I saw them running in the streets of Soweto
Crying for the freedom -
freedom of speech, good education, good services
which they were taught in Afrikaans that they don't want
They wanted to be taught in their mother language,
but the apartheid people refused.
The blood was all over Soweto
(that was the day Hector Peterson disappeared)
Their hero Nelson Mandela heard them cry,
and he said, "Don't worry; everything will be all right."
He spent 27 years in jail, just for us
He is the man among men
We are free today because of him
Every language is equal now, by law
We can sing and dance now,
show the world triumph over the humanity
He wrote the future
and we must not jeopardise it
-Noluyolo Zanendaba
evergreen words...
ReplyDeletewith compliments
go2010.net
Noluyolo: Your voice is powerful and your mind astute. The line about being taught in Afrikaans that they did not want freedom bespeaks a seizure of power that cuts off "their" humanity. It hurts my heart to think of the sense of invisibility that this created in so many people.
ReplyDeleteThat you could make me feel so deeply in just a few stanzas is a testament to your own power. Thank you for your inspirational truth telling.