Soweto Poems

Epitaph on Zenani

                         Here lies Zenani among the first rains.
                         May her spring, thoughts and hands enrich our brains.


                                                                                     June 15, 2010

(Zoleka Mandela's daughter, Zenani died at the age of 13, in a car accident in 2010. Zenani died two days after her birthday, in a car accident, while on her way home from the World Cup concert in Soweto.)

Thrill the Thriller

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 my back
What if I got some concerts 
Won't I keep oiling to avoid setback
And complimenting the overall efforts

Zero stress, keep calm
Let down the foes watching
To laugh steps long embalm
Tagged "SU dance" somehow gauche
Explode surprise into their mind bomb

Be at the top
Supply the tap
Fresh water behind 
Running ever nonstop 
Till standing ovation clap
And your fountain is enshrined

Rinse the pot
Set in each potato
At the reach of intense fire
Burning down chemical's dot
For all invited guests in-out Soweto
Before all to their dear houses retire

Happy birthday dear
Thrill the amusing thriller 
And watch the wonder with cheer
For all cool teases to become chiller
As you await nice experiences of coming year

CHEERS! ?? ??

South Africa

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 behave like the old one corruption
and shade dealings.
South Africa is practically a democratic one-party state.
Or was democracy and equality brought on too early?
It takes time.
What is there to say when people riot and burn down
the places where they buy their daily bread and have to walk for miles
to buy milk for their children, other than an act of despair.
 Big business is doing well, thank you.
But nothing has been done to alleviate the suffering of the poor.
The rainbow state has lost its lustre.
If you wonder why the poor ran amok was the jailing of Jacob Zuma
Despite his failings, he has an African heart, which the new elite, dipped in white culture, 
failed to see.
He is the chieftain dethroned and Africa bleeds.

S Africa

Africa
South Africa is a ramshackle state
When it got rid of apartheid the people
Of Soweto did get the spoil
But are poorer than before
The ANC is corrupt and sinking deeper into the mire
Of crime
The Zulus want a state of their own.
let us blame the successful Boers who feed the nation
take the acres of land and give it to those
who doesn’t know how to run this type of business?
For the rest of Africa too many minerals and oil
The big corporations want their arm warlords and the winner
Will get a percentage, and the poor land workers bear
The brunt of this wanton killings.
Someone has to speak up, there will not be another
Mandela soon, not for a long time.

Africa's Puberty

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 and broken.
Carrying heads of baskets
Filled with liquid counsel,
Speeding off on the fast lane
On the high way to remorse,
Surely to crash home
On the streets of Accra Ghana
Or the ghettos of old town Bamenda
Like those of downtown Soweto
As teenage mothers
Or as daughters of prophets
With gowns and scarfs 
Over their scars.
Palms raised in supplication
For husbands of any sort
For whom they know
They will never bear kids.

A Place Called Home

Born and raised in the streets of Soweto 
Ndofaya, kasi lama kasi is what i call it 
Grew up in search for gold 
all i found was coal 
A shack for a house but it was home
The streets made you wise 
the hustle put food on the table
Growth was far from reach  
wisdom was key 
knowledge guaranteed a future
If only i learned to combine the two 
i would have found gold

Mash Rams

Madiba

"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, fielding stick
Madiba, the Great artist, thou painted red the entire earthly town
Effortlessly you curtailed the beast, how effortless is your skill!
Diamonds appeareth me in flames, wildflowers in dinner gowns
Human race you served, and empty African baskets you did fill
Goodwill you preached, you make the rest look like clowns
The sun and stars smile  admirably to this piece! Oh how slick
95 long fruitful moments, bewildering all from North to South
Black Moses, thou granted the African race it's holy seal
From the suburbs of Soweto to the South of Pretoria
All and sundry join the angels as we sing "The Gloria

Blood of Our Youth

The Blood of Youth 

16 June
sad tune
visible blood
visible flood
our beloved were killed
we need to be healed
an oppression
discrimination
the Soweto uprising
the Soweto protesting
so sad
so bad
when pain was against students
when tears were on their parents
many students died
indeed parents cried
so sad
so bad
things were very horrible
all was really so terrible
June 16
hear our cry
lest we die
because of apartheid
lack of help, lack of aid
students died
parents cried.

Drencho POET Loads.

