There they where
Young, defiant and beautiful
The smoke, the gas, the fumes
As if a glue holding them together
It was perfume they said, the gas
It was baptism they preached, the water
It’s the carthasis of a nation they gasped, the fire
There they stood
Looking with a vast glimpse
Into the future the Bill is making
Then they marched, a vindictive March
Fearless, tearless, tribeless, tireless
They talked of a future, a newness
Defying the wasteland the Bill promises
Here is the historical, the unprecedented
They know they can’t go back
There is no back to go to –it’s a desert now
So they marched for all that got lost
All that will be in the mist of tomorrow
What courage, what fortitude!
There they trod, a higher trod
As police shoot, so too they affirm life
As bodies fall in the vast drama
Others rise to the violence that be
Peaceful, hurting eyes, heavy hearts
Yet there is No retreat!
Surrender is a forgotten word
It was asked: what is fear?
Then unjust power trembled –a might tremble!
Parliament has fallen!
Police are on the run!
The lawmakers desert post!
The people march on!
A horde of righteous young humanity!
It’s the fire this time!
A new generation with a new word
A word born out of the ashes of the old
A word that honours the uncalled
An ancestral word — whither Mau Mau!
Reject was the word!
It resounded across a reborn nation
It shall never be the same again
That’s the promise the word bore
Then and there, killing fields were born
There they fell – young abled bodies
Strewn with holes, bathed in blood
Brains splatted on concrete
A mourning began, singing the anthem
Long will they live
Long will they live
Long will they live
In the annals of a nation on its knees
Not in prayer
Not in prayer
Not in prayer
But in pain
In shock
In wonder
“So they can actually kill us just to spend”
Young defiant hearts seem to chorus along
Long May they live
Long May they live!
Today a fight
Tomorrow a win
History bears witness!
Songa Mbele!
