WINNIE MADIKIZELA-MANDELA – MOTHER OF AFRICA

Sweet songs often tell stories of sorrow,
Of love lost, of trials, of Golgotha, of tyranny’s arrow;
In clime clement and kind every hand is valuable,
But it’s tempest that nominates the invaluable.

As Nile’s turgid waters let history’s tenor overflow its banks
For those mothers – of which Winnie is first – that guided our steps
Thro’ the slippery stairs of Mount Oppression
Until we stood on the rooftop of liberation.

Of the goddesses of thunder and lightning
I know but one that never ceased its flaming lightning
Until Apartheid’s boom and doom, bloom and gloom
Released from their lethal jaws a great dream.

From Cape to Cairo her gutsy womb bore justice –
Her trumpet rose high against Jericho;
And in all cities, townships and hamlets
She wore and bore the Amazon’s sword and salvo.

Being of red petals and thorny stem
She still treads on calm waters and storm –
Gauges a due cup to every oesophagus –
And for freedom’s sake travels the deep and the space.

Nomzamo, and she has trials seen – the vigilant tongue of this age!
You who awoke this age to rage against a canine cage –
Castrated with scalpel the fertility of supremacy,
And set loose fresh waters of humanity.

O still steely stainless sword! You slew the restless slumber
That crowned obeisance our perennial ruler;
Africa – let’s slay ingratitude holding hostage our age,
And chant this Africa’s mother’s courage – able in every age.

Chidozie Ejimadu (Nigeria) 
For more of this beautiful poetry email: ejidozie@gmail.com

The Eagle flies...

Its time is nigh, the curtain call is due,
Flapping its mighty and colourful wings,
rising swiftly to the occasion, it is summoned.
The eagle flies.
Free from the snares of its catcher.

On its head a halo,
a crown not of this world,
illuminating its path,
It flutters and flees
into the wispy and dreamy clouds.
Surging through winding swirls of air,
in its tough talons;
dangling a string that once was...

Seraphims and Cherubims sing in heaven,
singing the song you and I heard in yesteryear.
They await the arrival of one of their kind,
The eagle flies, serenity it will find...

By Alex Nyasha Dube (Zimbabwe)

The Comedy In Africa

You say Africa must “stand –up” but we’re already into comedy, Conglomerates laughing to the banks while we suffer horribly, The police are corrupt like a floppy disc with bad sectors, A sitcom indeed, who are the main actors, At first they preach “elect us, elect us,” Win seats then turn around and neglect us, Long speeches about unity can never connect us, Nepotism on the ground will continue to break-us, Un-manifested manifestos just a lying prospectus, Get victimized by the people who’re meant to protect us, Now NGO’s are in schools distributing protectors, I also curse machinations and foreign detractors, We can make our own decisions they gotta respect-us, It takes courage to write a poem with these critical factors, In a continent where bullets catch you saying these matters, They will send me to sleep on a beautiful mattress, Because I questioned why they’re are spending so reckless, Because my salary is worth half their mistresses necklace, Just give me what I need then maybe I’d nag-less, Then maybe we’d be cool and there wouldn't be burglars, You don’t live where I live, you have nannies and butlers, I only free my mind through these lyrical battles, My mind has to speak, before it calms and settles, But this really is a comedy, I started to chuckle.

By Michael Mupotaringa (Zimbabwe)

More of his work visit- http://www.mcpotar.com/poetry