Tell freedom is a product of academic fictional biography that biographically tells us in details the nooks and crannies of peter Abrahams, the society he came from, his ideological perspective and dimension of socio power in south Africa. Biographically we (readers) get to understand through his fictionalized text his place of birth, family background and order of the day.

March 19 1919 according to his memoir and fictional novel gives the date of his birth and place of his birth as Vrededorp an outskirt in south Africa . Lee as the fictional name used at the initial part of the novel has a black African father who hails from Ethiopia and mixed French African mother who hails from east Indies strain of colored community . Though his family background makes Peter a mullato which are the ‘colored’ according to racial division in south Africa and as confirmed in his biography.

Lee as he is referred to in the text takes us on a biographical journey on how childhood is like in a remote area under a country with racial imprint, apartheid, de mechanization of human being and disregards of the blacks. We get to understand him ( Peter Abraham) biographically when his dad dies, Peter is at his prime age (five ) who finds it difficult to dwell in life, through his text we are taken through the measures of hardship he faces in meeting his needs which is practically sketch out in his fictional work.

First encounter of being psychologically wounded with act of racism is at Elsburg when his identity gets stained by a young white folk who abuses his father as a dirty black baboons .
“ A clear young voice carried to us
Your fathers are dirty black baboons ‘’… Pg. 31
Biographically at age 11 , he makes his way into Grace Dieu Diocesan college where he learns how to identify words , read and write. After two years he leaves the school to Saint Peter burg's secondary school .

At St. Peter’s burg in Johannesburg, he expands his commitment the more in writing about stinky reactions of white towards the colored in poems, articles and journal. At the Bantu's club where he works to pay his school fee, one gets to know from there in the text how he becomes engrossed with literary African history in the library which later triggers him into fashioning a voice for his people. In 1983 a British newspaper featured one of his article calling him “colored poet” and as exemplified in the text, though most of his works were rejected at a time and he is being denied of employment into journalism basically because of his color.

 His fictional work shades more light on the struggles he had in having a voice for his people, his attempt in joining the communist group which is a stretch of breakthrough with the Marxist group.  

     We tendaaa to know more information about the plight he has pertaining to traveling out in both his fictional work and his biography measures he takes in 1939 by taking a job at a marine ship, he seize the opportunity and never return to South Africa for a while . 

  Abrahams historical background opens our eyes  to why he chooses racism, alienation, exploitation of blacks as his commitment in writing, it is not for many reasons but for the manner, condition and language used by the white to describe  his race . 

©Adebisi Emmanuel ADEGOKE, 2022