Into South West Africa
It was on a summer day
that a pair of camouflage coloured
Mig-21 fighters sneaked from Angola,
into South West Africa
and one turned back
and the other continued at 36000 feet
heading southeast.
Although they were tracked by radar
no Mirage or Cheetah fighters
intercepted them
and running out of fuel,
Lt Domingos José de Almeida Vinez
made a dead stick landing
on a farm near Otjivarongo.
The uninjured pilot
surrendered his pistol
to the Police
and in minutes,
was a prisoner
of the SADF.
This incident happened
months after the Cuban Mig-23 attack
on the Calueque dam
and to this day I wonder,
if Vinez and his wingman
was sent on a mission
to check the SAAF’s
interception abilities?
poem by Gert Strydom
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Related quotes
A War Story
There’s a story that have being told
(and I do not know if there is truth to it) ,
that after the slaughtering
of the 47th FAPLA / Cuban brigade at the intersection
of the Lomba and Cuzizi Rivers in Angola,
the mauling of several brigades on the way
to Cuito Cuanavale and the destruction
of that military airfield, the loss of many soldiers,
the destruction of nine Mig fighters
and the loss of huge amounts of Soviet equipment
Fidel Castro was very angry and in a terrible rage
brought his Cuban soldiers in Angola
up to fifty thousand, sent four hundred tanks
and his best pilots to Angola,
after the South African forces had withdrawn
which resulted in the Mig-23 attack
on the Calueque dam
in South West Africa (now Namibia) ,
where a Buffel troop carrier was lost
along with some South African soldiers.
According to the story in vengeance
a team of elite South African
Reconnaissance Commandos
was HALO dropped equipped with
the Fim-92 Stinger anti-aircraft systems
that UNITA had supplied to them,
along with some other weapons and equipment
that these special force soldiers do normally carry
to shoot down MIG-23’s
and Hind attack helicopters
that was putting UNITA under attack
and it has been told that they were dropped
near to an enemy airbase under the nose
of the large Russian aircraft that was scanning
the air for any approaching enemy activities
where they shot down
several fighter jets and attack helicopters,
but that the section-leader
left one pilot to fly off after seeing him
making a cross, begging God for mercy.
The Reconnaissance Commandos managed to withdraw,
were extracted at the allocated extraction point
without any further incident with either FAPLA
or any Cuban enemy units
but the story gets much more interesting.
It is told that while that Recce section-leader
was holidaying in the United States
he took a taxicab from the airport to his hotel,
where the driver (a former Cuban pilot) recognized him
and that he had left Cuba as a refugee.
poem by Gert Strydom
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This Could Not Be The War We Fought In (Cavatina)
The new government talks down; they deceive
about winning
against us, the war in which we did fight;
the beginning
of this deceit is at primary school
and by sinning
they rewrite history to suit their lies,
to look brave in their supporters eyes.
We did destroy a Soviet controlled
Cuban army,
never lost any battle nor the war,
but liberty
given to their imprisoned leaders,
they are now free
to say whatever nonsense they want to,
in their actions atrocities to do.
Citizens did pay the ultimate price,
and went to war,
some died from cowardly terrorist acts,
as was in store;
some women and children were slaughtered
in blood and gore
by planted bombs, some in church mowed down,
in these things this government finds renown.
[References: 'The battle at Cuito Cuanavale: 'The results of the campaign up to April 1988 were 4,785 killed on the Cuban/Faplan side, with 94 tanks and hundreds of combat vehicles destroyed, against 31 South Africans killed in action,3 tanks destroyed (SADF tanks entered the war after the Lomba River campaign) and 11 SADF armoured cars and troop carriers lost. A total of 9 Migs were destroyed and only 1 SAAF Mirage shot down.' (General) Jannie Geldenhuys. (1994) : At the front. Jonathan Ball Publishers. P240.
