By Lingiwe Nyamande
My Africa, my home my pride
Let’s bow to the heavens and those gone before us.
This inheritance cannot be bought,
It follows the bloodline of our forefathers.
Let’s protect our Africa from the harsh effects of global warming;
And let our great grandchildren inherit a toxic free continent.
Our wildlife is revered the world over.
Where else will you boast of the big five except my motherland?
Our home, our land, our wildlife
But my heart bleeds Africa
Reading stories of the senseless killing of our Rhino
and watching pictures of absurd slaughter of our Elephants
Our grandchildren should be woken up by the trumpet of the Elephant from the wild
Not the roar of the lion from the Zoo
Let the noise of the stampeding Wildebeest and Zebra roar
As they migrate from the Serengeti
But if we blink the wild will be deserted
Lions that roam our continent free and unrestricted will be no more.
My Africa, my home my pride
Rise and stand your ground,
Declare enough is enough!
It’s time to defend what’s rightfully ours by birth.
It’s time to protect what’s is rightfully ours by descend.
Let our grandchildren inherit this treasure untainted
My Africa, my home my pride
I bow before you for you gave me all I need,
Am no longer intimated or believe there is a shade superior to mine
Africa the land of the great, the mother of civilization.
Africa, the land of Anthony and Cleopatra
The land of the beautiful and irresistible Queen Sheba
The land of Nelson Mandela, Nkwame Nkuruma, Jomo Kenyatta, Samora Machel
Mbuya Nehanda and many more gallant sons and daughters of the soil.
My Africa, my home my pride
Home to some of the fiercest worriers in history,
Shaka Zulu, Ahmed Baba of West Africa, Hannibal of Carthage,
Yakub al- Mansur of Morocco, Tutmose iii of Egypt, Suluku of Sierra Leone
You are the land of the resilient and the brave.
Defend your birth right, our continent and everything in it.
Lest the next generations will judge us harshly, curse us and label us cowards
My Africa, my home my pride
Let’s nurture and preserve our progressive customs and traditions that bind us.
Let’s preserve the songs and dances that carried us through happy and sad times.
Stories that will paint a picture of yesterday in the eyes of our grandchildren.
Share and preserve the rich cuisines our mothers and grandmothers passed on to us.
My Africa, my home, my pride
Unity and loudly declare –NO to civil wars
NO to xenophobia,
NO to tribalism,
NO to gender segregation
No to women and child abuse
No to human trafficking
YES to unity and progress
YES to brotherhood and sisterhood
YES to love
YES to beautiful food, song and dance.
One Africa, one continent, one people
