Sunday News, September 24, 2000
The nightclub scene
By Patrick Mtunzie
Lights gleam
The nightclub scene
Vodka and gin
The mind starts to spin
Voices vague like a fading violin
Barely breathing from the misty nicotine
Long haired women
The smell of sheen
Ebony skin
Bodies with beam
Sexy smiles
Seductive and lean
The liquor has him keen
To swim in the sin
Sexual music
Desires seem to win
His body against hers: It's "Skin to to ssssss'kin"
Reality later, he lived in a dream
Now AIDS is the toxin
That has killed my next of kin.
Let's Talk: An AIDS Action Program for Schools. Harare: Ministry of Education and UNICEF. 1996.
The Alert Twins
We are the alert twins.
We respect ourselves!
My body is mine alone.
And mine is mine too!
Nobody touches me where I don't want.
Me too. Nobody hugs or kisses me unless I trust and know them, and they
must respect me too.
We don't kiss or touch like grown ups.
No ways! That can wait!
Besides, there are terrible diseases these days... Like AIDS.
And if we don't behave ourselves we may catch it!
We don't speak to strangers.
Or get into their cars!
If an older person tries to hug or fondle me against my wish, I RUN!
Or report the person!
We don't accept gifts from strangers.
If older people start acting funny, we RUN.
We plan to stay alive and so we defend ourselves.
Do you defend yourself?
WASN-News: The official newsletter of the Women and AIDS Support Network.
December 2002, Vol 12, No 3,
"Girls, let us be assertive" by Ester Chinunguu
(student at Mukombami Seconday school in Mashonaland East)
Today we have to be assertive girls.
AIDS is a deadly disease.
It is now in everyone's thought.
But what steps can we as girls take?
Don't worry if you are unaware because I am here to tell you.
What is needed only is to be ASSERTIVE.
We should be bold enough to make our own decisions.
Then we will always stand up for our own rights.
We will never be pushed into something that we do not want to do.
Yes, ASSERTIVENESS - the key for girls.
With it we will get to know that a wedding garment is never tried
Till the wedding day comes.
We will then learn to admit our mistakes and learn from them.
We will set our own goals and jump into the future!
Girls out there let us not be:
A sitting duck to men's lustfulness.
A sitting duck to men's selfish desires.
We should not be taken for granted!
So let us be ASSERTIVE TODAY!
Today let us say "NO" to sex before marriage.
When we say "NO" we are now ASSERTIVE.
When we are ASSERTIVE we are no longer men's sex objects.
ONCE AGAIN. LET US HAVE "ASSERTIVENESS"
Our password!
Zimbabwe Women Writers (1998) "Poetry and Short Stories" Harare: Zimbabwe Women Writers
"Will you still love me tomorrow" by Spiwe N. Mahachi
"You say you love me today
Against all odds you say
But can you truly dare say
That you will still love me tomorrow?
Tomorrow is a brand new world
Bringing problems, temptations and all
If I fall ill, become an AIDS victim
Will you still love me tomorrow?"
"The African widow" by Sydia Gweshe
"How sweet were the days
When he was still living-
My husband
Oh, I wonder in my hut
What life I shall lead
Harsh and vindictive
Were his brothers
How sad I felt
As they took our belongings
The eldest proposed love
His words were like venom to me
He seized all our property
Now my children suffer
Because of their cruel uncle
An heir not justified."
Zimbabwe Women Writers (July 1998)
Inkondlo: Inkondlo ezalotshwa ngamalunga eZimbabwe Women Writers kusukela ngo1990 kusiya ku 1998, Harare:
Original in Ndebele, translated by Jabulani Mthombeni
There is No Book
By Nomathemba Mkandla
There is no book that a person writes
Begging for disability
If it was there
I wouldn't have seen myself writing it.
Its hard to live in this world,
Some people glance at me
They take me for a useless shrub,
But they don't know!
They don't know that I do things that
They cannot manage to do.
On the streets out there they stare at me
As if I am from heaven.
Some stare with sympathetic eyes,
Some stare with cursing eyes.
So if you see a disabled person don't laugh,
It could happen to you.
As there is no book were one writes
Asking for this,
If it was there
I wouldn't have seen myself writing it.
We are shocked
By Pretty Mabuya
Here is a new disease, gentlemen!
This disease is known as 'AIDS'
It kills the entire body
And leads to the demise of the human being.
Where is your origin aids?
The Blacks say you come from America
The Whites say you are from Africa
The Nations are confused
Because they are not sure about this.
The disease of fever was long preventable
Diarrhea was long curable
TB was long preventable
But you are boastful
Because you enter and live.
Endless TB disease – it’s you
And Diarrhea - its you again
Endless vomiting - its you
What kind of incubation is that?
Aids disease!
You changed our nation
Young men now seduce with caution
And young girls now agree to 'love' with caution.
That which does not end is an omen
So truly say the elders
Some other day they will trap you
You will get caught like a kneel.
The Mammothous issue
By Doris Dube
It caught us unaware
It came as rumors
It became a whispered secret
Some denied its presence
As they had not encountered it.
The neighbor is gone,
They say he died pounding up and down.
Another one is gone,
They say she died a murmuring skeleton.
As we were in a state of shock
It repeated and wiped the new generation.
With me I encountered it inevitably.
The day it knocked at my door
I perused books, researched, listened,
I denied and ended up agreeing with my head.
I wept internally like a soldier
Because the mammoth issue had arrived.