'The South African force, under the command of Colonel Deon Ferreira, was tasked with carrying out three operations (1) Operation Modular - The aim of which was to halt and reverse the FAPLA / Cuban advance on the UNITA strongholds of Mavinga and Jamba, (2) Operation Hooper - The aim of which was to inflict maximum casualties on the retreating FAPLA / Cuban forces after they had been halted and (3) Operation Packer - The aim of which was to force the FAPLA / Cuban forces to retreat to the west of the Cuito River.' Nortje, Piet (2003) .32 Battalion. Zebra Press.
'In early October the Soviet-Fapla offensive was smashed at the Lomba River near Mavinga. It turned into a headlong retreat over the 120 miles back to the primary launching point at Cuito Cuanavale. In some of the bloodiest battles of the entire civil war, a combined force of some 8,000 UNITA fighters and 4,000 SADF troops destroyed one Fapla brigade and mauled several others out of a total Fapla force of some 18,000 engaged in the three-pronged offensive. Estimates of Fapla losses ranged upward of 4,000 killed and wounded. This offensive had been a Soviet conception from start to finish. Senior Soviet officers played a central role in its execution.... Huge quantities of Soviet equipment were destroyed or fell into UNITA and SADF hands when Fapla broke into a disorganized retreat... The 1987 military campaign represented a stunning humiliation for the Soviet Union, its arms and its strategy.... As of mid-November, the UNITA/SADF force had destroyed the Cuito Cuanavale airfield and pinned down thousands of FAPLA's best remaining units clinging onto the town's defensive perimeters.' Crocker, Chester A. (1992) High Noon in Southern Africa: Making Peace in a Rough Neighbourhood. (Crocker was U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during the Reagan Administration.)
John Turner claims that: 'following their losses, the Cubans were convinced that further military confrontation with the SADF would not succeed.' Turner, John W. (1998) . Continent Ablaze; The Insurgency Wars in Africa,1960 to the Present. Cassell Plc.
Comments made by a Soviet adviser to the Cubans in Angola: 'The people's armed forces for the liberation of Angola have not been able either, even with the help of the Cubans, to decisively defeat the enemy and drive him out of the territory or the country.' M. Ponomariov, Krasnaya Zvezda Magazine; 20 May 1988.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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I fought tall fighters, short fighters, strong fighters, slow fighters, sluggers and boxers. It was either learn or get knocked off.
quote by Sugar Ray Leonard
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Freedom Park
Build your monument to a war
that you have lost at Cuito Cuanavale
and try to deceive the world
about your victory
which was rather your huge loss
and hail Russians and Cubans as your heroes
and we who have paid the cost
knows where victory really laid
and that no bugle ever played its last farewell
to the enemy we sent to hell
and although no one mourns our dead
most of us live on instead.
We do not need to be on any
honour wall
or to be associated
with your heroes
who mowed down people
praying in a church
and set off bombs in the street.
We never lost any battle
nor a war
and our honour is in the lives
of every man, women and child
who in a way are still free.
[Reference: “The results of the campaign up to April 1988 were 4,785 killed on the Cuban/Faplan side, with 94 tanks and hundreds of combat vehicles destroyed, against 31 South Africans killed in action,3 tanks destroyed (SADF tanks entered the war after the Lomba River campaign) and 11 SADF armoured cars and troop carriers lost. A total of 9 Migs were destroyed and only 1 SAAF Mirage shot down.” Jannie Geldenhuys.1994. At the front. P240. Johanathan Ball Publishers.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale
I. Outnumbered by armour (A reply to William Shakespeare)
Outnumbered by armour
and by men we met the enemy,
FAPLA and Cubans under Russian leadership
and the men accompanying me
was very worried
and wished for the whole
of the seventh armoured division
to have been deployed.
I said to the men
in the armoured car with me
that if we must die here in vain,
the fewer men it be
but if we grasp the victory
the world will know
that we are brave and honourable men
capable of destroying whatever faces us.
Weary I told them that our ancestors
faced a outnumbering enemy
against Dingaan and won effectively
as they were in the hand of God
and so were we.
