…and Madiba wept (A poetry against xenophobia)

No amount of sweet words can quench
The fury and rage that has consumed your souls
No peace talks and promise savoured in myrrh
Can restore your emotions gone astray

For deep down within, in the place where beings are formed
The stiletto of hatred has struck an ill-starred chord
And an obscene eulogy of deaths is heralded on your streets
Cold blood, cold face, cold hearts!

But wait…!

The cries of your warm hearts are tenable
But your ways are near irreparable
Like it rained fishes in Thailand, you wished same for Durban
You are hungry, naked and homeless
In the country of your birth, in the land you fought to keep

I hear your wailings thundered the earth with tremor
Your unspoken gait shakes the human in me
I feel your pain because I was there
I took the bullet for that freedom
The same freedom you trample on your streets

Remember the struggles that freed your limbs
The clamour that rented your soul
And the love that restored your pride
From your kindreds, near and afar; Black and Timbuktu
As they chanted: 'Apartheid is a crime against humanity'

And why...?

Why have you allowed, the bond that binds to bleed
Why have you allowed, the brotherliness that builds to bother
Why have you allowed, the chord that cares to cry
Why have you allowed, yourself a pant after blood

So stop…!

Cease the blood, stop the spill
At the set of the beautiful African sun
Talk to your brothers, the sons of your mother
Call your elders, dialogue under the Baobab
A peaceful and prosperous co-existence is never a myth
The strength of the broom lies in the unity of its strands

And remember…!

The brother you disown today, was your hero at war yesterday
The brother you crush today, is the pillar for the wall of tomorrow
You travel a mile when you go alone
But your go farthest when you go TOGETHER…

Together...as citizens, sons and daughters of a father and a mother
So united our boundaries disappear with alacrity
In the face of love that binds like the umbilical
The same chord that make Africa a Mama

From whose breast the world craves nourishment
And that is the Africa I fought and lived for…
That is the South Africa I bequeathed to you…
Yet, you make my heart ache because the possibilities
Of a united Africa, your little mind is yet to comprehend

(C) Kojo Williams 2015
Reach him via: [email protected]