AFRICAN CHILD

poets and writers’ den

AFRICAN CHILD

POETS AND WRITERS’ DEN

presents

AFRICAN CHILD

[Ruthless_inc]
“Freedom is coming tomorrow”
Sarafina led the Soweto youths with freedom songs.
Liberation was in place; they were filled with hope.
They stood tall for all the African children.
So that our minds won’t live forever caged in.

Like any other race, red is what we bleed,
We do have bigger dreams,

We are blessed with wider streams,
So, the rest of the world, see us as equal please!

We still young, let’s celebrate,
Our aim is to elevate,

Pride and better destiny are what we crave,
Show us the path and we shall pave.

[Sojahmic spokenword writer]
African Child,
I am Africa.
I bleed Africa.

I am proud to be African.
Africa my continent.
Africa my land.
Africa rise.
Africa be strong.

1

Africa will be well again, covid-19 is nothing.
Africa have faith.

Says an African child.

[TyceanthePoet]
Every year, during this month on this day, I grieve for the Youth that was brutally

killed for voicing up.
In 1976, the bright future was sold with no receipt.
The AmaBunu kicked our butts like we had joined fingers to play Come'Dunu.
Soweto streets turned red, as Hector Peterson tried to stand the injustice of the
apartheid regime to stop the Afrikaans from running the schools with their rhythm.
The people that were supposed to protect us, killed sum of plus.
Gun shots fired at the dreams of today, waking up futureless South Africa.

They dragged us like cars in a race course,
Our parents cried until they kept quiet.

Watching us 3D as we were getting kicked like a puppet.

[Blaq Nash Da Poet]
Is it because I refused to be taught what to think,

And opted to liberate my mind?
Is it because I chose the African drum over a twinkle little star song?

Is it because I chose Tshaka Zulu over Robin Hood and Peter Pan?
I prayed for Steve Biko, Mandela.

My soul never said yes to Mussolini or Hitler.
If Germany never surrendered then what can possibly stop me from resisting

oppression?
Why call popo and open fire when Soweto raises its hands to pray?

Are you not scared of the Consuming fire?
Beware of the fire.

Wait until we get are fist up high.
And call on our lions to devour your cute dogs.

Call on Hugh to sing the songs of Soweto.

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Desmond Tutu to pray for the gallant sons and daughters whose blood cry in the rails
of Gauteng.

Martin had a dream and Sarafina has a team.
Afrikaans has a barrel in his hand and Africa has a pen.

The pen is mightier than the sword.

[Blackrose]
African child,
Melanin smeared.
Don't let the night keep you cold,
For your land you've cleared.

Your land they stained,
Making it theirs, they claimed.
Our forefathers took back, they fought.

Black child,
You whose land is pure.
Rich in minerals and beauty,
Why do you suffer in all your glory?

[Dion]
Son of the soil,
Ruthless to the vindictive.
Ready in your grass skirt,
To go hunting for lions,

King of all.
WordSmith to the princesses.

Emerald with wealth,
Precious as Gold.

Steadfast in your Culture and tradition.
Fighting the Professor Blake who is willing to convert you.

Rise up African Child.

3

Stand your ground,
For if they take your breath,

Take their day.

[Lynn]
You were born with nothing in your name and mouth.

Not even a wooden spoon for the very least.
Poverty, your godmother awaits you by the door.
A generation of lost and stolen kingships is your native lullaby,

Oh, poor child,
Intandane enhle ngumakhothwa ngunina,

And mother Africa cries for you child.
Your being and your future,

Your creativity storming down your veins and soothed by love.
All that you dream comes through hard work.
Nothing is for free this part of the world, child.
Hard work is your middle name.
Know your time will come.
For now, be rooted to your ground,
Wear humility like it's your birthday suit.
You will need it African Child.

[BestGraciEver]
June 16 a date written blood.
On that day the sunset with so many young souls.
Freedom of speech as long as they recited what they were taught,
Freedom of speech as long as they spoke only when spoken to.
On that day the bloodbaths cleansed brainwashed minds,
A sacrifice paid by young blood.
The deaths that gave birth to awareness,

Young but not stupid,
Brains fed valueless knowledge,

4

Educational systems were flawed.
Made to bend the knee in front of the master,

Until the master’s feet they cut out.
June 16 the mother of bantu educational act.
The day educational oppression was sent to the morgue,
Today we are because of what was done on that fateful day.