Colonel Deon Ferreira send us straight in,
from Rundu
(heading north-west after crossing the border)
to intercept the 47th enemy FAPLA / Cuban (armoured) brigade.
At the same time UNITA were repulsing
the16th FAPLA (infantry) brigade
north of the Lomba River
that was trying to take Cunjamba.
We were hitting hard directly from the south,
surprising the 47th enemy (armoured) Brigade,
virtually destroying it
at the junction
of the Lomba and Cuzizi Rivers
fighting with armoured cars
against tanks
hitting fast and then driving away at speed,
like on commando our ancestors did
during the Anglo Boer war
fighting day and night
till the field, the air was filled with gore
and when more pressure came,
more enemy armour rolled in
our own main battle tanks joined in,
howitzer guns started firing in support
from many miles away,
assisted by reconnaissance commandos
for accurate targeting
It was the greatest slaughtering,
as battles go a terrible, terrible thing
for our enemy
while we wiped them out
and found ten abandoned enemy tanks
left in the bush, in pristine condition
with the men operating them running away
Shortly after these victories
our forces along with those of UNITA
destroyed the remaining FAPLA / Cuban forces
in the Lomba-Cuzizi-Conzumbia aria
and on the offensive
drove back the other enemy brigades
for a distance of one hundred and twenty miles
in bloody battles up to Cuito Cuanavale
l’Envoi
and now on a hill outside Pretoria
the new government
has constructed a monument
called Freedom Park
to celebrate a victory,
thinking that with lies
they can change history,
are even trying to find some Cubans
to place the names of them on a honour wall
as heroes and victors
while they had lost
at a terrible cost of men and machines
and incredibly
some people believe them.
[References: Before Agincourt by William Shakespeare.]
II. Legends and victories in Angola of which the truth is vague (in answer to Johan Myburg)
No person that wasn’t there
can grasp the extent, of the impact
of the Cuban brigades
the air bridge that the Russians had build
with new armour and weapons from Moscow,
the deadly danger that attacks
of the 47th (armoured) ,59th (mechanized) ,16th (infantry) ,
and 21st (infantry) ,25th (infantry) , enemy brigades held
when almost a hundred T-55 tanks
and hundreds of BTR-armoured cars
came driving shooting out of the bush
(supported by MIG-23 fighter bombers) ,
knows how it is when Ratel-90 armoured cars
have to come to a standstill,
to fire upon moving and shooting targets
and in that hour of hell
the truth about a giant victory against
Cuba wasn’t vague,
the whole of the 47th FAPLA / Cuban (armoured) brigade
was totally obliterated,
ninety-four enemy tanks was shot out,
almost three hundred armoured cars were reduced to scrap
four thousand five hundred and eighty enemies were killed
nine MIG fighter jets were shot down
against the lost of only three South African tanks,
eleven armoured cars and troop carriers,
one Mirage fighter jet
and thirty-one South African soldiers.
Whoever views the truth of this victory as vague
hasn’t got a clue
of what had happened there
(probably had hidden as a religious pastor
somewhere in the rearguard,
or were away at home)
Whoever believes the false propaganda
distributed by the new government
and the Cubans,
are without proper knowledge
and disputes the bravery
of the undefeated soldiers
of the 61 mechanised
and 32 South African battalion groups.
l’Envoi
Still it’s strange
that the Cuban general Ochoa Sanchez
(who was the supreme commander of this conflict)
was executed in Cuba.
[References: Stigtingsdag (Founder’s day) by Johan Myburg:
“maar duisend-en-een angolese verhale
van brigades kubane
sages van seges waarvan
waarheid maar vaag is”
My translation into English:
“but a thousand and one Angolan stories
of brigades of Cubans
legends of victories of which
the truth is but vague”
The battle at Cuito Cuanavale: “The results of the campaign up to April 1988 were 4,785 killed on the Cuban/Faplan side, with 94 tanks and hundreds of combat vehicles destroyed, against 31 South Africans killed in action,3 tanks destroyed (SADF tanks entered the war after the Lomba River campaign) and 11 SADF armoured cars and troop carriers lost. A total of 9 Migs were destroyed and only 1 SAAF Mirage shot down.” (General) Jannie Geldenhuys. (1994) : At the front. Jonathan Ball Publishers. P240.
