Magazine article from our research archive:

Ballad For Soweto

Mandela, Mandela,

young simbas in the pride

have been sleeping like lemurs

with eyes wide open.

Listening, they heard white rogue-elephants

trampling down the innocent grass;

small veld fires spreading into conflagrations;

cicadas fluting warnings

outside the ravaged kraals:

and drunks in the shabeens

shouting mad orisons to freedom

in the late and limpid moonlight.

Mandela, Mandela,

young simbas in the pride

heard elders sighing in their sleep;

the simpering wind eroding granite patience,

until soft sibilant breathing

erupted into murmurings

of rebellion.

Mandela, Mandela,

young simbas in the pride

with their ears pressed to barren mountainsides

heard your hoarse voice thundering

across ...

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