[Founder]
I am proudly African,
I can tolerate high temperatures and other adverse conditions.
"Working hard pays." That’s my conviction.
Everything I touch changes beyond recognition.
I transform encounters and problems,
Into stepping stones for progress.
I preserve my environment, value my culture,
And believe every word in the holy Scripture.
I never work against nature,
Africa is my home, no need for a greener pasture.
Unity is my first priority.
Every fellow African is important, no superiority.
I prioritize peace and respect my elders.

I am like that,
Because I am an African child.

[Sasha]
Young and free,
Bold and beautiful,
Is what we should be.

But alas!
We have been turned to hooligans,
Fighting the world to get our gains;
Carrying degrees that hold no weight,

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Yet smiling amidst our pains.
Crowding the streets being vendors,

Reduced to mere beggars,
Trying to navigate through life lest poverty ends us.

My heart aches;
My spirit breaks;
What has become of us?
What has happened to the Youth of this generation?
Youthful in looks yet dead in spirit.

Stand up!
Fight for your rights;
Be the Youth that makes a difference,
It’s time to take a stand and make a change.

[Nobuhle]
Sambane ban' esangibhekayo?

Mina nzal' entsha.
Izithukuthuku zami zaphelel' eboyeni njengezenja.
Bangibon' ubuzenzisi nxa ngivuka ngilothamel' okombankwa,

Pho bathi ngiyephi pho?
Nanku phel' akula lomsebenzanyana wokungiphilisa.

Bamane bangigaxe ngamagam' athukayo.
Akekh' olwaziy' usizi lwami,

Akekh' ozimisel' ukungephula kulawo malahle.
Sengize ngibukhwabith' ubunzima bempilo.
Ngakwamukel' ukuthi ngiyinzal' ethukiweyo,
Angisoke ngabuthol' ubutofotofo.

[Methie]
Shine sweet melanin shine,
Eat and be merry as you dine.
They tried to bury your worth, they didn't know you're a seed.

6

Outshine the Whites' creed,
You are a conqueror,
You prospered,
You were victorious.

They might have slain your fellows,
As their hatred bellowed,

In the form of gunshots and tear gas.
But you're stronger, the pain made you stronger.
Your forefathers fought for you, now you don't need a pass,
Button stick is in your hands, this life is a relay.

Prosper,
Conquer,
Shine sweet melanin shine.

[Black Pearl]
The sound of the flying birds spoke fear into us.
We trembled like men would hear the screams of death.

After a few minutes it hit, bang! bang!
The guns spoke.

War had come for us.
We were not ready to welcome it.
My fellow brothers and sisters fell like flies.
In an instant happiness vanished.

It’s like it was never there.
Death was all that spoke.
The city was full of sad sobs and smoke.
This couldn’t be the end could it?
We joined the army not willing to but to fight for our nation.
To fight for our freedom.
We were thirsty for a kill.
They had awakened the beast in us.
Guns we carried, lives we took with anger and brutality.

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We were not going to be silenced and terrorized in our own nations.
We fought for our lost sisters and brother with a hope for change.

[Chashe]
Blood was shed in the streets,
Innocent lives of the students were lost in that march over the injustice.
Does being black a sin well no it's not.
This month of June has special days of the Youths of Africa and we need to rise and

shine on those days.
Not only the 16th but the whole month and let's thank them for the fight and we wish

their souls to rest in internal piece.

[Carol]
I remember when being black was a curse.

We never competed with the rest.
We were automatically disqualified from the race.

For reasons such as being black.

The African child belonged in the course as a Whiteman’s horse.
The luxury of having dreams and achieving them we never had.
All our time and energy was spent bent in the fields and mines as laborers-the greatest

achievement they had chosen for us.
There was a whole lot of potential in the African child yet they put blinkers on us.

George Orwell's Boxer better defined us.
Well, until one day

When the angry masses gained confidence.
Suppression, Depression, Oppression had to stop.

Enough was enough.
No, we were not going to apologize for being black anymore.

Freedom we were going to attain.
Gunfire and bombs everywhere,
Tear gas suffocating, sirens blowing & blurring,

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Brutal police attacking & beating,
Towns stunk blood.
African blood.

But that never broke down the determined Vana Vevhu.
No! Not this time.

This was the time to be heard.
African Child arise and shine.
Being black is not a curse but power.
Now let's join hands and celebrate being African.

Shine boLanga Shine
Walk with pride my Son, the future is yours and the sky is your limit.

[Emza]
Who said black symbolizes misfortune?

Who said black is odd?
Black is you who are strong,
Be bold and take a step towards change.
You were not made a slave,

But a conqueror.
We are also God's first hand creation,

Let no one despise you.
Wake up fellow brother!
Wake up fellow sister!