“The South African force, under the command of Colonel Deon Ferreira, was tasked with carrying out three operations (1) Operation Modular - The aim of which was to halt and reverse the FAPLA / Cuban advance on the UNITA strongholds of Mavinga and Jamba, (2) Operation Hooper - The aim of which was to inflict maximum casualties on the retreating FAPLA / Cuban forces after they had been halted and (3) Operation Packer - The aim of which was to force the FAPLA / Cuban forces to retreat to the west of the Cuito River.” Nortje, Piet (2003) .32 Battalion. Zebra Press.
'In early October the Soviet-Fapla offensive was smashed at the Lomba River near Mavinga. It turned into a headlong retreat over the 120 miles back to the primary launching point at Cuito Cuanavale. In some of the bloodiest battles of the entire civil war, a combined force of some 8,000 UNITA fighters and 4,000 SADF troops destroyed one Fapla brigade and mauled several others out of a total Fapla force of some 18,000 engaged in the three-pronged offensive. Estimates of Fapla losses ranged upward of 4,000 killed and wounded. This offensive had been a Soviet conception from start to finish. Senior Soviet officers played a central role in its execution.... Huge quantities of Soviet equipment were destroyed or fell into UNITA and SADF hands when Fapla broke into a disorganized retreat... The 1987 military campaign represented a stunning humiliation for the Soviet Union, its arms and its strategy.... As of mid-November, the UNITA/SADF force had destroyed the Cuito Cuanavale airfield and pinned down thousands of FAPLA's best remaining units clinging onto the town's defensive perimeters.' Crocker, Chester A. (1992) High Noon in Southern Africa: Making Peace in a Rough Neighbourhood. (Crocker was U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during the Reagan Administration.)
John Turner claims that: “following their losses, the Cubans were convinced that further military confrontation with the SADF would not succeed.” Turner, John W. (1998) . Continent Ablaze; The Insurgency Wars in Africa,1960 to the Present. Cassell Plc.
Comments made by a Soviet adviser to the Cubans in Angola: 'The people's armed forces for the liberation of Angola have not been able either, even with the help of the Cubans, to decisively defeat the enemy and drive him out of the territory or the country.” M. Ponomariov, Krasnaya Zvezda Magazine; 20 May 1988.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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Anthem to the 47th Cuban / Faplan Brigade
Whom but your mothers back in Havana
and some in Luanda
mourn your lost or knows
that you were slaughtered in battle
as if human life
holds nothing sacred,
were wiped out by one
of only two battalions
at the junction of the Lomba
and Cuzizi Rivers,
that you heard Ratel armoured cars
driving in at speed,
the roar of Olifant tanks
and the thunder of their guns
or the whining stutter of machineguns
nor did you probably say any prayers
before deadly shells fell from the sky.
What remorse does your supreme leader feel
when your mothers, wives and children
light up candles
(who never really had a chance
for a proper goodbye)
and knows by now
that you will never come home.
[Reference: “The results of the campaign up to April 1988 were 4,785 killed on the Cuban/Faplan side, with 94 tanks and hundreds of combat vehicles destroyed, against 31 South Africans killed in action,3 tanks destroyed (SADF tanks entered the war after the Lomba River campaign) and 11 SADF armoured cars and troop carriers lost. A total of 9 Migs were destroyed and only 1 SAAF Mirage shot down.” Jannie Geldenhuys.1994: At the front. P240. Johanthan Ball Publishers.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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Undeclared war breaks out and now a winter of despair
Undeclared war breaks out and now a winter of despair
with enemies in great numbers everywhere
with grey clouds blowing in from Cuba, Russia
and thundering the bear growls,
but we have seen some beasts before
our ancestors have fought against a superpower
to a bitter end
and although much fewer of us take
to the battle field than them
with mainly armoured cars against tanks
the inhuman slaughter is of them
and although blood flows for sprouting seed
death claims its toll for life to proceed
and spring is coming with all its speed,
but no victory is ever sweet
and killing leaves its marks indeed,
but all other means would have been in vain
although war leaves its marks of pain
and I would rather have seen
a better life for all of us,
as friends have drank coffee
and smoked a cigar
somewhere in a Cuban café
but reality has no place
for dreamers like me
and liberty at times charges a price.
