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A Poem By Mazisi Kunene

January 13, 2024
1 min read

WAS I WRONG?
 
By Mazisi Kunene
 
Tuesday, May 20, 2008.
 
Was I wrong when I thoughtAll shall be avenged?Was I wrong when I thoughtThe rope of iron holding the neck of young bulls Shall be avenged?Was I wrongWhen I thought the orphans of sulphur Shall rise from the ocean?Was I depraved when I thought there need not be love, There need not be forgiveness, there need not be progress, There need not be goodness on the earth, There need not be towns of skeletons, Sending messages of elephants to the moon? Was I wrong to laugh asphyxiated ecstasy When the sea rose like quicklime When the ashes on ashes were blown by the wind When the infant sword was left alone on the hill top? Was I wrong to erect monuments of blood? Was I wrong to avenge the pillage of Caesar? Was I wrong? Was I wrong?Was I wrong to ignite the earth And dance above the starsWatching Europe burn with its civilisation of fire, Watching America disintegrate with its gods of steel, Watching the persecutors of mankind turn into dust Was I wrong? Was I wrong?
 
© Mazisi Kunene
 
Mazisi Kunene was one of Africa’s greatest poets and literary icons. He was a talented writer whose inspiration was the history of Zulu people, the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the oral tradition of African literature.
 
Kunene stressed that his literary goal is the re-telling of African history in a way he believed would make it relevant and authentic to the non-African.
 
In 1972, Kunene became ANC director of finance in London, establishing the South African Exhibition Appeal which raised funds for the organisation. He received significant support from notable figures in the art world, including Pablo Picasso, Chagall, Giacometti and Rauschenberg.
 
He later left London for America, first teaching at the University of Iowa and Stanford University before joining the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1975 as a lecturer in African literature and Zulu. 
 
As apartheid began to crumble, Kunene decided to return to South Africa in 1993, the very year that UNESCO honoured him as Africa’s Poet Laureate. In 2005, he was named South Africa’s poet Laureate. He died on August 11, 2006.
 
Please email comments to comments@thenewblackmagazine.com
 
 

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