Registered under the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe

16 September 2019

No To Xenophobia!




AFRICA,

WE ARE BROTHERS AND SISTERS



A compilation of poems on xenophobia, published by Writers International Network Zimbabwe, September 2019. All poems edited by Tapureta Beaven except ‘Where is Home’ which was edited by David Mungoshi



Introduction

enophobia is in simple terms defined as ‘a fear of foreigners or strangers’ or a fear of the presence of a stranger. Its dictates are quite contrary to the African culture of Ubuntu.

The recent xenophobic disturbances in neighboring South Africa, like any other violence in any country, are a disgrace to the continent and as writers we condemn the behavior and we condemn it wherever it is taking place in the whole world. As for Africa, it is time we live as an African family. We are the pride of the world. We are the world. Let’s stop the violence and murder. 
The sad news from the homeland of Mandela evoked a package of mixed feelings and opinions and we bring you a few poems composed by poets with a message of brotherhood and sisterhood. Not only is the appeal for living in harmony being made to fellow South Africans, but also to the whole world. You and me can make the world a better place for our children and children’s children...  
Africa, We Are Brothers and Sisters, is a very short but powerful anthology of twelve poems in English and Shona languages. The voices herein condemn xenophobia while calling for oneness in Africa. Love begins with you. Thank you. – (WIN Publishing Unit)


Where Is Home

By Tendai H Maduwa


I am the voice
They charged with treason
They accused of
Overthrowing my government
The pain of exile
I am the echoes of Nehoreka
The son of Njapa
Of the Museyamwa totem
That sings Chibuja
From the tsubvu forest of Mutemwa
I am the wandering spirits
That migrated
From the seashores of Turkana
Speaking Kiswahili
Born from a black woman
Who was raised in Kericho
Drinking from Victoria
I am the voice
Arrested for speaking Irbo
Convicted for the crimes of migration
Toiled from Lusaka,
Crossed the Zambezi River
Rested at Nyanyadzi
Until I get to Limpopo
I am of the Bantu people
Nursed with hute juice berries 
I belong to the Kalanga, the Khois, the Shonas, and the Ndebeles of Mzilikazi
I belong to the Zulus of the great King Shaka
I am the Irbo from my motherland Nigeria
I belong to Malawi
My fathers’ beer is brewed in Mozambique
 I am the son of Guruuswa who migrated from Uganda
Through Somalia
Past the desert of the Afghan
My skin is velvet -dark
Black beauty like the prints of Liberian forests
I belong to Cameroon
I dance with my waste
To the beautiful music on Congo
I am from the Sisuthu people
I breath Afrikaans
I am the son of the South African soil
I belong here, though I come from far.
I am home yet I don't feel welcomed
I feel rejected by my countrymen
Whose hearts are decorated with ruthlessness
To burn our fellows to ashes
What happened to Ubuntu?
Africa is our home,
The world is our stage
Let's dance together
Kirinyanga
Take me home



I Am Not Angry
By Tinashe Muchuri

Brother Zulu
I am not angry
I am not bitter
I am not a thief

I am not a foreigner
I am your brother
I treat you nice
I work for you
I am not a thief
I complement you
I am not a stranger
I am your brother

A brother in many ways
My blood brother
My village brother
My clan brother
My tribe brother
I am not a stranger
Don't be fooled by this language
Language is only a means of easy communication

It is not who I am
I am black, my brother, you are black
You are not blood-thirsty I know
Someone lies to you
That this poverty is caused by me
A migrant they say to you
Yet which borders have I skipped?
Foreign borders created by foreigners across oceans!
I am not angry brother

We have no boundaries
We had no boundaries
We inter married
We migrated

You are my brother
I am your brother
Keep me your brother
When did it end?
Our custom, brother
Umuntu umuntu ngabantu
What has erased our ancestral wisdom?
I am because we are
Brother Zulu I am not bitter
I am just reminding you
I am your brother
We are brothers


Tichapedzana 

Na Tamutswa Muzana



Takavadzidzisa kuvhima dzichiri pwere
Nhasi makumbo anyata,
Havachakwanisa kuteremuka nawo makwindingwi
Yavo miseve yakazorwa unye ndure kuvavakidzani,
Rodeuka ropa zvisina maguma, 
Naiko kuredza kwatakavafundisa vachindumure,
Mutupatupa wotsvotsvomeswa muzvirongo
Rave jemedzanwa pa Azania
Wavamutemarege wembada!
Rodeurwa ropa revana veAfrica paAzania
MaZimbabwe akadzipwa akaoneka nyika,
Naiwo maNigeria akapupurwa nebvumo,
KuZambia vakaunganawo  pamariro ekusikwa nevapenyu
Vana vouraiwa seunyunyu
Ropa richiyerera semvura
Pada ndiko kupandukirana kwemarudzi
Asi vemakanda machena vanongofamba pamadiro?
Vatema ndivo vanobvuraudzwa nemoto sembeva,
Vachitemwa misoro namakano,
Kana naidzo nyere vachidashurwa
Zvakaoma!
Zvikukutu!