[Reference: “The results of the campaign up to April 1988 were 4,785 killed on the Cuban/Faplan side, with 94 tanks and hundreds of combat vehicles destroyed, against 31 South Africans killed in action,3 tanks destroyed (SADF tanks entered the war after the Lomba River campaign) and 11 SADF armoured cars and troop carriers lost. A total of 9 Migs were destroyed and only 1 SAAF Mirage shot down.” Jannie Geldenhuys.1994: At the front. P240. Johanthan Ball Publishers.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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When the mountain with all its peaks are ablaze (pantoum)
flames spread further with destruction
from where the mountain is ablaze
running into almost every direction
with smoke causing a big haze
From where the mountain is ablaze
fire-fighters attack the flames with huge devotion
with smoke causing a big haze
monitors do their planning with presumption,
fire-fighters attack the flames with huge devotion
but the fire spreads as far as they can gaze,
monitors do their planning with presumption,
some people are trapped as in a maze,
but the fire spreads as far as they can gaze,
while fire-fighters use everything at their disposition
some people are trapped as in a maze,
are caught in moments of emotion
while fire-fighters use everything at their disposition
running into almost every direction,
are caught in moments of emotion,
flames spread further with destruction.
poem by Gert Strydom
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The fallen Cuban soldier
Your hand lies stretched out
and still holds on to your Ak
where you lie in Angola,
in the African bush in the last sleep
and in Luanda
and later in Havana
they know that you are missing
and are probably dead.
Nobody of your unit
will ever again,
drive tanks and armoured cars
and their general
does not wait on their return.
Somewhere in Cuba a woman mourns
and waits in vain,
to ever again
hear something from you.
You lifted your weapon
against boys from South Africa
and the bullets of an Afrikaner boy
pierced you.
Your camouflage uniform
is stained with blood
and you are placed in a hole
in the red-brown sand
and white powder,
is dropped on top of you
before you become a part
of the cold earth.
Later a Ovambo’s farm goats
will graze above you and eat
from the thorn bushes,
that grows over you
and you will be forgotten by everyone.
[Ak=Ak47 submachine gun.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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It Comes - Part 6
(It is suggested that the reader reads Parts 1,2,3,4 and 5 first)
Naval fighters in the vicinity of the Coast Guard flight
last known position flew towards it.
Reaching the area, they noticed
the blue light moving north and commenced their first attack.
Rockets were fired.
Great fountains of water sprouted into the air
as the rockets exploded beneath the surface.
The blue light seemed unaffected
and continued moving northward.
A second attack was launched
and further fountains of water reached out of the sea.
Slowly the blue light got smaller
as the creature dived deeper under the waves.
The fighters returned to base
to be debriefed and have their aircraft refuelled and rearmed.
Military Chiefs concurred that the rockets exploded at depths,
which could not reach the creature.
The only other way was to time the rockets
to explode with delays.
Work began on modifying the rockets
on all search aircraft.
It was tried to estimate how far down
the creature would be swimming
and how long it would take the rockets to reach it.
Each night squadrons comprising of five aircraft to search the seas.
Another month passed before the blue light was again spotted.
Naval fighters from several different countries
moved towards the position.
The first five fighters there commenced their attack.
Rockets were fired hit the water caused splashes
without exploding.
The seconds passed as the aircraft
swooped upwards out of their dive.
As they reached the top of their climb,
the rockets exploded throwing up great fountains of water
and pieces of something.
As the sea calmed a large stain that appeared red
under the moonlight surrounded the area.
The blue light had disappeared.
