In a time when few men could carry it
You lifted the cross upon your shoulders
Not alone
Never without a doubt
You fought for a freedom our birthrights had ordained
Against the Venters and the Potgieters
Against men who parted seas to claim
A land that was never theirs
You fought
Suffered
Interrogations
Torture
Prisons
Banishment
To European-claimed land
Where you continued to fight
In a time when they thought they were strong
You fought
Until your name became unspoken
Because you feared its power
Your power
Even when they stole your babies’
Childhoods from you
You fought
Even when they ripped your husband
From your newlywed arms
Threw him into a concrete cell
Even when they displaced intimate moments
Between a wife and her husband
from private bedrooms to monitored visiting rooms
You fought
Never denying your womanhood,
Motherhood
Wifehood
Carrying your pain, vulnerable eyes
You allowed your cheekbones
to hold your head up high
Guarded your children to death
You honoured your husband as religiously as you knew how
Loved your people passionately
Fought it through
Never
to be forgotten
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You ‘re a poet, a writer and a philosopher