Imbonambona paAzania
Gangaidzo mukwenyi mhezi yavavira kumusana
Idambudziko kumuurayi nemuurayiwi
Hondo isina mukundi
Muurayi watenga kuvhumuka nekurara tsvuku
Mweya yevafi yotumba mumbambo dzedzavo ndyere,
Kuona zvisingaonekwi nevamwe
Nekubhuya nevasina mitumbi
Kufa vari vapenyu
Sevakaurawa mhuri hadzichina muchengeti!
Afurika Chipembe zvadiniko?
Matare anogarwa kana tapokana
Tobayana nemashoko kwete miseve
Todyara wirirano muhana dzedu
Togarisana kana kuwonekana pasina kutadaburana
Remangwana redu rimwe
Sekuyerera kwemvura nhasi iri pano mangwana iripapo,
Ngatiremekedzanei
Sekuremekedza kwatiri kuita vachena
Tingapedzane!


Weep and Moan!
By Beloved Maridzanyere


In darkness humanity exposed
By the sheer brutality acts magnified
Bystanders pose stupefied
Evil intentions repeated so often
Men burning men to ashes
Weep and moan!
Lion-roar of hungry flames devouring human flesh
The boiling blood of your sister fuel the burning trail
Your brothers scream, an appeal for more torture!
Ruthlessly, you pour gasoline to your fellow African
Igniting devastating flames upon mankind
Till charcoal flesh unite with mother earth
As the raging deathly flames burn poor souls
Deepest pain
Abundantly, red tears wash down
Bleeding the pungent rain
You hold your axe with flaming eyes
Slicing another black man's head into two
Thy gangster machete cutting your sister and brother's limbs
Thy kitchen knife a weapon to chop your sister's breasts
Blood fill the street,
Robbing life's dignity
Scream in shock!
Man killing another man
Black bodies lie weeping
Black flesh you’ve fallen prey to her royal sting
There is no one left behind to sing your song.
For these foreign-built borders we are fighting,
Xenophobia why
Africa why?


Pains Of Xenophobia
By Dr B Manditereza


It all began on the train,
It all began when it rained,
It all began when they shouted, ‘Slay them!’
It all began when we were sorted
The South Africans shouted, ‘Abashwe.’
‘’Abashwe!’’ they roared even louder.
Xenophobia you murdered my mom.
One by one, we were picked
Nigerians, Zimbabweans, Ghanaians, Mozambicans,
All foreigners 
One by one, from our houses 
One by one, from our comfort zone
The huge masses carrying huge stones
Some pulling burning car tires
‘Abashwe! Kill these dogs, necklace them!’
And so one by one, we went down

The smell of gas, and burning women and children
‘Go back home!’ they roared.
 ‘Go back to your countries!’


Azania
Na Oscar Gwiriri 

Zvawakatambura nemimba yako Azania,
Yaityisa nekuda kupfupfudzika nhando,
Sandisu here takatuma vanyamukuta,
Vakaidzikamisa pamwe nekupinga muroyi,
Wanike puyu n'e n'e n'e kacheche,
Africa yose ikapururudza newe,
Tikabika makombora ekupemberera kusununguka?
Ndiwe here muroora wasunga huso kudai,
Usingachade ani naani zvake pachivanze chako?
Heya, nhasi isu mweni tokupedzera dura?
Kuti tiyanane newe, iwe upondi shwe-e,
Zvavatokanganwa chezuro nehope nhai Azania!
Sei uchikanganwa kugarika tange nhamo?
Vawobvuraudza nemoto nekubaya kumusana,
Kozoti vawachetura kusvika kwamupfiganebwe,
Makuva avo atonyorwa zita rako.
Nyangwe kuzoti zvakazoti zvikati,
Patema pavatema hapacheneswi kusvika narini.
Wapindwa nei muroora, kutiparira ngozi yakadai?
Zvafanana nekupandukira vana vako
Nerekuti vanokupedzera mweya wekufema.



