Prisoner number 1323/69

The woman;

From an ovum that sprung
in the womb
of oppressed masses,

Inseminated with vitriol–
“the hate of their enemies”

Into “a dark world ;

of Stratcom, Vlaakplaas
James ‘Stompie’ Moeketsi Sei pei
Jeffrey Benzien, Jerry Richardson and
The Likes of thousands of Steve Bikos;

of internecine betrayal,
reprisals and brutality–”
“oppression and humiliation”
orchestrated by a brutal regime
of White supremacists–

came forth;

The woman;
Nomzamo–
“She who must endure trials”-

“charming,
intelligent,
complex, 
funny
eloquent and unyielding;”
“rich in grace and dignity”
“Imperious and empathetic”

“A dedicated professional;”

“A leader,
steadfast and steely”;

“a firebrand
of rhetoric,
courage and activism"
“a living symbol of White man’s fear”;

The flame
That burned
The obscene abnormality, 
the grotesque pall
–Apartheid;

The Mother that
breathed new life into her children
–the people–
the living dead;

The non-person!
“The controversial bully”
The “odious toxic” “unrepentant terrorist”
The survivor
Of “surveillance, threats, harassment,  
arrests”

And incarcerations;
Drenched in her own blood;
“Rising  
never above the people”
That brought her forth;  
took upon herself
to lead her people
unfalteringly
along a torturous uncharted path
to reclaim
their birthright, their land;
to quench
their "thirst for human dignity”;
to fulfill
their yearning to be free;

–To the haven of their dreams.

But for she,
the vilified! sinner–
Valiantly carrying the cross, 
The resurrected–
The prisoner of Robben Isle–
Madiba “the messianic peace maker”
The Beatified! The Saint
would lie,

Forgotten
In an unmarked grave,
with no widow
To shed a tear.

But for she
“The Mother Mkonto” !
“The lion Warrior”
“That turned the beast
To bow down at her feet.”

Where would they be?

The sanitized
God men and good men
“The cretins”
Of post-apartheid world
Of reconciliation and forgiveness.
Sans accountability of
gross humanitarian crimes.

She,
the unbowed;
The Prisoner number 1323/69
With “vision, resilience” and courage
Stood taller,
Overshadowed not, even by the man
whose name she kept alive for
Twenty seven years!

She
was not an erratic wind
That “filled a vacuum” 
but
the cataclysmic storm-
“the center the frontier”
the vortex of the struggle
that swept across and cleansed a land.

She was
The Avant-coureur!
“Siempre El comandante”

She was
The “Umkhonto we Sizwe*

She was
The revolution.

“She
A woman, demonized
forsaken; 
overlooked by history,
and betrayed  
by many she trusted;
is
“The conscience of a nation,”
To which
“The tragedy of apartheid”
Is a bad dream
Already being erased from
the collective memory ”
of the seekers of “racial inclusiveness”
–‘White respectability’

O tempora! O mores!

Sleep Winifred Zanyiwe Madikizela
Nomzamo beatae memoriae
sleep untroubled
the sleep of the free.

Auf Wiedersenen!

*Umkhonto we Sizwe: Spear of the nation