Why shoot him?

Don't kill them
Dont shoot them
Kill the fees
Shoot the privileged education

let it be a right
let the african child walk into realms of knowledge
unhindered by the apartheid conceived wickedness

Why should a back child go to prison
for him to receive free education
Why should he be incarcerated for him to find work

He is not a killer
He is not a thief
He is a beggar

On the streets
begging for a free education

Why shoot him?

Nothing

Its a jungle
A make believe world
In a mute pursuit for Nothing

Don't tell
Don't touch
Don't ask
There is no answers

Go find a heart

Nothing remains
When curtains close

In the theatre of minds

Not the shadow called yesterday
Nor whatever

Just a child(Kanga)

Don't violate her she is just a child,
wrapped in a Kanga of innocence.
When with warmth she looks at you,
It is a father she longed for, that she sees.
Don't violate her she is just a child.
Don't give her to the vultures.
Disowned by her own, she is not a woman.
Violated by her father, she is not his child.
Even as she remains a shadow,
don't give her to vultures;
She has stood against all odds.
Saw streets burning to burn her
and reduce her anguish to polemics
She is gone.

Dirty September

September is a curse

A little dirty anti-black month made in hell

Biko died in September
Now blacks a jollying with  White Monopoly Capital

Peter Tosh died in September
Still Weed is a secret

POQO born but died in a way

No wonder we are not free

If its not the chains its the credit cards

We are slaves any way
Does it matter if we remember
The greatness before the fall
Students still up in arms
I don't know what SASO was all about
Mothopeng led kids to death in vain
If in this September they are still out burning
Burning buildings ashes of a library
Thats what becomes of dreams in delusion
94' butchered it all and Mandela got rich
Zoom zoom ah
we are on autopilot
A black child is on his own again
#FeesMustFall

2016 - This Bitch of Year

Its not boy's dream
this bitch of a year, boay
to wake up fatherless
longing for the better days
when bitter and better
didn't dwell much further apart

its not a father's dream
this bitch of a year, boay
to walk to your daughter's lifeless body
Its no a sleep she is not waking up
cold you look at her still stare
and see her cold disappointment

A boy wish he grew stronger
maybe shield his ailing father

A father wish he was there
to protect the little girl wrangled in wreckage

but its too late
its a bitch of a year, boay

For Alpheus Mususumeli Mmbara & Khano Mmbara

Lays

Its getting dark, hold me
I am just a little child longing for your love
It was never a journey
But a hell full of hate
to live destitute even in abundance
tell me you love me
maybe love is stronger than pain
stronger than memories
of a bitter path walked in abeyance
can i wake up from this insomniac slumber
can you shake my present away?
and expose the lurking devil
the horrid past that haunts me
who will hold my hand in the end
or do i go empty handed?
Save my verses when nothing comforts me
and tell the tale to the passersby
The pen is heavier than pain
But its the only love i know
Hope it takes me home when no one remains

The Sands of Times

Can you tell me what this is all about?
Where are the sands of times
So that also I can leave my footprints
I have walked
The scars and the pain bare testament
But what is it all about?
When the good die young?
and the best is not enough
When the sunsets
and the streets disappear behind us
and neon lights ambush the night
Where is my star to crown the night
And shine in the dark
When i am no more
and history doesn't have my name
Will there be a God to tell
how we got here
how we ended up here
some crawling under bridges
some climbing their McLarens
Do we choose
or are we chosen?
Whats the point anyway?

Broken Promises

Landlessness

Joblessness

Homelessness

Living in a world of broken promises

wrapt in a rainbow illusion

Count the tears 

count the nights spent under bridges

and days braved in hunger

Dreams don't come true

in time they wash away

until we dream some more 

The hunger continues

stuck in traffic lights hoping for a meal

but the homelessness continues 

birds of the skies have nests to call home

blue eyed hyenas have holes to call home

but what of a black child?

her hunger is centuries old

her homelessness is infinite

she is landless

Mbudziso

Mbudziso na dzone a dzi fheli
a dzi d̪ivhi lufu
ndi d̪i ndi d̪o pfa muludzi
u tshi lila muvhulani
hone zwothe zwe ndi bva vhubvo
mud̪ivhi wa zwo ndi nnyi?
na kani tshifhinga ndi wone mudengu?
u ne wa dengula vhuṱunga na zwiṱhavhi

nne athi tshe na tshanga
ḽa matshelo ndi mini?
arali miḽoro ya madekwe isa tsha wedza
ho tou sala ngelekanyo dza musala uḽa
musi Phiphid̪i ḽi tshe ḽo lala

nahone mupfumi ndi nnyi?
we aya a vha bindu khae
Tshandau na wa pfuma zwa ita ni?
dzashu mbilu dzo pangulwa
ho sala muṱodzi muni?

nne a thi tsha amba, u amba ndi u pfa nungo
ḽa swifhala mbado u khad̪i i farelani
hufha lu lwendo?
na ḽashu d̪uvha, lo sema mano
ḽia d̪a sa mbava, i sa d̪ivhwi
hone mbudziso ndi mini?
ngauri itsho ndi itsho

Kani vhuṱungu ndi vhadzi?
ḽine ḽa ṱahadzwa nga tshifhinga
Mbudziso dza fhela

20th April

Its an Exodus
The plush green valleys
The rich red soil you walked on
The rivers that cut through your slums
The fiery bright sun
That braved your mornings in summers
The pitch dark night
That rushed to capture you winter days
The song of birds
Hummed in the beauty of skies above
The noise around
of this and that
things of this world
All that
You shall see no more
You shall hear no more
For the journey continues
And what you saw, shall see no more

As you journey into the unknown Silence
Your memory shall live on
in the blood that flows
in generations to come
in the bitterness of the hearts that remain
in the joys of of those who received you

The rivers you crossed
The mountains you climbed
The pits you fell into
All shall tell a tale

A tale of humility
A tale of emptiness
A tale of despair
A tale of defeat
A tale of victory
A tale of joy
A tale of a life
Lived in its fullness

R.I.P

Vho - Mususumeli Alepheus Mmbara

Hayani

U fuwa shango ndi mini?

