Nomakanjani

Nomakanjani they said, always we will be

It shall be well with us

For our sons and daughters fight this evil

For our seed bleeds into the soil

Mass of bones in unknown graves

Nomakanjani they said

The fences ripped at them, as if sent by the oppressor

Their own looted their innocence, in the name of freedom fighting they did

Masks were picked and worn to mask the pain behind

Alongside them they Toyi-toyi’d

Their insides twisted and weeping from their flippant violation

Nomakanjani they said to them

The reverberating sound of gunshots

Forever imbedded within

Waking more of them than a new-born’s cry

As if doomed to that they were

Their wombs calling out to the spilt foetuses

Dreams of suckling infants and virile husbands lost

Rummaging in the bushes for survival their present

And still all they said to them was;

Nomakanjani

Time travelled and left them behind to find their path home

Flags were raised and there was jubilation

No one bothered to ask where they were

No one asked if they were fine

No one noticed they weren’t there

But they had said always to them

Nomakanjani

She wakes up in a cold sweat

Her insides screaming

Her hands reaching for her gun

She know no one she can trust but it

The air is musty and choking

Little does she realise

She was left behind

Her shell exists in the new South Africa

Her soul still roams the trenches all torn and alone

And when she reaches for the bottle seeking solace

The labels follow her and stick

But then didn’t they say

Nomakanjani 

This is from @Ntoshtoyin, dedicated to the women who left their homes and joined Umkhonto we Sizwe, women who have untold nightmares and horrors, women who were left to fend for their sanity in the new South Africa. AMANDLA #IMBOKODO