Deep below the surface
eyes watched as bits of the creature gently floated down.
Some pieces were intercepted by sharks.
Their eyes closed in temporary sadness.
The experiment had been a failure.
One day they would be back to try again.
The End……or is it?
3 October 2009
Author’s Note.
If you have read It Comes and enjoyed it, you might like to read other cliffhanging pieces I have written. The titles are as follows and how many parts there are.
An Invitation To Tea (A Dark Comedy) (3 Parts)
Casebook Of Oliver Cyriax 1# The Burning Bush (4 Parts)
Eyes Of Mr D (5 Parts)
The Hogarth Experiment (6 Parts)
poem by David Harris
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It Comes - Part 5
(It is suggested that the reader reads Parts 1,2,3, and 4 first)
Dr Maitland shook his head,
“I am saying the elements
in the structure of the gel
are similar to that produced by a spider.”
“Then what are you implying then Dr? ”
“That the creature is a mutated form of cephalopod
that has accidentally surfaced in search of food.
Living in the darkness, it will feed at night.
As we know, the ships have disappeared in the darkness.
My theory is that the creature ejects the gel over the ship.
The substance with its sticky nature
virtually gules everything from floating away,
hence no wreckage or debris.
It then drags it down into the depths
to a place to devour it at it leisure.”
“We know that giant squids exist and have evidence of that.*
We also know that they live
a thousand feet beneath the surface.
This creature I believe lives
at a far deeper depth
and that over the centuries
mutated to its present form.”
“How are we going to stop such a creature
if our ships are vulnerable to attack?
Submarines would be just as vulnerable to a similar attack.”
“The air forces are the only means
we have at our disposal without risking more lives.
We would have to fight it from the air.
As it is a predator of the darkness,
they will have to search at night.
First to locate it and then destroy it.”
Naval air forces were launched each night
and a massive search was begun.
Civilian night flights over water
were asked to report any strange blue lights
emulating from beneath the seas.
A month passed without any sightings.
On November 4th 1979,
an Australian Coast Guard flight to New Zealand
noticed a blue light moving quickly
beneath the surface of the water.
The pilot radioed his position and followed it,
up dating the position every ten minutes.
From land, the Coast Guard flight was tracked by radar
and its position radioed to naval fighters within the vicinity.
At 11: 55 pm moments after its last report,
the flight disappeared from the radar screen.
3 October 2009
* Note:
The largest squid was caught in fishing nets off New Zealand in February 2007. The Colossal Squid measured 33 feet and weighed 1,091 lbs. It is believed that there are larger ones than this still undiscovered.
To be concluded
poem by David Harris
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Heading South
Orbison/dees
I want to talk to folks back home again, to walk along a lonely country lane
To spend some time with that woman of mine, heading south, heading south
Things look bright and I feel alright yeah Im heading south
Heading south to see the sun go down on camp fire light,to join the singing at night
Heading south to cotton rows and honeysuckle bloom
Under the cumberland moon heading south, heading south
Give me room to travel on my way to a place where dreams all fade away
Where the river flows and tobacco grows heading south heading south
Cause the sun is hot and people love a lot yeah Im heading south
Heading south to see the sun go down on camp fire light, to join the singing at night
Heading south to cotton rows and honeysuckle bloom under the cumberland moon
Heading south, heading south
song performed by by Roy Orbison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
the home of the slaves
and the land of no freedom
I'm gonna take the south out of South Africa
where George Wallace stood
on the University steps
and said no blacks
no blacks shall enter here
except over my dead
and crippled body
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
where separate but equal means
that blacks lived in the homelands
and not in their homes
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
where Jim Crow laws
have tried to change their colors
but it's still the same old shackles
call Apartheid
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
where young people are detained
...without trials
...without lawyers
...without rights
but never
... without hope
I'm gonna take the South out of South Africa
poem by Oscar Mireles
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Talking Of Power And Love
Between all my torments between death and self
Between my despair and the reason for living
There is injustice and this evil of men
That I cannot accept there is my anger
There are the blood-coloured fighters of Spain
There are the sky-coloured fighters of Greece
The bread the blood the sky and the right to hope
For all the innocents who hate evil
The light is always close to dying
Life always ready to become earth
But spring is reborn that is never done with
A bud lifts from dark and the warmth settles
And the warmth will have the right of the selfish
Their atrophied senses will not resist
I hear the fire talk lightly of coolness
I hear a man speak what he has not known
You who were my flesh’s sensitive conscience
You I love forever you who made me
You will not tolerate oppression or injury
You’ll sing in dream of earthly happiness
You’ll dream of freedom and I’ll continue you
poem by Paul Eluard
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Neither our oceans nor our radar nor our fighters can keep us intact through another major war.
