THE BIRTH OF SHAKA ZULU.
by Mbuyiseni Oswald Mtshali.
This poem is about another of the great legendary figures of Africa, Shaka Zulu. He conquered many tribes and ruled over large parts of South-eastern Africa in the early nineteenth century.
His baby cry
was of a cub
tearing the neck
of lioness
because he was fatherless.
The Gods
boiled his blood
in a clay pot of passion
to course in his veins.
His heart was shaped into an ox shield
to foil every foe.
Ancestors forged
his muscles into
thongs as tough
as wattle bark
and never
as sharp as
syringa thorns.
His eyes were lanterns
that shone from the dark valleys of Zululand
to see white swallows
coming across the see.
His cry to two assassin brothers:
"Lo! You can kill me
but you'll never rule this land"
The poem above describes the baby Shaka in ways which shows how powerful and fearsome he was. Swallows are birds which live part of the year in Africa and part in Europe.
So, now what did you think the prophecy that his cry makes at the end?
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