Soweto smoke, 30 years on

For the youth of today

The earth need not be hungry

Swallowing sweat

Dripping from bruised brows

Winds beating upon backs

Still firm and strong

For the youth

The earth need not be so dry

For our earth is nurture

And the road ahead

Demands stamina

Beyond textbook falsity

For us

Who dare to imagine

The many Soweto Uprisings

Still raging in our backyards

Shadowed in the backdrop

By gated kingly mansions

The earth is not only hungry

It is also angry

For why would our youth

Whiz through suburbia schools

Attain shrill-sounding degrees

Globe-trot in first world offices

Yet know nothing about Biko?

Nor Nkrumah

Nor Malcom X & DuBois?

And still think themselves

Elites

More deserving

Than the hoodlums of Ndirande?

On this day of the African child

Thirty odd years after June 16, 1976

Tell the youth the truth

And let the earth mend

From this deathly thirst

Parching throats

And frying minds.

© S. Sharra Mlauzi, June 16, 2006