The Secret Mine Poem by Gert Strydom

Very long ago
when the world was still young
skilled miners and metal smiths
as members of the Lala tribe
lived in the valley
next to the Tugela river
and at night
their smelting ovens glowed red
while they were smelting
and casting metal.

With their arrival in the Tugela valley
the Zulus left these people unhindered
as they had valuable skills

and they supplied the Zulus
with iron hoes, spears and war axes
and as duty
also provided beautiful silver armbands
in different designs
from a secret silver mine.

When Shaka became ruler
of the whole Zululand
he gave these armbands
as a great token of honour
to his best, most brave
and most highly regarded followers

but then some of notables
got a obscure skin disease
whereupon the witchdoctors
were called in.

The sangomas accused the miners
of treason
and said that they were descendants
of the Karinga tribe

who the Zulus defeated at the Zimbabwe ruins
and that they are taking retaliation
and are bewitching them with the armbands
and are poisoning
the leaders of the Zulu nation.

Shaka then gathered in
every armband that he could
and with the next delivery
that the Lala people made,
they were tortured
to tell the whereabouts
of the secret silver mine.

Then a whole regiment was sent
with al the armbands to the mine
and every member of the Lala people
were gathered there

and were murdered to the last child
and thrown on top of the armbands
into the mining pits
to let spirits guard
that prohibited mine,

but there are still
a few of those armbands left
and fortune hunters
in the Tugela valley are seeking
for the ruins of that secret mine.