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South Scorchy Sun in Africa

by Nwokoye Emmanuel Maduabuchi

 

You might have heard of the hazy hugs
Of the White Minority and the Non-white Majority,
And how a Dark Void
Blackened the Pretorian Sun in 1948.

You might have also read
Through the inks of fast-fading scrolls,
How Sharpeville had her first forced bath in 1960
With the bloodied fluids that rose against the endless choking Pass Laws.

Maybe you heard from your now aged Mum
That you still hear the pangs of your lone half,
Because her bones
Were scattered at the haggard streets of Soweto in 1976.

Maybe you heard all these and more;
Guess that was what made you wish you were the General of Madiba’s Umkhonto weSizwe.
But do you remember that night in Alexandra
When you like Saul, sanctioned the forced voyage of 64 non-sailors in 2008?

Fast forward to the sunny dawn of 30th May, 2013
When you sat under the coconut tree in Port Elizabeth,

And while sipping unbothered, its sweetened juice
Watched Abdi Nasir Mahmoud Good, become one with the blurry shadows.

Blame me not for recalling the awful Jeppestown’s breeze of 1st September, 2019;
For in it, I lost my wings and became a scalar bird in a perilous wind.
Catch me atop the shattered domes of Johannesburg;
For there I hope to crown you, the South Scorchy Sun in Africa