Rohlihlahla! Rohlihlahla!!
Rohlihlahla!!!
Ululation of elation by the royal
Blood of Thembu
The sun has come at dawn
In the tiny village of Mvezo
Wherein River Mbashe boughs
Sage dwellers of Mvezo
Foretell it as a herald of redemption
With chorus voices of "siya namkela nonke"
"Impilo!"
The sun rises with redeem pledge
Making it to the zenith
Glistening with evermore solemnity
With unrivalled reverence
Beyond every
Wet and dry lands of habitation
A crest of wave attained
The sun ascends the throne of earth
Revivifying chivalry
Scaring away chauvinism
Gospelling gender parity
Re-marrying the separatists
Uniting the cat and the mouse
Calling at
Unique unity
Peerless peace and
Social solidarity
The sun ascends the throne of the earth
Re-hoping the hopeless
Illuminating the darken souls
Putting smiles on contorted faces
Praying for lives in purgatory
Transmogrifying the transgressors
Recuperating the moribund souls
Reincarnating the dead
The sun ascends the throne of the earth
An emblem of dove
An epitome of love
A father of fortitude
A replica of solicitude
A paragon of moral exactitude
A template of finest creature
Trouble to sons and daughters of Mvezo land
Distraught summons Royal Thembu
The rising sun objects to settling
But has fallen
Merry to sons and daughters of heaven
The ray of sunshine has refracted
An icon of the apartheid has gone
An eye of the destitute has blinked
Voices chorus dirges of sorrow
Souls bewail in lasting sadness
Hearts stagger in restless pain
Minds wander in hollow despair
Bodies tremble in echoing fear
And lives carry away by tsunami of tears
Man's promisor has come for his due
"Yandei" with its icy cold fingers grip
On the throat
Enervating the flesh and
Bolting with the soul
Without a shred of remorse
Humanly untimely
Divinely timely
Yet in his perpetual absentia
He is still uniting people
And nations
As mundane bulldogs of dissents
Conglomerate
To pay last respect to him
The immortal moral juggernaut has gone too soon
The last man standing has tumbled into the tomb
The prophet of all religions has relinquished the apparition
The god of peace has gone home
Who is this Adam worthy of the deifying eulogy?
He is the image of God
The only man who ever lived
With a heart
The
Protestant
Prisoner
President
Peacemaker
Patriarch
Preacher
Padiba
Gone late early
But the virulence of his heroic spirits is
Transcending vast stretches
With no sign of abatement
Padiba
Uhambe kakuhle!
Abdulai Hanan R. Confidence
Tamale, Ghana
The writer is a professional nurse but with much passion for creative writings, poems and teaching. He teaches maths in a leading private school in Tamale, Faith-Hill. He has authored several poems for publication in the Mirror, Myjoyonline.com et al. He reveres Nelson Madiba Mandela to the apex of his heart and attempts to adopt non-violence and conscience-certified approach to attaining his goals in life. His life like Madiba's is guided and guarded by the aphorism that "the hottest place in hell will be for people who remained neutral or silent in times of moral crises." He says it as it is! His desire is to extricate himself from the shackles of nursing and become a teacher and politician for change by being the change itself.