quote by Philip Morrison
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A statesman: then and now
He stands on the podium
with his hat
in his hand
pressed against his chest
on the border with Angola
in his country
(as he still rules
over South West Africa)
and his bare head shines
under the bright Africa sun
where he himself was born
and Ratel armoured cars,
tanks, rocket launchers
and artillery drive past in convoys
back from Angola
to get a salute from him.
He stands like a giant
alone against dark Africa
will nuclear devices
waiting ready in bombs
and missiles
for ballistic purposes
are being manufactured.
Later lump after lump
of sand
falls down in his grave
while a lost journalist
runs for photos around it
and he doesn’t any more know
what is happening
in his own country
and about thunderbolts
that falls from everywhere
on his people
and rumble ominous
above his grave,
not even about water flowing
above him in a rain stream
and every sunrise
that without equal
unfolds above him
and worms gnawing
patiently on his body
since every thing
fades for him to nothing.
poem by Gert Strydom
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Freedom Fighters
Today I heard what them people say
Dem want to live free greedily, with everyone to pay.
You play under the sun while others fight and dies away
but I say if you don't like it this way, then why stay? Go away
Freedom Fighters
Ignite Jah
Freedom Fighters
Shine Jah
Live free, Be free, Die free
Freedom Fighters
Live free, Be free, Die free
Ignite Jah
Live free, Be free, Die free
Freedom Fighters
Live free, Be free, Die free
Shine Jah
Today I heard what them people say
Them say "The Man came in and he took our choice away"
You portray selfishness and hate
While some prepare to die today
I say you fade away, appreciate life and liberate
Freedom Fighters
Ignite Jah
Freedom Fighters
Shine Jah
Live free, Be free, Die free
Freedom Fighters
Live free, Be free, Die free
Ignite Jah
Live free, Be free, Die free
Freedom Fighters
Live free, Be free, Die free
Shine Jah
We have the right - to live in peace
and you must fight - for what you keep
If what you keep - holds truth inside
Stand up, defend - lay down and die
We have the right to live in peace
You must fight for what you keep
If what you keep holds truth inside
Stand up, defend, or lay down and die
Freedom Fighters
Ignite Jah
Freedom Fighters
Shine Jah
Live free, Be free, Die free
Freedom Fighters
Live free, Be free, Die free
Ignite Jah
Live free, Be free, Die free
Freedom Fighters
Live free, Be free, Die free
Shine Jah
Live free, Be free
Jah say live free
Jah say die free
Live free, Jah say die free
Live free, Jah say be free
I and I, Live free
I and I, Die free
Stand up, defend or lay down and die
Stand up, defend or lay down and die
Stand up, defend or lay down and die
Stand up, defend or lay down and die
song performed by by P.O.D.
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Our Chikangawa Forest
Our green sea, our Chikangawa forest
How beautiful you are in our eyes
Like our precious stone you glitter
from above
You are our hope in our frozen hearts
But where are you heading to?
From northern star but to the south
You stretch your hand
From eastern Nyasa but to the west is your head
From up and shine is aray
broadcasting words of arch smiles
Our Kamuzu dreamt about you
And walked over your grin soils
Yes, he planted you, Chikangawa
Our man made queen caressed in green
But where are you heading to?
