God Bless Africa

OF HOMERS AND HEROES

(Originally published in Common Place Quarterley's 'Character(s) To Live By' column)

Once we Zimbabweans also sang the national anthem of our neighbour South Africa. I’ve read ‘Cry, the Beloved Country’, a South African story, at a time when my nation is in the middle of a spiralling economic downfall. Prices of everyday necessities have sky-rocketed, corruption is rife, teachers and doctors are on strike and the young and old are dying in a floundering health care system.

“There had never been such a drought in this country. The oldest men of the tribe could not remember such a time as this, when the leaves fell from the trees till they stood as though it were winter, and the small tough-footed boys ran from shade to shade because of the heat of the ground. If one walked on the grass, it crackled underfoot as it did after a fire, and in the whole valley there was not one stream that was running … The sun poured down out of a pitiless sky, and the cattle moved thin and listless over the veld to the dried-up streams, to pluck the cropped grass from the edges of the beds.”

Southern Africa has experienced a severe drought this past year. The clouds have sailed by, off to water far away places — leaving heavy hearts in their wake. The barren, red soil reveals a thin and wretched land, bare-boned, tired and shamefaced because her bosom can no longer feed her children. And now, because of the great need for firewood, many trees are left as stumps — they no longer clap their hands in joy.

Inzwai miteuro yedu

Hear our prayers: give us a love that casts out all fear.

Much of Alan Paton’s novel tells of the heartache of Stephen Kumalo and James Jarvis. Both of them fathers, whose lives are irrevocably changed by their sons. Their sorrow is echoed in our land: “God save Africa, the beloved country. God save us from the deep depths of our sins. God save us from the fear that is afraid of justice. God save us from the fear that is afraid of men. God save us all.”

Huya mweya

Come Holy Spirit, may the young men see visions, and the old men dream dreams.

The elderly Kumalo is transformed by his encounters with the young minister, Theopholis Msimangu: a man with a voice and heart of gold. Msimangu declares that, “…[T]here is only one thing that has power completely, and that is love. Because when a man loves, he seeks no power, and therefore he has power. I see only one hope for our country, and that is when … [men], desiring neither power nor money, but desiring only the good of the country, come together to work for it.”

Cry, my beloved country!

Where is the desire for the common good?

Where are the men and women with golden hearts that read from the ‘book of golden words’ — the ones that give everything up for love’s sake? James Jarvis is deeply moved by the words of his son of Arthur: “I shall devote myself, my time, my energy, my talents, to the service of South Africa. I shall no longer ask myself if this or that is expedient, but only if it is right. I shall do this, not because I am noble or unselfish, but because life slips away, and because I need for the rest of my journey a star that will not play false to me, a compass that will not lie.”

Uti komborere, Isu mhuri yayo.

Come bless your children! Renew our strength.

This year the flamboyant trees have put on an extravagant show of red, declaring glory in drought. I hear them whisper, “flourish where you are planted.” As I tap at the keyboard, the first rain showers of the season pitapat on the roof. I have fond memories of dancing in downpours and singing to the skies, “It's raining, it's pouring, the old man is snoring …” Today, because of the golden deeds of the men in this story, a new song has welled up in me: “You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills; they give drink to every beast of the field; let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy.”

To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite;

To forgive wrongs darker than death or night;

To defy Power, which seems omnipotent;

To love, and bear; to hope till Hope creates

From its own wreck the thing it contemplates;

Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent;

This, like thy glory … is to be

Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;

This is alone Life, Joy … and Victory

-Shelley

Ishe komborera Africa

God Bless Africa!

[Unless otherwise stated, all quotations are from Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton]