ELEGY TO FANIKISO PHIRI & CLEMENT MATEMVU. By Zondiwe Mbano. (Fanikiso Phiri, a third year BEd student, was shot dead by the police on 14 December 2001. Clement Matemvu, a final-year BEd student, was killed in a minibus while returning to college Chanco after the forced closure) PART 1: Hunger,stones&bullets How long must the dialogue of stones And gunpowder be conducted before Our authorities awaken to the danger? How long will our children be raised On the market culture but be killed For buying what we do not approve? How long millions must be squandered On reviving a reign of terror while women With faint babies stampede for maize bran? Amidst the touted donor aid police reforms How long will the police loot democracy By killing the weak to protect the powerful? How many task forces before we understand That planting seeds of hate only increases Our harvest of hunger ,poverty & death? How long,how long the chasing of escaping Rats &cockroaches while a conflagration Blows our compound into smoke & ashes? Is it regionalism when one cries Fire! Fire! And sprints for the hose pipe to direct A jet into the fiery bowels of the dragon? Is this politics,this belching & farting , This looking around in a scowl, spitting Then blaming opposition for the stench? Oh,our megalomaniac old man, you left us And these yellow-bellied leaders,how long Will it take them to rise above their pockets? PART 2: jackals,mandazi&helicopters We shudder when the hen withdraws Her wings&beckons cruel claws To swoop & seize struggling chicks. When the jackal agitates black ants Poking his long tail into their nest To extract mouthfuls&chew them . When mothers in khakis of seniority Rape democracy by ordering teargas On the starvelling crying out for food. when our servants who tower in corridors Of erudition fine-hone youthful brains And then deliver them to the butcher. Isnt our police a foreign invading force? Have they ever had a child or relative In the university to see innocent tears? Yet before sunrise the wives&children, Writhing disfigured bundles of poverty, Heave logs of pine from Zomba mountain. Their verandahs a smoke screen of cheap Sizzling oil burning mandazi for sale By truant pupils at the stage&taverns. How long will the police defend this criminal Poverty while Mercedes VXs&copters Dry coffers with endless political campaigns? Or is it the eruption of long-bottled bitterness, This savagery misdirected to the innocent Like a chained dog that attacks its liberator? PART 3:umhlaba kaunoni Fanikiso,your name tells of a semblance Of death as the earths insatiable belly Swallows up bodies but never grows fat. After a long wait of years &semesters Your parents were now ready to embrace The graduate,son in their thatched house. But you bent to lift a schoolboy in blood With a bullet in his neck, not fearing That another was aimed at your heart. Fanikiso,their bullets have hawks eyes And talons that snatch us from high When hidden even amongst a thousand. Your peers battled with a legion of fiends , They bulldozed boulders onto the roads, Boulders Napolo tossed from the mountain. But they were armed to the beak,the vultures Blasting teargas into classrooms &hostels , Their black Marias zooming over the boulders. Fanikiso,the Friday you died the rain came And even the hungry found maize to plant, If only to preserve a little seed for next year. Monday ,&the police invaded again ,ordering Colleges closed within two hours, offering Teargas & bullets to those from far,stranded Clement Matemvu was forced to ride the monster That slaughters but never eats:monster of the road Killed finalist Matemvu-another teacher wasted. PART4: Yesu wane wandichema,nkhuruta. My Jesus has called me,Im going to my Saviour.... A choir of students sang near the white coffin On a table draped in blue silver-jubilee cloth. Bus loads of students from the constituent colleges Taking the remains past police blocks To the North affirmed the true spirit of Malawi. And they say(the man said) he is so disturbed Because students looted a shop of beers,but For the murder he sent not even sympathy. The radio aired earsplitting lies of a spokesman Alleging rape in the open rain of stones &teargas And blaming the marksmen for shooting only two. And a commission was appointed to fulminate Against students for lighting a torch in darkness And the staff who helped to calm the students. Yet even during the days of the Lion students Demonstrated at the college ¢ral office And stormed the town with songs of liberation. Across the Likangala to the cathedral they danced The celebration of the era marking the bishops letter But the police controlled with no bullets or teargas. Fanikiso,Clement ,the sikusinja bird sings in the tree Your blood is a seed planted,like the blood of Soweto children singing in a rain of bullets. Your name(s) like Chilembwe, Mumba, Chisiza, Chipembere, Chirwa, Mphakati,Mhango, Matenje,Gadama... Matafale, is our anthem of light in the dark cave still called Malawi.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Dec 2014 21:55:13 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015