It's time to shine,
As African progeny,
Work hard to fulfill our dreams.
It's time to make progress as black diamonds.

Let's be patriotic.
And make our Africa great.

[The Wordsmith]
From this dust we were born.

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With a final touch of this melanin,
In this dust we grew,

Oppressed by both black and white.
One wanting to own our minds.
The other our bodies
In this dust we were Born,
Shackled to poverty.
We knew freedom not.
Who’s to blame?
Our kin? Or our white brothers?

It matters not because from the dust we grew.
Becoming the embodiment of tomorrow.
The legacy to be fulfilled.
We march and never tire.
This dust raised us.
Beaten never bruised.
We will claw,
We will dig,
We will fight,
Write- sing and dance in this dust.
We are diversity
We are Africana city.

À force of nature, we move Africa forward.
This dust mothered us,

We the youth- warriors of The Dust.
Our scars a badge of honor.

[Dante Roxwell]
Born a child of the African soil!

Will live and die African!
For it is my blood and fate by nature.

One thing to be proud of,

10

Don't let culture be spoilt by other cultures.

An African child is like a sleeping lion,
Wake him up and you will be torn apart,

But where is this all going?
Our own culture has been thrown in the garbage can!

Our youths are now victims of peer pressure.

What happened to the sleeping lion?
It's like Africa has become a jungle,

A jungle with no king to rule it.
A jungle where other animals have their own free will!
Where is and what happened to the king of this jungle?

[Proff-Blake]
From the second world we verbalize,

Do you hear us?
Do you recall us?
The 1976 juvenile revolutionaries
And why don't you occasional burn candles in memory of us?
Albeit we lost our lives in 1976,
our goals were achieved
And you now, contemporize plural youths
Why do you lack foresight?
Your sight blinded?
Can't you see they have civilized their strategies?
It’s no longer Afrikaans mandatory.
But alas; mental colonization.
Follow us rise and revolt.

[Ouzy]
Sisanuk' uchag' emakhaleni?

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Sisafinyel' ezihlathini?
Yeyeni bo!

Bon' abaziyo sebenzen' okubambekayo?
Intsh' itshiselwa ngentshukuntshu yaqungwa ngaqandayo

Icece yacaca ngamaceb' acazimulayo_
Nans' icacadw' icobodiswa

Icicima ngemfundo yacitshwa_
Koze kubenin' intsh' ininwa zwekazi leAfrica?

Sikhal' isililo sentandane mihla yonke_
Sizweni!
Sizweleni!

[Emerald]
Tongue tying,
Heart touching.

For years,
Dying in silence, unseen just like a pain killer.

Oppressed, suppressed,
Treated for the worse than possessions.

Exclamational after exclamation!
Inzalo yoqalekiso!

The cursed generation!
Indoctrinated, tortured, brain washed just to extinguish the furnace in great minds.

For years and years.
Finally,

Crying for emancipation spoken as history.
Regarded bygones now a thing of the past.

Bloodshed and never gained,
Souls shattered,

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Humanity tested,
Unity implemented.
A battle was fought and won,
Young, small, tiny in appearance yet giants in nature.

Great within,
Children of Africa.

[Nkosi Ibhubesi Kunene]
Here we are today,

In this day of the African Child.
Diving into the heart once more,
Scrapping off emotions to get to the core.
Remembering the Sowetan heroes and heroines,
Who took a bold stand against discrimination.
Because they couldn't stand the system of segregation.
I remember, 1976 a year so epic,
I remember, a day in a month so horrific.
When the African youth cried out.
The streets of Soweto glittered like the Blood Sea,

Many died and some injured,
Bleeding out their cries.

What a changeable event in colonial history.
One that is an educational story.
All hail the youth of 1976.

Who Enlighted the youth of Africa?
May God rest your patriotic souls.
Because you were a product of the system.

[COOL GUY]
Led by the good ways of those before us,

We stand to change this universe.
With us, the future is bright.

13

With us, darkness is turned into light.
Tender are our brains but greater are the capabilities breathing in us.

Give a chance to fresh blood and let it flow.
Let our youthful ways play a part in changing this planet.
We are recognized as the youths today but tomorrow calls for leadership from us.

The future runs in my blood stream.
The future is us,
We are the future.

[Nomzy]
Signal error,
Terminate your sequence,
I hate the way you do things.
Always using a blood spilt channel,
To access things your ways.
When will this ever end?
Innocent souls have watered the streets,
With their blood and maintained silence,
As their last cry was heard by many.

Change
I mean massive change.

Can you do us justice,
We are the everyday victims on our motherland.

Even the nature is ashamed of your ways,
Conflicted or not?

