Black Butterflies Page #5

she took her own life.

She was both an afrikaner

and an african.

Her name is Ingrid Jonker.

She wrote, and I quote,

"The child is not dead.

The child lifts his fists

against his mother,

who shouts, 'AFRICA.'

The child is not dead,

not at Langa nor at Nyanga

nor at Orlando

nor at Sharpeville

nor at the police post at Philippi,

where he lies with a bullet

through his brain.

The child who only wanted to play

in the sun at Nyanga is everywhere.

The child, grown to a man,

treks on through all africa.

The child, grown into a giant,

journeys over the whole world

Without a pass."

Nelson Mandela, 1994.

Opening speech at South africa's

first democratically elected parliament.

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