Africo-cide
By Chenjerai Mhondera


Even when phobia is ‘xeno’
Even when jobs are scarce
Life more and more expensive
You can't attack your brother
In ritual celebration
Blood-bathing
Blood-feasting
On the blood of your neighbor

Even when the gods are hungry and thirsty,
They can't call mass genocides sacrifices!
Even when the hater hates
And Africa not Afri-caring,
You can't call africo-cide, xenophobia, the answer!

Even when they flicker their machetes
Okapis ruthlessly stabbing souls
Men’s heads chopped like wood
Rocks hitting visitor’s heads
Rolling, martyred in angry flaming tire
Still you can't call justify xenophobia!


What's foreign about the pigmentation?
What's foreign about language?
What's foreign about coming from same womb?
What's foreign about being born Africa?
What's foreign about a brother who helps you job done?
What's foreign about Africa United that defeated apartheid?


Voice of Nature
By Tendai Chinhoro

The mighty Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers
Take their flows across nations
Sustaining multi-national lives along their courses
A sense of the sanctity of humanity
Though we often take them
As landmarks of divisions
Renaming them boundary lines

The picturesque Cape Point
The soothing environs of the Table Mountain
On the majestic Cape Peninsula
To which we all take pride in,
Were not birthed by belligerent foes
But two might forces of oceanic waters
And a block of land rising from the sea
That converged to live in harmony
Over anything else disharmonious

The inter-tropical winds
Converge in Zambia to generate rainfall
Nourishing a substantial part
Of the vast savannah lands
Of the skirmishing Southern Africa
Without exclusion, without prejudice
Let’s pause for a moment
And listen to the voice of nature
And renew our jaundiced minds

Seeing everything through the lenses of antagonism
And be healed from the inhumane malady
Called loathing of foreigners
Do you remember my brother?
When we swam together yesterday in River Limpopo?
Though we come from opposite sides of her banks
Who was the foreigner in that case?


Mikukutu
Na Cairo Maestro Muserukwa

Moyo yavo mikukutu
Havana tsitsi vanobanda pakukutu
Dzavo pfungwa dzakafukidzwa nevhu remhukutu
Havana tsitsi vanopisa munhu ari mupenyu
Hukama hwaro gondo nehuku
Vachihutswa muduri hwako hupenyu
Havanei newe chero usisiri mupenyu
Zvinebasa vachirasira seri kwegotsi
Kutokanganwa kuti vanzi vanhu tisu vanhu
Asi mhuka vanosiya vachiuraya isu vanhu
Zvedi moyo yavo mikukutu
Inosendena ruvengo neutsinye,
Vanoda kugara voga mugomo samakudo,
Matombo vachikoromotsa,
Kushaisa varimujinga mufaro,
Hunzi kwatiri musauya,
Asi ivo kwatiri vachiuya vakasununguka.
Moyo yavo izere chiutsi,
Pachinopfungaira chinokachidza tose,
Dai yaiva mvura zvaiva nani,
Tinenge tichiti pasi panyorove,
Naidzowo mbesa dzikure,
Asi moyo yavo mikukutu,
Haina tsitsi izere ruvengo,
Pedyo navo harwutambiri,
Rwunotovatya rudo.


Stop It!
By James Chitamba

A crime abominable
Violence detestable
Yet to it we are victims
Many are perishing
Brothers are suspects
Let's put a voice
To stop this vice

How can xenophobia
Give you euphoria?
Why this heartlessness?
Please stop it!


Oneness and Peace The Only Way
By Tawanda Imbayarwo


Where I went to seek refuge
I am now running in a maze
Jumbled labyrinths of Africa
In higgledy-piggledy thoughts and plans
Arms stretched for one catch
The crystal of my fortune
A future I imagine
Bad, an unfortunate stumble
Taken upon on guns and machetes
On the hugger-mugger ground, chased
Held and bound in fire of burning tires
In fears of my own kinsmen
Who are not ready to accept our oneness and give I refuge
Here, shivering, I stand
Face to face with death
A step towards home is death, a step backwards is death
Their heinous claws caging my skeleton
I try wearing back my skin n flesh.
Mercy, save my soul from the hands of my heartless brothers! 
Peace and unity the only gateways.
But will I perish in this chaos of denial of oneness?
Reality is unity, oneness, peace and acceptance.


Rainbow

By Greyton K. Muzangaza


In this epoch,
Barbarism holds no share.
Daylight violence,
Wielding shining machetes-
In their newness,
Hunting down siblings
From another mother,
Torching their backyard shacks
Without a heart
Has the Rainbow lost its colours?
Has Civilization lost its course?

We are not foes,
Poverty is our archenemy.
Don't be hostile to your relative
Let's fight the real war
To save us all from extinction
Rainbow, Rainbow come again!
And make colourful the ugly atmosphere.


THE END



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