Anc and Joe Slovo

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 crime-ridden by now.
But the ANC cannot rule forever, and it is fossilised
And has of lately written history that leaves out many.
Indian and white people who helped to end apartheid 
Are being pushed aside like it was only a black affair.
Do you remember Joe Slovo and fought for a free Africa
For forty years, ah, but, he was white and a Jew, he gave
All he had for the cause, but now slowly like many Indians
Are pushed into the background.
I think the leadership ANC have been corrupted it will sink
To the level of Zimbabwe, they broke their promise to help
Soweto, but it is still there, Joe Slovo is no more.

I see it is difficult to get American readers to take an interest in
something that is not about the USA and sugar-coated love stories
"house on the Prairie stuff"

Anc and Joe Slovo

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 crime-ridden by now.
But the ANC cannot rule forever, and it is fossilised
And has of lately written history that leaves out many.
Indian and white people who helped to end apartheid 
Are being pushed aside like it was only a black affair.
Do you remember Joe Slovo and fought for a free Africa
For forty years, ah, but, he was white and a Jew, he gave
All he had for the cause, but now slowly like many Indians
Are pushed into the background.
I think the leadership ANC have been corrupted it will sink
To the level of Zimbabwe, they broke their promise to help
Soweto, but it is still there, Joe Slovo is no more.

Couplet

Storm rages brimestones   from ages to ages.
    The earth quakes from its foundation,flakes of hell erupts from the depths beneath.
   Seed of discord blossom
  In the very cord of the society as nightfalls in    soweto  forestalls the dawning of a new era.  
Blaming mankind's curiosity or nature's complexity.



This is my first attempt on couplet,critics are welcome to air their minds.

Africa Unite

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 countries 
Beyond the Mediterranean 
Let us go monitor 
Their elections and 
Determine who wins or just 
Declare rebels the rightful 
Leaders of a country. 
Let us go buy some humans 
From across the Atlantic, 
Chain them and make them 
Work on our plantations. 
If not, let’s go buy land in the isles 
Start up banks in that land 
And make the Afro world currency 
Let us hold 
Charity walks for sick 
Hollywood stars 
Along the streets of New York 
Also rear goats as Pets 
And hold tomato fights at Buckingham palace.

The Rain-Bow Nation

Hey!
are 
you 
a 
Zulu? 
Am 
a 
Bushman...no 
you 
are 
a 
Bantu,a 
Bantu 
or 
Hottentots? 
Maybe 
an 
Afrikaner.                          
I 
came 
from 
the 
Cape 
Colony...not 
from 
Soweto 
where"balck 
animals"are 
Dwelling, 
pathetic 
Creatures 
formed 
by 
the 
Hands 
of 
Hades.
Beast 
of 
burden 
for 
the 
Afrikaner.
Bound 
with 
fetters 
and 
Chains,it 
ploughs 
the 
Field,cultivates 
and 
plants 
The 
seed 
of 
sedition..alas!
These 
beasts 
un-
wind 
their 
yokes;to 
be 
human.
Can 
a 
leopard 
change 
its 
Spots?
Yes 
these 
animals
Prophesied.
Lo!
what 
do 
I 
now 
see?
No 
Beast 
of 
burden 
to 
till 
our 
Land 
rather 
they 
dwell 
Among 
us.
Alas! 
their 
prophecy 
lives!

African Chil

African Child
Today i hear and heard the cry oh! that
I'm one;
For the Pain of the past Flashes the 
SOWETO.

Though and not of the pain
But the cry tells for sentiment
these day it is remembered
And the road is not diverged.

Take hold of the Child,And
though i'm a child;
Happy today 'cos its the day of
Plenty laughter.

Tow are not a Child
But the one when called to
Grow;
African Child is all of the time,and not
Some of the time,the Fiction of
Socials.


                                                                 16/06/2004(1:30am)

The Violent Street

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 limbs
Started treading on our brothers
Like the grass.

Since that very morning
The cool street mourning
Turned violent:

No sound sleep
No sound wake
No sound movement
On this side of Soweto
All day long!

No sound thinking
No sound speech
No sound action
On this side of Soweto
All day long!

No sound instruction
No sound association
No sound living
On this side of Soweto
All day long!

Life becomes death
Death is living
Where they bear spectre
This new specie of elephants.

• Short Soweto Poems
• Famous Soweto Poems
• Best Soweto Poems
• Read Soweto Poems
• Long Soweto Poems
• Soweto Quotes