Mandela, forgive us
When Robben Island set you free after twenty-seven winters,
You stepped into sunlight and showed us the way.
You taught us peace when the world expected vengeance,
You offered us hope when our hearts were torn.
Your vision was a land reborn,
A South Africa dignified,
A rainbow nation rising beyond its past.
You told us to do better
But oh, how far we’ve fallen.
If you were to walk again from the graveyard of heroes,
To look upon the nation you gave your life for,
You would weep like the sky in mourning.
This South Africa is dying.
The dreams you planted have withered.
The leaders you trusted have become wolves in silk suits,
Turning the country into a mafia state,
Where justice sleeps and corruption walks in daylight.
Ramaphosa dances with criminals beneath city lights,
While Zuma auctioned the soul of the republic
To foreign mafias with golden tongues.
The Guptas carved their empire in our wounds.
What’s left now are broken promises,
Scattered like ashes over Soweto’s streets.
HIV and AIDS rage like a wildfire unchecked,
And poverty no longer knocks; it lives here,
In every broken home, every hungry child.
Your children, once promised a dawn of dignity,
Now live beneath a sky of despair,
Their dreams dying in the gutters.
Infrastructure crumbles.
Institutions rot.
And the beauty that was once Africa’s pride
Is mocked by the world’s silent scorn.
Mandela, please
Speak again from the silence of eternity.
Shake the bones of this sleeping nation.
Remind your children of the price you paid
Of the chains you wore,
The blood you bled,
The love you gave.
Forgive us, Tata.
We have betrayed your sacrifice.
Chanda Katonga was born in a Zambian Copperbelt province in Kalulushi, and his knowledge spans a substantial number of subjects in both science and literature. He holds an MBA/Bachelor degree in Biochemistry and is an avid researcher; as well as being a writer, actor, and artist. He’s long been a student of Gnosticism, Esotericism, and Mysticism and holds a black belt in karate.
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A powerful poem. Thank you.