Marikana 2012
On that hill
My people sat
Wanting to be heard
But were killed instead
In that hole
My people descended
Day after day
Risking their very lives
just to feed
their greedy masters
who in turn
gave them crumbs
just enough
to keep them alive
not because they cared for them
but because they needed them
to feed their unfillable guts
Imagine
human life
in return for bread crumbs
In that town
They stood
Asking just for more
Pleading for just enough
To see to it
That their children
Would never
Enter the belly of the Earth
Just for leftovers
Desperately needed
To stay alive
Funny how
That mine there
Those trenches down there
Didn’t kill them
but the so-called humans
up here
killed them
Never thought
on this land
a black government
one that is meant to know
about slavery
about oppression
and unjustifiable mass murder
would at a simple word
that easily
take food away
from dinner tables
husbands from wives
fathers from children
brothers from families
that easily
because they dared
to ask for what was due to them.
We detested once
The death of our people
At the hands of racists
Today here
Yes here
An instruction is given
By our own
To mute our own
That loathsome moment
Has turned us inside out
And our filthy hearts
Have shouted for all to hear
That nothing
No one
Must attempt to stand between
Our money
And our comfort
That industry is priced
Much more than life
On this land
Miners were killed
For daring to ask
For what they deserved
DM
Ndlovu's work, Mayibuye: 25 Years of Democracy in South Africa, is to be published later this year.