A Poem for my daughters about Madiba: I want you to know

I wanted to include a poem I wrote for daughters on the passing on Madiba (i.e., Nelson Mandela).   I maintain a family blog with my wife that captures our experiences while living in Madagascar.  I am shifting to post more personal things there now and leave blog posts here for the more general.

The passing of such a giant, though, elevates above all categories and deserves widest recognition, rememberance and celebration.

Here is the original post:
 http://kruzoo.blogspot.com/2013/12/Nelsonmandela.madiba.deathandizindisaquala.poem.daughters.fao.html

I Want You To Know--A Poem On the Passing of Madiba

I want you to know sweet daughters

That a man lived, loved, sacrificed and forgave for his people.

I want you to know these words

Ndiwelimilambo enamagama

Let these foreign syllables roll in your mouth like marbles

Know that this saying was embodied by a man:

I have crossed famous rivers.

I want you to know that the world you see was not always this way

Just when our country had defeated the evils of the Nazi Germany

Another hateful plague descended that we did not stop

From the streets of Johannesburg to the rolling countryside of the Transkei

African, Coloured, Indians and white were set apart

—separated

Men, women, and babies

graded and annotated like animals on

pieces of paper according to the shade of their skin.

No my sweet daughters,

This did not happen 150 years ago

but 60 years ago. 

I want you to know that this evil was defeated

Not by armies, guns or atomic bombs—

But by bludgeoned bloody sacrifice

By generations

                                    of gut-wrenching perseverance

And finally dealt its death blow by a forgiveness so

deep                                                                              and                                                                                                  wide

that it baptized an entire nation.

My sweet daughters,

I want you to know the story a man called

Madiba (his clan name),

and Tatomkhulu (grandfather),

Rolihlahla (the troublemaker),

(Nelson was just an English name his teacher gave him because she couldn’t pronounce his African one)

who walked this earth for 95 years.

Of those years, eighteen he endured breaking limestone

rocks on Robben Island

his eyes burned out

hollowed by the sun’s fired reflection.

It is not enough, though, to simply observe and remember

That he spent twenty-seven long years imprisoned.

My sweet daughters, we must count the years together out LOUD

For I want you to feel the weight of those decades on your tongues:

One year

Two years

Three years

Four years

Five years

Six years

Seven years

Eight Years

Nine Years

Ten Years

Eleven Years

Twelve years

Thirteen years

Fourteen years

Fifteen years

Sixteen years

Seventeen years

Eighteen years

Nineteen years

Twenty years

Twenty one years

Twenty two years

Twenty three years

Twenty four years

Twenty five years

Twenty six years

Twenty

Seven

Years.

As those years wore on him like so many boulders

As the goliath death beckoned and demanded him

Madiba struck back and answered with the call of his proud father

Andizi, ndisaquala: I will not come, I am still girding for battle.

I want you to know,

That this man walked out of that prison

And left his hatred with his chains

I want you to know sweet girls

That the grace of love is more powerful than hate

But far more costly

And I want you to know

the most incredible thing:

Madiba’s long walk to freedom

was not just for those shackled but also for the oppressor.

His sacrifice liberated a nation

I want you to know this:

Forgiveness trumps evil and trounces hatred

In the end it was forgiveness that tore down apartheid

and built up a nation.

Finally my dear sweet Macee and Betty

I want you to know that on the 5^th of December 2013

A mountain of man’s battle ended

And Madiba lay down his weapons

and crossed one last famous river.