That Is Where My Umbilical Cord Is
by Ndaba Sibanda
Today you stand tall in defiance of all the challenges
Right in the southwestern part of the country
Just like in the year 1893 when a Union flag was raised
As the huts of King Lobengula’s capital were up in flames
Did Dr. Leander Starr Jameson not congratulate himself
For scoring a British South Africa company’s victory?
In the first place, why did King Lobengula say: I’m he who is
Persecuted and rejected, if his ascension had been bloodless?
* * *
These days some young folk affectionately call you Skies
I prefer to call you Ntuthuziyathunqa or Ntuthu in short
A nickname which speaks volumes
About you being an industrial hub
Or so you used to be a habitation
Where industrial smoke abounded
Bulawayo my majestic city
Bulawayo what a stunning city
Bulawayo rich in cultural history
Were you not the commercial capital?
A great gateway to Southern Africa?
Were you not our transport nucleus?
For you provided rail links between
Botswana and South Africa and Zambia
Located within the vicinity of the Matobo Hills
And the Victoria Falls and the Hwange National Park
They can do or say whatever they want
But Bulawayo you are my umbilical cord
You are my pride and in my heart forever
Bulawayo City of Kings and Queens
Roar Into Life
by Ndaba Sibanda
it’s better to give us a plate
full of fried bitterness than
too much sugar because
that causes fat droplets!
it was as if I were listening
to a team of tough-talking
health and fitness experts
but those were editors!
they ranted: speak rawness
into the truth about life
stretch our capacity
for compassion
test our understanding
enter the heart of what
we cherish or cheapen
and interrogate it madly
I knew then that the narrative
was never going to be a sleep-
inducing affair anymore
but a wake-up call
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