South African poetry is best known for his "Unto Dust" and "In the Withaak's Shade", capturing a portrait of Afrikaner storytelling skills and social attitudes. Bosman also wrote poetry, with a predominantly satirical tone. Alan Paton’s world-renowned and highly poetic novel "Cry, The Beloved Country", came into publication, just four months after the separatist National Party came to power in South Africa. Although Paton was most prolific in other literary genre, poetry was a form that interested him throughout his life, as documented in Peter Alexander's biography of him. Some of the best known poets of this violently oppressive and politically turbulent period
Cry, the Beloved Country by Charles Carson, and Msimangu by Sidney Poitier. In 1983, a historic stage adaptation was performed by the Capital Players theatre group at the Moth Hall in Gaborone, Botswana. The country was at that time one of the leading "frontline states" to apartheid South Africa and a centre for artistic activity that often stood in quiet opposition to the racist regime just across the border. The premiere was attended by Paton himself, who had travelled from Natal, as well as Botswana's then-President Quett Masire (with political acumen, the director had arranged for the first performance to take place on the