a boy asks about sounds in a divided country

BEYOND THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE



Pieter strolled with oupa on the veld.
He asked the elder, “What sound is that?”
Oupa looked at the boy whose hand he held.
“Tis the springbok fleeing cat.”

(refrain) Thump-thump-thump!
Bayete!
U-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu!*


Again the boy cocked his little ear.
Birds swooped and skimmed the view.
“What is that now I hear?”
“Surely, it’s the piet-my-vrou.”


(refrain) Thump-thump-thump!
Bayete!
U-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu!


The boy, again, a puzzled spirit,
Asked, “Oupa, what’s that, tell me?”
“Perhaps it is a cool, clear spruit
Bubbling down a kop into the sea.”


(refrain) Thump-thump-thump!
Bayete!
U-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu!


The boy, as if he heard a dirge,
Grabbed his Oupa, began to nag.
Oupa said, “Winds of Drakensberg
Howling down a rocky crag.”


(refrain) Thump-thump-thump!
Bayete!
U-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu!


Oupa led the child through quilted flowers,
Colorful sprays abroad the kloof.
“Son, God gave us this land of power.
The Bible is our given proof.”


(refrain) Thump-thump-thump!
Bayete!
U-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu!


In Natal, Transvaal and the Great Karoo,
In the shadow of the Boer kirk,
A curious boy asks, “We are who?”
And Oups answers, “God’s Masterwork.”


(refrain) Thump-thump-thump!
Bayete!
U-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu-lu!


3/20/1981



*The refrain is the voice of the Zulu warriors. When massed for battle, the Zulu warriors with their assegais and body shields made an imposing image. While facing the enemy the warriors in unison would bang their assegais (thump-thump-thump), shout “Bayete!” (I drink the blood of my enemies!), and then begin the ululation as they began moving toward the enemy.

The Zulu army was organized: Each general was in charge of an impi (regiment) which was divided into cohorts based on age and experience.

I read “Beyond the Cape of Good Hope” at the Greenwich Village Café in Tampa. As an audience participation poem, the verses with the boy and oupa are read by one voice while the audience bangs on tables and stomps feet, yells “Bayete!” and ululates for the refrain. It was effective and enjoyable.  The poem was first published in Monsters in a Half-way House, 1981.

That was before the end of Apartheid and the ascendance of Nelson Mandela.

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