Lekgowa Is Still Living In The Black Minds. Poem by Black Consciousness Poetry BCP

I heard mother tell me to live the tell-a lie-vision (TV) remote alone, for I do not know how to use ntho tsa makgowa...and when I asked father where he goes early in the morning and come back late in the evening dirty and all...he told me Ketswa makgoweng...in class I messed up an equation and the teacher asked me Ke makgowa a feng a tlo o hirang mara...my friend asked me for R2 for a 'loose draw' cigarette and when I gave him he said tankie lekgowa la ka...after years of many events and occasions of hearing ka makgowa and seeing makgowa as an epitome of all things great I saw makgowa as such...

After all makgowa stays in surburbs and good places they own and rona we go work for them. They didn't come to work places of our stay to work for us the blacks, they didn't have to take trains and taxis to come to work in our communities, they didn't have to hike to come and look after our children...they didn't come from where they are to where most of us blacks are...so what I saw said anything is great ka makgowa...

Now that I am older and have some understanding, I get why lekgowa is such a reference for success for many blacks...we still produce almost nothing of the things we consume, and we keep blaming the white man for our miserable state and yes the white man did this and that and yes we are here because of this and that but the blame game has not move anybody and inch to anywhere progressively.

We have to take some of the energy we have to complain and start using it to redeem ourself and our people and our continent from all the ills it possesses. We have to take some of the energy we use in hating the white man and start loving ourselves and our people. We know the reasons we are where we are, but using them as excuses to stagnate, to be passive, to be expert with solution we don't want to be part of or part of their application is upset and criminal...

Tsoha oe ketsetse.

|HF Swarts|