Zwavhifha lia shanduka 

ha sala u ngolidza mato 

utshi thama wa pfumelwa

nne athi ni divhi 

ni muthu de?

ni toda mini?

ndi ni fhe ri fhambane

lwanga lwendo ndi maseto

a lu tshimbilelwi munwe

nne ndo tshimbila 

u mbona ndi tshi vho homelwa 

asi one mathomo anga 

nnditsheni ndi tuwe 

zwanga ndi dzhene ha Tshivhasa

na wanga mudi u nake 

zwanga ndi sedze Phiphidi

ngauri afha asi haya ha muthu 

zwe nda da ndo fara ndi miloro

yo wedzaho yo lala 

yo fholodzaho ndi mavharivhari

nne ndi la mivhundu 

ngauri haya hau ndi haya hau 

nangwe la kovhela tenda wa swika 

ndala na vhuvhi hayo 

asi mukano une wa kunda ndivho

ya nngwana ndi hayani ndi khwine

ndi pfi muthu

yanga mbilu i rule.

Hayani asi luanakha 

naho thavha dzo adza

udzi gonya asi muhwalo

tenda nda swika.

 

Unforgiven

Scars are vultures
They linger around for my death
To tear me apart in  decay
The streets never embraced
The pain and the sorrow
Of a life spend in the mute pursuit
Of something richer
Time changes
New dawns arrive unabated
The moon and the sun
Locked in a constant race
It rains in summers
But the scars never washes off
A constant reminder of hurt
Eating my soul away each day

The Memory

I meet the memory of myself on the old roads
Sometimes young. sometimes old.
is he coming or going?
from where to where?
All mixed up
The right time on the wrong road.
The right road leading to the wrong place.
He wont tell me
There is daylights left in me
He still got a chance
Don't loose it
Don't let the old bruises put the rope around your neck
It's dark.

(All lines written by Athol Fugard on Bosman & Lena put together into this poem by dzumbu mmbara.)

Kenny Motsamai

1994 ndi muloro we wasi wedze
Ndi kungumutavha ye ya mela thavha
Vhavhi vho vhofholowa
Ngeno vha lwelwa mbofholowo vha tshe ngeo

Naa ndi mini tshe Mandela ari nea?
Ngeno vhusiwana vhutshe ho toka midzi
Na muvhala waho u wonoyu washu
Izwi arongo fhurwa?

Ro zwifhelwa
Vho Kenny Motsamai vha gai?
Vha tshi felani?
Na 1994 ndi mini?

Vha vhofhololeni!!!

Pfene na Thoho

Pfene na thoho
Ahuna ano sea munwe
Zwothe ndi makovhi
We mbifho
Ndi musi u songo di sedza

He iwe Pfene
Lukovhi ndi lwa mini?
Arali u nyalunako?

U tshi sea thoho ndi mini?
U tou shaya na muvhudzi naa?
Au vhudze u di sedze

Petrus Steyn

Huna muri govhani la Petrus Steyn
Athi divhi ndi muvhula kana ndi mini?
Fhedzi Elizabeth o edela henefho
Asi muri fhedzi ndi murunzi
Vha dzulaho fhasi hawo vho khuda
Vho dzula murunzini wa lufuno
Lwavho lufuno ndi lu sa gumi
A lu divhi lufu sa mudi wa Petrus Steyn
Nangwe ha da gomelelo
Ha pala khwali
Lwavho lufuno lwo toka midzi
Sa muri govhani la Petrus Steyn

Shango

Na wo putani
Tshine wa vhanda tshandani
Khe ndi sa vhoni tshithu
U muthu de asina tshawe
U ngwaniwapo nemashango
Vhauda vho da vha u wana
Fhedzi naasi wo sala fhedzi
Shango vho dzhia
Sa vhurotho vho govhedza
Ho sala u ngolidza mato
Khea avhonga sa a dzwirigondo
U tou kundwa na murunzi zwawo
Na lau ifa ndi lifhio?
Line wa do kovhela mazhinda au
Ngau ahuna tshe wa puta
Shango ndi la mabunyu
Vho da vha wana lo lala
Naasi ni vhalanda
Kani ha ndi khofhe tshidele
dze na ededzwa nga yone bugu khethwa
Ye vha da vho i fara nga tsha u la
tsha monde tsho dzumba zwidigi
Vha i vhala vhatshi tou suvha
Na rembuluwa dzi mbilu
Vhone vha sala vho fara shango
Ngazwo ndala dzi sa fheli
Gomelelo li sa tuvhwi
Vho sinyalala vhafhasi vha khou lila
Zwe shango la tou minulwa no sedza