You will never maintain peace by a gunshot.
Not by ending another man’s breathe.
Tie your ends,

Try cleansing because your life might be lifeless.

Check not on your ancestral ways.

14

They were rotten,
Livid,

Deceitful.
All l can say is "never be like them who killed us"

For our day is coming,
You will feel the heat and drop dead.
Stay tuned as we rise with activism.

[Mr Star]
It was a cold day,
All they wanted was a chance.
Then the worst is what they got.
Guns were firing from everywhere.
Young boys and girls cried until their voices fade.
Blackness was their crime.
Tears oozes as I try to picture the scene.
Imagine blood rivers flowing down the streets.
No one, I repeat no one showed pit.

[Lucid]
I have come a long way,
But if we meet don’t be like how far?
I have faced many challenges which are hard.
Like a bone of a road runner.
I used to get worried when they diss my skin color.
Ngempela ngangikhala.
But not anymore, I now understand,
That I am an African child.
And I am proud to be an African child.

I am well cultured.
Ahead success I have pictured.
Even if my skin is black, I am going to shine.

15

Victory is mine.

[KingKG]
Bold and elegant.
Firm and brave.
From nothing to kings.
From non-entities to queens.
Amandla forever!

Creating something from nothing,
Conquering the world with resilience,

Pulverized with poverty strokes,
We refute the curses.

Affirmative voices remain,
Our noblest weaponry.

Sustainability our greatest asset.
From Kalahari into perennial streams of hope.
From Sahara to green lands with rejuvenated spirits.
We refuse to be defined by our shortcomings.

From mere slaves
To masters of humanity.

From mere colonies,
To initiators of ubuntu.

From mere servants,
Into global saviors and champions of change.

Hail to the mighty Savior!

Shine my shining star!
Glow with great pride for you earned it!

Grow with wisdom and shun evil.
Prestige bestowed upon thee forever and ever.

16

In diversity we complete and complement the ideal Africa we need.
Simba to the young African blood!

[Lindo.or.kuhle]
Blue tainted over, resembling a dark sky,
Blending well with what was to take place,
The streets may have cried "hurt them not".
The sky may have screamed " put those away".
For goodness sake they could have thought, "don't hurt them".

The bullets should have fallen.
Down! Down! And spared the youth!
But clearly it was meant to be a blood bath!

Stop!
Don't shoot!
They're just youths!
Ceasefire!

Stop!
All expressions they could have said,

But they didn't!
All expressions they could have uttered,

But they wouldn't!
All expressions they could have affirmed,

But they couldn't!
Their egos, just way too inflated!

"Save them"
"Hear them!"
"Empathize with them",

They cried

"Just kill them!"

17

"Slaughter them"
" Just feed them to the animals"

Commanded the sergeant.

"Message received sergeant."

[Nomiee]
Shhh....
Hear our heart beat.
Hear how they beat different variations of cadences that intertwine and create a great
nation.
Hear how it bellows our ancestral mysteries that birthed our different energies and
vibrations.
Listen and hear our downfalls and triumphs.
Feel the flow of our sweet melodies filled with joy and sorrow.
Hear us chant for a better tomorrow.
Through the sands of time,
From dusk till dawn,
We have chorused eulogies of buried memories
Bled through oppressions shackles.
But today we beat a rhythm and hymn sweet and sublime
It chimes complex variations of individuality and originality.
It's a beat so profound it explodes into an elliptical dimension.
It's a beat inspired by ubuntu.
And that is the beat of the African drum.

[M.P.C]
Cheers! "To success " I can image a toast,
Those ghouls celebrating their evil goals.

Drinking blood feasting on flesh roast.
While above them grey clouds gathered from the curses of the forgotten souls.
They stole the future the remaining youths could only but pray for a rapture.

18

But we refuse to fall for an eternal capture.
The pen is mightier than the sword,

We may eventually fall like the others but our ditties are immortal.
Like a phoenix rise African child!

To those gone so long lives this verse it gives life to thee.

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CAST:

Ruthless_inc
The wordsmith

Emerald
Dion
Lynn

Proff-Blake
Emza

Blaq Nash Da Poet
Tyceann the poet

Blackrose
Founder
Chashe

Carol
Black Pearl
Sojamc spoken wordwriter

Nomzy
Nkosi Ibhubesi Kunene

Ouzy
Bestgraciever

Nobuhle
Sasha
Methie
Lucid
Lindo.or.kuhle
KingKG
Nomiee
Dante Roxwell
COOL GUY
Mr. Star
M.P.C

Producer/Designer

Matewe Dumisani Albert

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