Mafofora

By Letlapa Moroatshoge Mphahlele

"Just before the trumpet explodes
Tongues will loosen up the knots of dark secrets
To steal God's thunder
As they stole his fruit salad in the Garden of Eaten..."

"Among my status conscious folk killing is laughably hierarchical
Death itself has pomp and prestige
The bottom of the Earth are killed
The top are assassinated
The dead celebrated mighty lie in state
Some lie in repose
Before they're laid to rest or planted...
Even at the doorway of the grave
The conceited man claims the benefits of his death rank
Lehu legolo ke disego - in great death there are comic moments..."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Letlapa Moroatshoge Mphahlele
• Release date: Jan 11, 2024
• ISBN: 9780796111906

Book preview

1.png

Mafofora

Letlapa Mphahlele

© Letlapa Mphahlele 2023

Mafofora

Published by Mwalimu Books

P.O. Box 197

Mphahlele, 0736

[e-mail]

eISBN 978-0-7961-1190-6

2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Layout and cover design by Boutique Books

Also by Letlapa Mphahlele

Child of this Soil - My Life as a Freedom Fighter (Autobiography)

Mantlalela! The Flood is Coming (Poetry)

Shining the Searchlight Inwards (Speeches and Articles)

South Africa: A Republic Gone Bananas (Speeches)

Nxae (Poetry)

Mosepidi (Northern Sotho Poetry)

Mafofora is a Northern Sotho word meaning crumbs; mostly referring to breadcrumbs.

Dedication

To Rosenkrantz

The home of Lamola, Mahapa, Chokoe, Selolo, Komape, Selomo, Pitjeng, Moutlana, Masetlwa, Rabalao, Moselakgomo, Debeta, Mabuela, Langa and Moabelo. Once you prided yourself on feeding your children. These days the fields are lying fallow and the teeth of poverty are grinding on your youth. Tillers have bidden a rushed goodbye to the soil as they stampede to the queue for stale handouts. Now I have shyly joined the queue, because I failed the land question.

Contents

Dedication

Why did You Choose Me to Kill You?

Katrina

The Seleteng Coroner

Sharpeville/Langa

Dreams

Remember

Reunion

Revolution

On the Relegation of Bush Bucks Football Club

To the Progressive Hunger Striker

The Liberals Were There

Your Words are Stars

The Heart of a Patriot

Beware Of Human Mask

Gifts

Poem For My Mother On Her 85th Birthday

Tireless Friendship

Boy versus Man in Me

Jo Gwe’s Old Car

Grand-mother’s Orange Tree

Caux Experience

We Re-member Palestine

When Tears Rain Down In Ukraine

Marriage Dispute

The Double-Cross

A Shadow of a Lover

A Broken Promise

She Knows My Name

Love Erosion

Falling

Nightshift

On The Judgement Day

Acknowledgement

Why did You Choose Me to Kill You?

(For the Hare I knocked on Francistown-Gaborone Highway)

On this road, fatality visits nightly and daily

Some deaths remain unpublicised and unstatisticised

A living example is the hare I knocked dead

The one refusing to die in my nightmares

Kicking and spilling the ink on my messy verse

The remorse flows from the fountain of a poet’s anguished pen

I wanted to ask the hare questions before it died

‘Why did you choose me to kill you?

Couldn’t you see I’m not a hunter?

Just like you I’m also being hunted

Comrades-in-runs we ought to care for each other

The camaraderie of the hunted

Betrayer! I feel like one

Your audacity has made me a traitor

In the