| I owe by being to the hills and the
| |
| | the children, the disabled and the old,
|
| valleys, the mountains and the glades,
| |
| | the rapacious who brook no obstacle in
|
| the rivers, the deserts, the trees, the
| |
| | their quest for self-enrichment.
|
| flowers, the seas and the ever-changing
| |
| | All this I know and know to be true
|
| seasons that define the face of our
| |
| | because I am an African!
|
| native land.
| |
| | Because of that, I am also able to state
|
| My body has frozen in our frosts and in
| |
| | this fundamental truth that I am born of
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| our latter day snows. It has thawed in
| |
| | a people who are heroes and heroines.
|
| the warmth of our sunshine and melted in
| |
| | I am born of a people who would not
|
| the heat of the midday sun. The crack and
| |
| | tolerate oppression.
|
| the rumble of the summer thunders, lashed
| |
| | I am of a nation that would not allow
|
| by startling lightening, have been a
| |
| | that fear of death, torture,
|
| cause both of trembling and of hope.
| |
| | imprisonment, exile or persecution should
|
| The fragrances of nature have been as
| |
| | result in the perpetuation of injustice.
|
| pleasant to us as the sight of the wild
| |
| | The great masses who are our mother and
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| blooms of the citizens of the veld.
| |
| | father will not permit that the behaviour
|
| The dramatic shapes of the Drakensberg,
| |
| | of the few results in the description of
|
| the soil-coloured waters of the Lekoa,
| |
| | our country and people as barbaric.
|
| iGqili noThukela, and the sands of the
| |
| | Patient because history is on their side,
|
| Kgalagadi, have all been panels of the
| |
| | these masses do not despair because today
|
| set on the natural stage on which we act
| |
| | the weather is bad. Nor do they turn
|
| out the foolish deeds of the theatre of
| |
| | triumphalist when, tomorrow, the sun
|
| our day.
| |
| | shines.
|
| At times, and in fear, I have wondered
| |
| | Whatever the circumstances they have
|
| whether I should concede equal
| |
| | lived through and because of that
|
| citizenship of our country to the leopard
| |
| | experience, they are determined to define
|
| and the lion, the elephant and the
| |
| | for themselves who they are and who they
|
| springbok, the hyena, the black mamba and
| |
| | should be.
|
| the pestilential mosquito.
| |
| | We are assembled here today to mark their
|
| A human presence among all these, a
| |
| | victory in acquiring and exercising their
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| feature on the face of our native land
| |
| | right to formulate their own definition
|
| thus defined, I know that none dare
| |
| | of what it means to be African.
|
| challenge me when I say - I am an
| |
| | The constitution whose adoption we
|
| African!
| |
| | celebrate constitutes and unequivocal
|
| I owe my being to the Khoi and the San
| |
| | statement that we refuse to accept that
|
| whose desolate souls haunt the great
| |
| | our Africanness shall be defined by our
|
| expanses of the beautiful Cape - they who
| |
| | race, colour, gender of historical
|
| fell victim to the most merciless
| |
| | origins.
|
| genocide our native land has ever seen,
| |
| | It is a firm assertion made by ourselves
|
| they who were the first to lose their
| |
| | that South Africa belongs to all who live
|
| lives in the struggle to defend our
| |
| | in it, black and white.
|
| freedom and dependence and they who, as a
| |
| | It gives concrete expression to the
|
| people, perished in the result.
| |
| | sentiment we share as Africans, and will
|
| Today, as a country, we keep an audible
| |
| | defend to the death, that the people
|
| silence about these ancestors of the
| |
| | shall govern.
|
| generations that live, fearful to admit
| |
| | It recognises the fact that the dignity
|
| the horror of a former deed, seeking to
| |
| | of the individual is both an objective
|
| obliterate from our memories a cruel
| |
| | which society must pursue, and is a goal
|
| occurrence which, in its remembering,
| |
| | which cannot be separated from the
|
| should teach us not and never to be
| |
| | material well-being of that individual.
