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

X

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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