Africans Want A New King Poem by Gert Strydom

There’s sudden strength flowing
through black men’s souls
and Africans want a new king
a new Dingaan, Shaka, Mzilikazi,
to drive the white man into the sea.

Like giants they want to rise
and take what they think belongs to them,
they dance around the tribal fires,
drink homebrewed beer,
pray to their gods
calling up the spirits
and in Zimbabwe they find a man
and wage a terrible war there.

He is chosen as prime minister
and rids his country of opposition
unleashing his fifth brigade
on the Ndbele tribe
to exterminate, torture and to rape
fellow black citizens.

Promises are made about agricultural fields
and white farmers are freed
of their ground and possessions by force
with the police backing up
the onslaught.

Food production dries up
and mass famine and poverty results,
the country is run into the ground
controlled by the power
of the security police and military
and the king is in the chair
still ruling with a iron hand,
gathering a fortune
in foreign banking accounts

and in his eyes,
he’s president for life.