Scream: A Brief History Of Oppression Chapter 11 &12 Poem by Martin Lochner

Scream: A Brief History Of Oppression Chapter 11 &12



11

The once fervent Dutch Reformed church and National party
That indoctrinated the young to support Apartheid
Change their ideology overnight and instruct the young
To have a forgiving attitude and to ask God’s grace for the
Terrible sins of the fathers

Teachers filling the Boer youth with angst decrying the lot of our people
Preaching our downfall and the suffering and humiliation to come.

Defeated talk of elders and parents
Spitting bitterness and hopelessness about any future

The young denouncing their culture and inheritance
Changing their names and learning English, playing British

Signs of insipid suicide in the eyes of tomorrow’s future
Principles fading and the overwhelming sense of being sold out
gall on the swollen tongue

12

The wheel of power turns steadily
The most stubborn of convictions change-
as does the constitution.

Hardened Afrikaner patriots
Zealous former torture camp commanders
And the intellectuals of apartheid

Cry and apologise- for their inequities
Hug- and embrace- Desmond Tutu and his
Righteous entourage of godly coloured men
And the truth escapes their lying bellies

to save themselves they bad mouth-
Everything that was worthy to be spared
Slaughtering the spirit of a culture that groomed

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