Safely Isolated Society

Behind barbed-wire fences Of security-estate isolation The rich and the poor Divided the nation The lines were drawn The cartoons were sketched As luxurious green lawns In shantytowns far-fetched As the echoes of jazz From Sophiatown Faded razzmatazz As we descended down Where Rabbi and Imam, too Tipped their hat in greeting The moments of Ubuntu Was there but so fleeting A moment forgotten As District Six was razed Then rain mud sodden As cattle anxiously grazed How we danced and sang How we felt the heartbeat of Africa Drums beat and trumpets sang Down, going down in Africa The past echoes in our tears As the soul was ripped from our ears The beats fade as we stare At our barbed wire, our living snare Here we sit, in safety, in silence Whilst we believe, we believe That outside the world is rubble, violence Ah, we were deceived, as we deceive