Writing

The Writer

David Forbes has been writing since childhood: poetry, news reporting, film scripts, training courses, film proposals, researched papers, blogs, and in-depth feature stories. Below are some of the shorter ones.

His debut feature documentary script, "The Cradock Four" was nominated for a Muse Award in 2014 for "Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Writing".

He has compiled a history of global documentary filmmaking, SA documentary filmmaking, and has written papers for the United Nations and Russian Academy of Arts on archives and Africa's political economy.

The news publications he has worked for include: City Press, the Sunday Times, Daily Maverick, Maverick 168, TimesLive, Rand Daily Mail, Eastern Province Herald, Daily Dispatch, Sydney Morning Herald's Investor, The Star, the Sunday Express, Business Day, Mail & Guardian, and the Australian Financial Review.

He has wide experience in layout and design, is a fast and accurate sub-editor, and can work to very tight deadlines.

David continues to write prolifically.

Elegy for Goree*

This pain:

The silence aches with it,

Uncomprehendingly.


The Ocean restlessly repeats it,

Ancient rhythm laps upon this shore.

Our souls weep in silent solitude.

Thousands upon thousands, fearful in a

Terrible procession to the gates of Hell itself,

Slaves all, desolation beyond.


How did we get to this place,

of interminable grief,

Of sorrow that has no end?


The horror of our souls is an

Eternal wound we cannot bind up;

No god can undo man's cruelty.

No love can heal this silent, prescient memory.


– Goree Island, Senegal, April 2006.

*Goree Island has one of the most notorious old slave forts


Stories & Headers

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