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DUT Drama and Production Studies Department Pays Tribute To Madiba

DUT Drama and Production Studies Department Pays Tribute To Madiba

In mourning the death of revered former statesman, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, the DUT Department of Drama and Production Studies offers Genbia Hyla’s poem Madiba as a tribute.

“Our humblest and deepest condolences to the Mandela family,” said Professor Debbie Lutge HoD of the Department.

Madiba
By
Genbia Hyla

President,
Oh my president,
What will become of the blood-knot you tied?
Iconic colossus of Qunu,
Legend of the ages,
Whose umbilical cord ties me to the village and the village to me,
A new journey has begun,
But we behind,
Tread softly in great footsteps lest we fall prey to a denied history,
Where oppression rears like horses drawn and quartered.
We raise our fists in final cries:
“Amandla!”
“Awetu!”
Black arm bands at the ready and flags half mast
In honour of your passage to the centre of justice,
Oh, Soul of Ubuntu,
All things to all people
Dyed red,
In Qunu’s clay
Like a molded statue tall and slim and dignified,
More than a man,
Bleeding slowly
For a nation
Trying to live up to your expectations
Haloed in the diadem of your past –
Herd boy to freedom fighter,
Dissident to hero,
Prisoner to president,
Son of Africa to Tata,
In all –
Endurance was a hard road walked over twenty seven times –
To achieve
Flawlessly an application for democracy.
I hold my begging bowl before my face and wipe the mieliemeal from my smile
For in your memory I am found and reclaimed
My orphanage recovered
By the elephantine ear of a continent
That reaffirms my birth
As the white, black, mixed blood red soil de soleil,
Daughter of Africa
That I call home,
Because you Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela lie within the bosom of a politic nation,
Embodying in the polis, a centrifugal compass point
That makes the dot on the map of humanity my home.

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