Reparation Song
Dior -scented lady, breasts heaving Zulu beaded strings
in every colour,
hips swinging shweshwe sprouting two dozen Mandela heads
sings Nkosi Sikelele
in perfect pitch
because
she loves Africa,
Especially this South- Western tip
because
it reminds her of Europe
Such sparkling blue-green South of France views from her house:
Weltevrede in the Cape-Dutch style
inside, hanging incongruous, ritual masks bought from a Congolese refugee in Greenmarket Square. Or maybe he was Rwandan.
Doesn’t matter. She does good works.
Hands out used clothing and hot meals served with
a sad, sweet, apologetic smile reserved for
‘the less fortunate’
Ubuntu
Enough, she believes
to deserve absolution from the Original Sin of her
Father’s Father’s Father’s Father
the one who, flag-bearing, gun-brandishing, victorious
carved bloody border lines deep into the veins of the
warm throbbing earth.
Left a nation homeless,
so that his own
Children’s Children’s Children’s Children
would dwell in cream-coloured houses for three hundred years.
without apology , no recompense
for a legacy of blood and dust.
December 6th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
what is madam supposed to do? Die of shame? forget about the clothes and the anthem and concentrate on buying mercedes benzes?
December 6th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
she probably already has one. maybe more