The Games They Play Poem by Phillip Nine Mafunga

Dams they build
In them, they drown us
And tell the world, the black man can't swim

Dams they build
To suit their own methods of fishing
And tell the world the black man is a miserable fisherman

Dams the build
To generate power for their factories in faraway cities
Leaving the vicinity in darkness and backward

Dams they build
To irrigate their farms
And enact restrictive laws ‘gainst us the locals

In their farms we labour
To feed their folks
Meanwhile our people are squatters in their own land

They write all the laws in their vernacular
To confuse us into conformity
Meanwhile they rape our land
10 March 2021