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Marshall Gass Feb 2014
Amandla!

Locked  in  societies cages  where the sunlight streaked in with
black and white uniforms with bars and batons
to hold them in place
shackled to their destines
to die in policies polluted by skin and colour
these people fought against
The oppressors determination to reduce
An entire nation to subservience
Until one man swam against the apartheid  tide
To a prison of meaning.

At last in the wide open spaces
Where freedom grew  with the flowers
With chains of people dancing in the streets
Of  hope in the future

Alas the high  tide turned against
Them and those at the front row who lead
The back row to brutality soon found
The dancing invited the shackles again
And they all locked themselves in the same suffering
As before, one by one.

Except no one  they could  blame somebody else
but his own black brother.
Minal Govind Mar 2016
Eyes wide open,
mind tightly shut,
we play victims to the postman
slotting news and letters
where little light filters through,
only as he sees fit.

Grotesque, gross manufacturers
spewing out page after page after page
of page three scandals -
of rich brats waxing lyrical,
American hip-hop DUIs,
fat cats cat-fighting.

Media
breast-feeds her gullible men
and milks the misfortunes.

We are part of the orchestra -
synchronised puppets looking to our
Master
to tell us
how
to read the notes.

Outside
there are flimsy flyers
advertising freedom
that have morphed into paper-planes,
but are impenetrable of ignorant masses,
flitting around the heads of the blind -
like cartoon characters after
being beaten up by
fists.

It is injustice.
Peel the scales from your eyes
and open the flood-gates, let forth the criticism!

Ask why an American singer's ten minute jail sentence
is more important than an Afghan girl's sentencing to be gang-*****.
Ask who the ten percent of the South African population are that receive sixty percent of our gross national income and how to alter that socio-economic gap.
Ask what is to become of learners who pass with thirty percent and if that is even possible when books aren't being delivered to schools.
Ask where one can find manifestos instead of accusations from each political party.

Do not let them dictate
your truths as
CAPITALISED LETTERS
with no urgency.
Do not let them confine
your insight to the ink on a page.

We are worth more than glossy sensationalism.
We are worthy of urgent honesty, transparency and enlightenment -
herein lies true freedom.

The liberation of the mind.
The uncoiling fist of a freedom fighter revealing the truth held within.

Amandla awethu.
Jamé Megan May 2017
She who wavers,
undermines her own
strength.
Ngoko lwazi lwam, ngokwe zimvo zam
Akhomntu uthanda umthetho
Ngoba womke umntu uziva ngathi akakwazi kuziphatha ngokwakhe, ngathi akana mthetho
Umntu uziva ngathi uhluthwa amandla akhe
Kodwa, kwelinye icala
Umthetho ubalulekile
Umthetho uthulisa impixano
Ukhona oyena mthetho ungundoqo
Umthetho ka Mdali
Umthetho we Ndalo
LooMthetho luThando
UThando lokuthanda abanye
UThando lokuzithanda
UThando olunyulu, uThando olunzulu
UThando luxando lokwenza
UThando luxando lokwenziwa
UThando luxando lokwenzana
Into endiyaziyo kukuba lomthetho sivumelana ngawo sonke
Intonayo asiwazi sonke
Umanyano emthethweni woThando yindyebo yobomi naphakade
Ungangicingi kude ngimningi njengendlala yomuntu omnyama.
ngisabalele, ngibanzi ngijulile. Ungazibuzi ngami ngiyintandane
enomama no baba. Ungangabazi
yiqiniso uma uthi angisiyena umuntu.
Ungaxakwa ukubola kwami
ngikufunde kulabo esabapha
amandla okusipatha ngo nyaka ka 94
ngebhandi safunda imikhuba ngemikhuba kubo. Buka manje
sesi nje sesi nje.
Uthi ziyoqodiswa ubani lezigwegwe.
Ngithi akekho ngaphandle kwezi nsizwa, aboMnumzane bemizi (hhayi amasoka) kanye nama
Khehla wesemaZansi, sibambhisene noMveliqanga nezithunywa zakhe
zokukhanya. Khumbhula amagama
kaphuzi khemisi "Niyababona sebehlangane ngathi lababantu"
Isikhathi sokutshakadula siphelile
liyafa izwe, alingafi sibhekile silibele
amapiano nobufebe, nobuvila, nokubalisa.
Amen.
Idahsamsclique May 2018
I am the kid in the back
with the afro so black
My first name is Amandla
Although i never knew it was mine
Mind over matter
Grandfather had lost his in the mines
Put me through school, hoping my poetry would rhyme
Time and time again, i lost my power to a mime
Trapped in a box, society’s ills been intertwined
Swallow a pill, hoping that we would never rewind
We’re begging for signals, searching for things we already hold deep inside
How many times
Asking for signs
We closed the blinds to our eyes
The wise are dead
Or instead we ignore their words, like the Ts and Cs on our TVs
The songs i wish our hearts would sing
Desires a shooting star can’t bring
The mocking bird that never used it’s wings
Kuthe cwaka ezinzulwini zobusuku
Imini lisathe ukuma - lime nsi
Umveliqangi nabadala basikhandela
amacebo kanye nemizila yokuya
ensimini ekuyiyona - emadlelweni aluhlaza. Asisebenzise
lemizuzu ukwakha ubudlelwane
namandla onke amahle okukhanya. Amandla asabalele futhi ayalalela, ungalali ungaxhumananga nawo.
Lokhu, ukuze izinsuku zethu zingapheli sizula, sishaya indiyandiya engayi ndawo. Sidlale umjike Joe ngezi mpilo zethu eziyisipho esihle.
Phahla - thandaza- zehlise.

— The End —