My Freedom Is My Right

The inert wealth imbedded in my soil - Leave it to me to carve in my own way! You cannot undo history. Yet if history's injustices permeate and distort the present, it is only fair to draw them to the world's attention. Ambassador Aaron Maboyi has framed in vivid poetical terms his lament for Southern Africa, his distress at the blood spilt in order to gain freedom from white colonisers ('hawks with pink eyes'), and his grief at the continued exploitation of its enviable resources and neglected people. He uses well-loved landmarks and famous names from the past to underscore the present. Zimbabwe has had in effect two independences: one under a white caucus led by Ian Smith; and another - following a bitterly fought bush war - which established majority rule. It was the 'veterans' of this war who claimed their rights to the land, and who are to say they are not deserving of the land's bounty? Some of Aaron Maboyi's poems level criticism at the brothers who fight brothers - the internecine outcome of colonial 'divide and rule' policy. But he also has special ammunition for church leaders and their platform of evangelism: 'Your Bible became the weapon of my mental conquest'. Nor does he spare the IMF ('International Monetary Fund'), the WTO and the jugglers of aid, and the talking-shop mentality that imbues the Commonwealth: 'An agenda tainted with chameleon colours'. This is prose poetry of the lex talionis - an eye for an eye - and it may make uncomfortable reading for some. Yet underneath there is the huge beating heart of a mighty continent; underneath there is a love of freedom and a joyous proclamation of life.