Our rock today and tomorrow
Our source of rain now and next day
Our medicine today and near the future
Our only man made gavalnised in Africa
And slide in as asingle pine parade
But where are you heading to?
But solely you are in sweeping winds
Over you it blows and goes
On your leg cancer has engulfed
Yes, is our hatrege stinging you?
We hate you now, our flower of Africa
We hate your roles, and plung into your fresh
But where are you heading to?
Our man made green are you afraid, afraid of climate change?
To the right leg the bruises are seen
As we reduce you to some ages
But where are you heading to?
O' no! We need you the more
We need you for timber
We need you for paparwork
And build us with the eastern sky
O' yes, tie us while you are still alive
But where are you heading to?
Are you going with your dreamer man
Our president, how proud we're in him
and Chikangawa forest welcomed him
And said, my author plant me, plant me
But where are you heading to?
You are our pillow ever and ever
Our precious stone, embelded in our hearts
And we love you for your freshness
And inside you, we catch our air breath
With our bliss we still stand in Central Africa
But where are you heading to?
poem by Paul Mwenelupembe
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The beret must have been a dead give away
To this day I know that
the beret must have been
a dead give away,
and the shoulder flashes
also proclaimed something
of the military unit that I belonged to.
Tired and almost asleep on my feet
after the long military flight
out of the war zone,
the soft rain smelled
fresh and it was cold
where I hiked
the last stint home.
Fourteen days leave
came as a real blessing
and just being away
and back in the states
was really great
A Brand new blue BMW
stopped next to me
and the occupants were
very friendly
and it was warm inside the car.
It looked like a mom and dad
and beautiful eighteen-year old daughter,
but they were foreigners
and introduced themselves as American.
The girl really liked me
and their accents were all American,
but something was just not right
and I couldn’t put my finger on it
and just maybe they were just a little too much
into being Americans.
The man remarked that he find it curious
for a officer to be hiking
and I thought that NATO probably
had similar ranks
and I explained that my
camp was away in the war zone
and that there was no way
to take my motorbike
all the way there.
The woman was driving
and the man frowned
at the bars and badges
on the chest of my bush jacket,
as if the combination of them
did not make sense to him.
It’s another thing to be seconded
to different units
and to complete some
of their training
and I realised that for Americans,
they probably knew
a little to much about our army
and were most probably
intelligence for the enemy.
The girl treated me like a hero
and wanted to know
about my unit
and somewhere questions
about unit strengths
and targetable distances
crept into the conversation,
but I steered the conversation
in to another direction.
The man wanted to know
if we were really going to win the war
when the enemy use heavy armour
and I said that we would win
against any thing that they bring
and it would be better for everyone
if the Cubans just packed up
and went back home
and the man laughed at me doubtfully.
Maybe there was something prophetic
in those words
as was proved at the Cuito Cuanavale battle
and I told them how
my ancestors in a twenty thousand strong
Boer farmer citizen force army,
had subdued a British army of
four hundred and fifty thousand
for three years long.
Little did they know
that my words said much more
and that Ratel-90 crews
used the same tactics
of fast movement
and accurate shooting
and great bravery
in dealing with enemy tanks.
There’s something very brave
to stop dead still
with a Ratel armoured car
to stabilize the gun
to be able to get the shot off
while a enemy tank
that can shoot while it moves
is charging towards you,
but that piece of information
never came out.
[References: The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale “The results of the campaign up to April 1988 were 4,785 killed on the Cuban/Faplan side, with 94 tanks and hundreds of combat vehicles destroyed, against 31 South Africans killed in action,3 tanks destroyed (SADF tanks entered the war after the Lomba River campaign) and 11 SADF armoured cars and troop carriers lost. A total of 9 Migs were destroyed and only 1 SAAF Mirage shot down.” Jannie Geldenhuys.1994: At the front: 240 Johanathan Ball Publishers. The states=> Back home in South Africa. NATO North Atlantic treaty organization.]
poem by Gert Strydom
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Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?
quote by George Carlin
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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