in the winds of change, these disturbing poems preceded his self-imposed exile.