From: hornpete@uctvax.uct.ac.za (Peter Horn)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.poems
Subject: Ryder Nkanunu (poems)
Date: 14 Oct 92 09:57:27 GMT
Article-I.D.: uctvax.1992Oct14.075727.203100
Organization: University of Cape Town


WHERE'S SOUTH AFRICA  
--------------------
 
From the Robben island  
From the robbers hands  
Here I am from the Robben Island  
to the Robbed land  
Yet I hoped to be free  
I see the chains of my truth  
 still arround my hands  
 
The mountains are marching with the stars  
 on their shoulders  
Hearts like drums are beating  
 Yet I am eating the beetroot, you can  
 see arround my mouth  
I'm walking on the tomato juice  
This is my daily bread  
These are the daily headlines , they are longing for  
 
They killed me  
They have drunk my tomato juice from my body  
Their dogs under the table picking my bones  
Yes the mountains are moving with mist  
on their shoulders  
They count the years by the multiplication of the money in the banks  
My expectations and that of my children  
 are to be paupers  
To my wife I'm not a man to believe in  
To my children not a parent to protect them  
Shu! yet my back is a hump with scars of meekness  
 Oh! come South Africa, quench my thirst 
 
       RYDER SIMION S NKANUNU 

Am I a Rat 
----------
 
Living in the back-yard of my boss  
Watching the television  
Watching toyi-toyi dancers 
Shouting and their fists lifted 
Oh! my boss switched it off  
 
Living at the back-yard of my boss  
I felt like a goat among the sheep  
When I see my brothers and sisters  
 in Khayelitsha living like rats  
 and flies  
Ye! the life of sorrows  
 
Living in the back-yard of my boss  
 No at Sea point houses 
I trembled  
Till I fell down  
When I hear the stentorian sound from the air   
That our Comrades's life floated away  
 with the wind of time  
  
When they see me they say Comrade 
But living at the back-yard of my boss  
  No at Sea point houses  
I told my boss of the bugs  
 sucking my blood from my heart  
He bought me baygon green to flirt them  
 
Living at the back-yard of my boss  
 No at Sea point houses  
I felt lonely  
Music became discordant  
When I see the bundles of African flowers 
 in Ciskei sleeping eternaly 
He arrived and took me to the famous hotels 
   When I told him of my tribulation within  
    my heart  
He told me not to worry about the problems 
 tommorrow will be all right  
While from the news from the start to the end  
 I hear the ruin   
Oh ! now am I not like a boss when I visit  
 the black townships  
 
 RYDER SIMION S NKANUNU 

LITTLE CHILD 
------------
 
From you  
From your eyes I see the mirror 
You the history of South Africa  
You early in the morning  
bare-footed  
With grey face like the ash  
With cracks in your feet  
 
In the classroom I heard you singing like  
 a morning bird  
Your uniform is torn  
Torn by the thorns of misery  
You in the midnight coldness  
 like the snow-ice in winter  
Trembling like a guitar string  
 in motion  
You little child  
You black like the depth of Africa  
 
  RYDER SIMION S NKANUNU 

The years and times  
-------------------
 
Some say to be black is a misfortune 
For thousand times we have been  
  licking our wounds  
For many years we have been singing  
  syncopated tunes  
 
The years before  
When the time of slavery was not on its cover  
When slaves were called slaves  
When the whip was charging a man  
When the black Africans were the oxen 
 in America 
Memories still in my head  
When you were on sale African child 
 Yet even the dogs have never liked  being an African child, 

 
Baby I hear your voice  
 you crying  
That now you are an orphan 
Bare footed  
 with no place to hide  
 in Africa 
But I say don't cry  
Perhaps the dream of the future  
 will come through 
The new South Africa  
Some other day we will come from the mountain  
 and the bushes  
to sing and be joyful 
 
RYDER SIMION S NKANUNU  
-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted by Peter Horn 
German Department, UCT 
43 Trevor Road, Lansdowne 7764, Cape, Republic of  South Africa . 
Phone Home ZA-(021)696-1983		e-Mail: HORNPETE@UCTVAX.UCT.AC.ZA 
      Work ZA-(021)650-2936		Fax ZA-(021) 650-3726 
----------------------------------------------------------------------