Apartheid

ABC WEDNESDAY

APARTHEID

It was an Alice in Wonderland world,

A very strange enigma,

In which everything one touched

Was tainted by the stigma.

I was one of the lucky ones,

With a skin of pallid white,

And so I could hardly imagine

My African neighbour's plight.

Not that he really was 'neighbour',

He lived 'over there' somewhere,

And we knew, in a vaguely complacent way,

That the way of life wasn't fair.

We weren't allowed in his township,

So we never came face-to-face,

With the shanty-towns in the distance,

The national disgrace.

Then, one day, I was on a beach

Where Blacks did not belong,

And 'Biff!' it suddenly hit me.....

Apartheid was so wrong!

I looked along the golden beach

Bathed in the sun's bright light

And all I saw were White bodies;

Everyone was white!

I knew I was living in 'Wonderland',

Where Carrol's Alice found

That everything was crazy,

Upsidedown and turned around.

I left South Africa very soon,

Although I loved it dearly,

And I left with selfish motives,

I see that very clearly.

I was part of a strange experiment

That now is history.

But the fact that it ever happened at all,

Is due to folk like me.

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           Brenda Bryant

TWIRLING!

Take your partner! Do-see-do!

Swing her high and swing her low!

Circle her till her eyes are popping,

Never ever think of stopping.

How your petticoats are swirling!

You dazzle us with all that twirling!

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