News from my world of Art, and it was wonderful to discover that my painting, ‘Rural Market’, won an Honourable Mention Award in the 2023 Teravarna Art Competition.
Rural Market; by Susie Williamson
This piece is from my collection of African inspired landscapes depicted in my Abstract Landscapes blog – click here. These pieces are painted from memory, thought, feeling… work motivated quite simply to remember friends from a time I lived and worked on the continent in 1999 into early 2000s, including three years in South Africa. Those friendships inspired the following poetic conversation…
Abesifazane base-Afrika
You were meant to be guardians of your homeland…
Not suffer to be stifled by cruel apartheid,
The greed, the violence, the pillage and rape,
Of your gifted ancestral lands.
*
You were meant to sing the chorus of your homeland…
You were not meant to face your name replaced,
Your identity scarred by language stripped,
Your songs and prayers denied.
*
You were meant to know freedom in your stride…
You were not meant to suffer the indignity of poverty,
To see with clouded eyes from your tin roofed shack,
As the lights flicker off.
*
You were meant to sow fertile soil of Africa…
You were not meant to strain on mountainous terrain,
Rock littered earth, soil too thin to harvest,
Lingering memories of forced evictions.
*
You were meant to be proud of your ancestral lands…
Not suffer shame-filled hungry pangs,
Belly empty, mouth watering, looking down over vast fields of crops,
Where your homes once stood.
*
You were meant to carve the future for your children…
Not be shackled to a fate of criminal debt,
While you walk cracked earth, parched droughts, breathing fumes,
Of industries of the rich.
*
You were meant to know peace in Africa’s sun…
You were not meant to know the violence of desolation,
Cool breath of fear, as gunshots chime through the midnight hour,
And a distant scream rings.
*
You were meant to smear red earth and white clay on your skin…
Your blood was not meant to stain that earth,
These were not meant to be your stories,
You are the keeper of your stories,
And you sing with heads held back and mouths wide, as your notes carry far and wide, in a tune…
POWERFUL ENOUGH TO SWAY THE MOUNTAIN.
I still sway in the harmony of your song, and feel the tremors of the steps you take,
Your words remain on the tip of my tongue, my pen is poised with the rise and fall of your name,
My heart swells with your fears, your hopes and your dreams…
But…
…you are the keeper of your story,
While my brush sweeps on canvas to house memories of you,
Shared times we aspired and I cherish your smile…
Sicula ngesizulu,
Abesifazane base-Afrika,
Ekhaya e-Afrika,
Iningizimu Afrika,
Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika.
