Whatever you call it, it’s the same and it is devastating whole populations the world over. The Occident hasn’t been spared. I live in Europe and I run into begging hands wherever I go. The developing world is experiencing the full brunt of it.

I have decided to list five blogposts taking part in today’s blog action against poverty. There is a lot of sense and advice in these posts, and I thank their writers. Apart from these five, the rest are here: Other Participants

1. Problogger
2. Chrisg.com
3. Crafty Green Poet
4. The Allen Family
5. Airy Persiflage

After she swallowed me, my mother,
swollen with me, looked for the proper place
to empty me, the pain of carrying me
harsh on her body, a weight in a child’s hand.
So she had me among wild poppies at the foot of her
bed, flowers with faces opening, and cactuses
arranged in a range of well-wishing brightness
smiling to welcome me. With a naked cry I arrived
and scribbled my name on the firmament.
When I was older, I met a woman who, like my mother,
couldn’t stomach lumps, and each time
we would lie there, sleeping or making love,
clinging like spoons, medicinal and clanking
like African shells, three spoons if you counted
the child, whose life was about to enter itself.
Our spines curved around its centre
as we lay together. Then one bright day,
near the 6th or 7th month, the elders
summoned us; we trekked to the village,
and the elders announced to us, to her, in
hushed but serious tones, that in her basin
was contained the life, the everlasting.
© Rethabile Masilo

They drove into the sun! Quite sure
that watching a hill for health, and
sawing wood against its grain
strengthens one, gilds the furniture,
they entered the village and parked
bakkies near our home, spilling out
to disappear inside. We stayed still,
waiting for a sign from the sun. I remarked
that dad was shaking and asked why,
why we stood there in that sad sun
while they ransacked our home. Then
Autumn killed itself and died,
giving me the reason as it gave
bark to the earth, leaves, everything
Lesotho winds like to fling at
the seasoned gods, the dust,
the passionate dust of twig and leaf
that brings out setsokotsane whorls,
even as the face turns cold, and pales
with winter. And that is Africa.
What is more, I’ve seen winds twist
on themselves to hide the thing within.
That day God held his breath, and
all those winds got quiet,
showing the very life inside.
© Rethabile Masilo

TROUBLEMAKER
for ntate Madiba, with respect

When his voice hit the audience,
breaking to pieces the only peace we knew
and were sharing among barbed houses on a hill,
it sent birds off to where startled shards go,
his voice the thing we’d sought
to shake our poetry, make sense of the world
the way a bullet never will.

A shipment of negroes
leaves the shore and is forever gone
to render music unto the world,
win an Olympic with a half a nutrition.
In a dire dance of the last dama, they move
like sirige masks among cotton fields.
Still, his voice beckons. A tap root
fills my mouth completely, floor to roof.
The first time I heard him I thought it was a mistake–
this ideal he was preparing to die for,
but it was in his voice, carried to my door
by the choice of an ordeal, joined by others
from far inland into the Maloti mountains,
where between seasons of cold and hot,
snow and sun shuffle the light.

In the chill of night when the wind is still,
the island whispers thoughts of ghosts,
in nomine Patris et Fillii et Spiritus Sancti,
in a voice like the one I took at Peka High School
for the year-end show when, dressed for war,
and having rubbed the struggle into my hair,
my father watching from the front row,
we marched on-stage, and I began with
the words our people had stated in Kliptown:
South Africa belongs to all who live in it.
© Rethabile Masilo

[Click here for links associated with Troublemaker

The Prime Minister of Lesotho, Pakalitha Mosisili, is said to have thrown his weight behind Robert Mugabe. For a while I had started whining about the lack of a position on the part of the Lesotho government. Now, here it is. I’m sorry that it doesn’t please me. Mr Mosisili “told foreign powers on Wednesday to respect the sovereignty of states in the region.” I wonder whether foreign powers here refers to non-southern African states or to all states that are not Zimbabwe.

Ten years ago the government of Mr Mosisili was threatened by a domestic upheaval, and a coup d’etat was feared by most. The beleaguered Lesotho government called for help from SADC, and the then president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, authorised sending troops into Lesotho to calm things down, especially that the government of Lesotho was deemed legitimate then.

In March 1998 parliamentary elections in Lesotho resulted in an overwhelming majority for the ruling Lesotho Congress for Democracy Party, which won 79 out of 80 seats. However allegations of vote fraud soon surfaced, and after a failed lawsuit by the opposition parties, widespread rioting broke out.Under President Nelson Mandela the ANC-led government in South Africa (which completely landlocks Lesotho) announced it would hold a formal inquiry to determine the allegations of corruption. Controversially, the report only alleged minor irregularities.

Mandela authorised the deployment of 700 South African troops to Lesotho on September 22, 1998 to quell the rioting and maintain order. Botswana Defence Force soldiers were also deployed. The operation was described as an “intervention to restore democracy and the rule of law.”

Widespread arson, violence, and looting occurred despite the presence of SANDF soldiers. Troops were pulled out in May 1999 after seven months of occupation. The capital city of Maseru was heavily damaged, requiring a period of several years for rebuilding.
[source…]

What is the difference between Lesotho then and Zimbabwe now? Robert Mugabe has terrorised and killed more people than the rebels in Lesotho had. Mr Mosisili’s government asked for help then, yet he now says the sovereignty of states in the region should be respected. What gives?

Technorati: mosisili mugabe lesotho 1998
Del.icio.us: mosisili mugabe lesotho 1998
Furl: mosisili mugabe lesotho 1998