Long Soweto Poems

Identity Apples

iam a fat skeleton, resurrecting 
from the sad memories of dada 
and dark mysteries of aminism 
iam buganda 
i bleed hope 
i drip the honey of fortune 
makerere, think tank of africa 
i dance...

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MY HERO
This is a brand new truth so give me focus attention, 
in spite of all I've been through life keep challenging me, 
just realizing am on a sinking ship, 
following folks in friendship hoping...

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[This is an advanced version of a poem
that I wrote on the 5th of February 
2008,
titled "The 15th of June" in
commemoration to my late 
Grandmother,
Jane Mvula]
_______An Ode To My Grand(Mother)__ 
______
15 June 1918, was when...

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(special thanks to a friend who shared this tribute to Solomon Mahlangu)



Solomon Mahlangu: My Blood will Nourish the Tree that will Bear the Fruits of Freedom:



Solomon Mahlangu was trained as an MK soldier with a...

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Inspired by Youth Day, a drive through Soweto combined with Phil Collins music. 

Listen to their voices 
(Youth Day)
By Michelle Morris 
17/06/2024

Driving through Soweto
Seeing the makeshift stalls
People hustling to survive 
Part of their daily grind...

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Used to be a happy go around…later shrouded in frowns…?
For many a birth places…what are the shades of their faces…?
A log of many a cases…where are the words of their paces…
Memories of a ghetto…not in...

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A Comrade like Ben

A statesman like Mandela diplomatically
suspended the necessary struggle of opposites,
gummed his fragmented land together with reconciliation….
exploiters to exploited , murderers to martyrs
imperialist to invisibled indigenes  
lives in Sandton and councils Bill...

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Children of Xenophobia

Children eating bullets and firecrackers 
Beggars of smile and laughter 
Silent corpses sleeping away fertile dreams 
Povo* chanting new nude wretched slogans 
Overstayed exiles eating beetroot and African potato 
Abortions and condoms batteries...

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Hey blokes…do you really know what life is…?
Like living in the ghetto…any memories of Soweto…?
Maybe you can’t…make me a chant…
Yes…I know…because I grow…
In the streets…where my feet…
Would meet…the dead…and the underfed…
Where food variety was scarcity…like...

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P.O.E.m 2013

I.
---

Pretoria isn't far from Soweto yet
Earth's curve still hid each from the other
As blind eyes denied the other's pride
Colored only, European only - apartheid
Eradicated, chance for understanding

Only blood and bombs could determine
Negro and white...

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Goodbye, Grand Warrior of Mveso
Of Qunu, of Transkei, of Soweto
Grand Warrior of Rivonia and Robben Island
Goodbye, Grand Warrior of Azania, of Africa
Fare thee well, beloved icon of the World
Fare thee well, resilient Madiba

I speak not...

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Aluta continua
Was that word another message replaced
And the room spun dark as web
The tree no longer walks the night
The bush is silent on the veld
Madiba has passed the lion sleeping
Has left the fruit falling
Has left...

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How long shall we try to convince her to see the truth?
How long would she pretend, when the truth sits in-between her breast cursed?
Deception and lies she fed her children but she hypocritically crave for...

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the rainbow is out now, 
I saw it this morning on my way to school

the rainbow our heroes of old died fighting for
            ...

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Ebony drunk  and burnt rubber   sienna swerving,
I crossed the white line ...
And tragically,
with emotional intensity,
word vehicular hit a vanilla-colored human being

My coal senses were belly dulled 
by the intoxicating,   sepia...

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ANC and Joe Slovo  

ANC took on the white -run system and won, we hoped 
for a new free country an apartheid- free land
The “Rainbow Nation sprung to life reconciliation, dancing
in the streets, which...

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South Africa

 The rainbow paled in South Africa
the end of apartheid has ended, freedom for all.
Not quite, the poor in Soweto are getting poorer.
The difference it now consists of white poor as well.
The new leadership...

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Let me play you violin 
I hope you will dance 
Don't mind how to begin
Till you loose all steps into trance 
And wonder if you've been therein

I don't mind if it hurts 
My fingers and...

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"Madiba"
The currents keep up sparking up and down
Such elegance, your life had more scenes than an epic flick
Defined humanity you did, even in death you deserve a crown
Singlehandedly you kept the white fleas a bay,...

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ANC and Joe Slovo  

ANC took on the white-run system and won, we hoped 
for a new free country an apartheid-free land
The “Rainbow Nation sprung to life reconciliation, dancing
in the streets, which have become...

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Scrubbed white like clothes on a river stone
I search for words to write your name
Lathered of vowels
Bleached of syntax
Sanitized by the drenching light of the sun
All I have left is a glossary of feelings
Words without...

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Our brothers
Were treading their cool streets
Without anxiety
All day long.

Then while they slept
The noise like those of giants 
Woke them suddenly

Immediately
To the street
They rushed
And watching they saw the elephants

But sadly this new specie of elephants
With rude...

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Hey!
are 
you 
a 
Zulu? 
Am 
a 
Bushman...no 
you 
are 
a 
Bantu,a 
Bantu 
or 
Hottentots? 
Maybe 
an 
Afrikaner.                  ...

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From the “jungles” of Soweto 
To the “lakes” of Kalahari 
Come! 
Let us adopt grey children 
Call them Mogadishu or Benghazi. 
Donate your second hand underwear 
To the west 
Stand up! Let’s go 
Attack undemocratic...

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AFRICA’S PUBERTY
When puberty sets in,
The wind feels good on
A little leg and thigh,
Some belly button
And budding bottom.
Tattooed dames,
Sexily renamed
From Elizabeth 
And Isabelle,
To Lizzy 
And Bella,
Storm into the world;
Boobs growing as fast as hearts
To be squeezed...

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