The mammoth issue
The intruder
The traveler without relatives
The harvester of days
Who doesn't select whether opulent nor poor
The wiper of everything.
Proclamation by the Herbalists.
They said they knew.
Sour concoctions were taken,
The entire kraal was wiped out
In turn it seemed I was fumigating it.
The long eared brought news
They said in South Africa there was an injection.
Provided you had large sums of cash.
I gave up; I failed as the undeniable call had been made by the creator.
For How long
By Siphilile Mabuya
Oh! the nation is ending,
What kind of a heartless monster?
It could be a cute young lady, you find her boneless.
For how long will you rule?
There is ululation and joy from men and ladies
As a child is born,
After a handful of days,
You say with your undeniable voice
The child responds inhesitantly.
For how long will you rule?
You found us well and happy,
But you dismayed us.
We were living happily
But today tears rule.
You vanquished the Herbalists and the Doctors,
Really, for how long will you rule us?
There is no cure for you.
If you enter you come out with one's life
For sure you rule us.
Oh! you are a coward to those who love themselves.
Because they conquer you.
OH! for how long?
AIDS
By Thembeni Nyathi
Oh! The nation of King Lobhengula is being wiped out.
Where are we going to go gentlemen?
What could be transpiring?
In old days it wasn't there.
Its now abundant like liquor.
OH! What a burden.
We thought it was passing by,
But it has since grown roots.
Its heartless, its has taken our ancestors,
It has taken our parents,
It has also taken innocent children,
Here is the nation disintegrating.
Where do you come from?
What nature are you?
What kind of a disease are you?
You eat people and live them in the form of a wire,
The intervention of death becomes the only relief.
Where are we going to dwell about you?
What kind of a creature are you,
With an unknown place of origin?
The Bad Mourning
By Virginia Phiri
Who are you?
Where did you come from?
Why did you arrive into this world?
You have taken our mothers, fathers, our sisters,
Our uncles, daughters, sons, friends,
Our spouses together with the children.
You have brought pain and sadness.
You are a bad beast.
We won't allow you to take us
But we will fight until we conquer you.
We know that you are here, listening
Take this advice,
Herbalists, Doctors and Churches
Are all fighting you day and night.
Why do they say so?
By Barbara Makhalisa
Why do they say so?
Why do they say you are not fit,
Who they who are the fit?
Isn't you also turned your back against the school,
You turned against honey,
You opted to live on wild berries, roaming,
Wiping off dew while climbing hills,
You fell to the unknown,
You brushed shoulders with hyenas and lions,
Shoes became tattered, you walked bare-footedly,
Then why do they say so?
Please can you tell me.
Why do they say that you ain't fit?
Why didn't they say so when you were journeying?
You got bitten by mosquitoes while together,
Pierced by thorns while together,
Gunfire roared while together,
You moved like snakes on grass,
During battles you were there,
Pots broke and spoons where left handle-less,
Their remains got engraved.
They then say you are not fit,
Why do they say so then?
Please can you specify.
Why do they say so?
Who are they who qualify?
Your father was abducted in broad day light,
They said he should show them the base,
They said he was going to vomit the cash
That he used for buying property.
Isn't we only buried his bones,
After removing them from a rock rabbit's home.
As old as I am,
I twisted my muscles climbing hills
Isn't I used to sleep there on the mountains.
I prepared meals,
The whites got wiped at the bases
As I was preparing food for my children,
Who were to dish for themselves.
Today they don't know that I am their mother,
They don't know that you are their cousin.
Why really do they say so?
Who are they who eat cream?
Who are they who get special food?
They say breast meat has its owners,
They also say the bread one has also owners,
They eat everything,
Wash down with cold and cool beverages,
For you, you are only given cream.
The one who gets a sip of it would be lucky,
Why didn't they say so when you where away,
That yours were wild vegetables,
Why where they hiding that yesterday?
Didn't they say the chains had been broken?
Didn't they say everyone was now free?
For you when will you get free?
Why do they say so?
I thought cheating was an old style,
I wished also to be a mother of a respected lady,
But you don't work; you are just an ordinary individual,
I don't understand, Its a burden to see you waking up while others are asleep,
Why do you wipe away frost while others swim?
The Sun fries you while on streets,
The rain falls on you,
Winds and dust give you Tuberculosis,
Your complexion now resembles tree barks,
Is that what you deserved really?
It’s very painful.
But, what gives me little courage,
Is your big heart
You don't tire.
You will bloom,
And bear, and we will be happy,
Even if they don't notice you,
I see you, and even the one atop, knows.
World
By Beauty B Ncube
Yes oh world you pierce,
Like what your name implies,
They long been talking about you
I got scared, as I had no idea.
Today the way you pierce,
Where you pierced, I wouldn't bother checking
But how big really is your stomach,
That swallows and fails to be satiated?
Where is MaMoyo?
Where is Sibanda?
Where are our grand mothers and fathers?
Where is my boyfriend who was my only one till eternity?
You swallowed them all.
Why are you so cruel, world?
Today you loosened my knees.
My mind hardly settles like a rail track,
Am I dreaming or not?
The children who don't know their mothers, what will i do with them?
Here, the problem has come.
What promise do you make to me world?
Oh yes, they talked about you world
Your aim I now know it, I studied and analyzed it,
You world you pierce like wild savanna thorns,
But I deny! They will pierce but I will remove and throw them away!
MEN ...... MAKE A DIFFERENCE (By Vivian Thembi Masuku)
A vision to create...
A perpetuation of mankind