|
| inhuman again.
| |
| | It seeks to create the situation in which
|
| I am formed of the migrants who left
| |
| | all our people shall be free from fear,
|
| Europe to find a new home on our native
| |
| | including the fear of the oppression of
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| land. Whatever their own actions, they
| |
| | one national group by another, the fear
|
| remain still, part of me.
| |
| | of the disempowerment of one social
|
| In my veins courses the blood of the
| |
| | echelon by another, the fear of the use
|
| Malay slaves who came from the East.
| |
| | of state power to deny anybody their
|
| Their proud dignity informs my bearing,
| |
| | fundamental human rights and the fear of
|
| their culture a part of my essence. The
| |
| | tyranny.
|
| stripes they bore on their bodies from
| |
| | It aims to open the doors so that those
|
| the lash of the slave master are a
| |
| | who were disadvantaged can assume their
|
| reminder embossed on my consciousness of
| |
| | place in society as equals with their
|
| what should not be done.
| |
| | fellow human beings without regard to
|
| I am the grandchild of the warrior men
| |
| | colour, race, gender, age or geographic
|
| and women that Hintsa and Sekhukhune led,
| |
| | dispersal.
|
| the patriots that Cetshwayo and Mphephu
| |
| | It provides the opportunity to enable
|
| took to battle, the soldiers Moshoeshoe
| |
| | each one and all to state their views,
|
| and Ngungunyane taught never to dishonour
| |
| | promote them, strive for their
|
| the cause of freedom.
| |
| | implementation in the process of
|
| My mind and my knowledge of myself is
| |
| | governance without fear that a contrary
|
| formed by the victories that are the
| |
| | view will be met with repression.
|
| jewels in our African crown, the
| |
| | It creates a law-governed society which
|
| victories we earned from Isandhlwana to
| |
| | shall be inimical to arbitrary rule.
|
| Khartoum, as Ethiopians and as the
| |
| | It enables the resolution of conflicts by
|
| Ashanti of Ghana, as the Berbers of the
| |
| | peaceful means rather than resort to
|
| desert.
| |
| | force.
|
| I am the grandchild who lays fresh
| |
| | It rejoices in the diversity of our
|
| flowers on the Boer graves at St Helena
| |
| | people and creates the space for all of
|
| and the Bahamas, who sees in the mind\'s
| |
| | us voluntarily to define ourselves as one
|
| eye and suffers the suffering of a simple
| |
| | people.
|
| peasant folk, death, concentration camps,
| |
| | As an African, this is an achievement of
|
| destroyed homesteads, a dream in ruins.
| |
| | which I am proud, proud without
|
| I am the child of Nongqause. I am he who
| |
| | reservation and proud without any feeling
|
| made it possible to trade in the world
| |
| | of conceit.
|
| markets in diamonds, in gold, in the same
| |
| | Our sense of elevation at this moment
|
| food for which my stomach yearns.
| |
| | also derives from the fact that this
|
| I come of those who were transported from
| |
| | magnificent product is the unique
|
| India and China, whose being resided in
| |
| | creation of African hands and African
|
| the fact, solely, that they were able to
| |
| | minds.
|
| provide physical labour, who taught me
| |
| | Bit it is also constitutes a tribute to
|
| that we could both be at home and be
| |
| | our loss of vanity that we could, despite
|
| foreign, who taught me that human
| |
| | the temptation to treat ourselves as an
|
| existence itself demanded that freedom
| |
| | exceptional fragment of humanity, draw on
|
| was a necessary condition for that human
| |
| | the accumulated experience and wisdom of
|
| existence.
| |
| | all humankind, to define for ourselves
|
| Being part of all these people, and in
| |
| | what we want to be.
|
| the knowledge that none dare contest that
| |
| | Together with the best in the world, we
|
| assertion, I shall claim that - I am an
| |
| | too are prone to pettiness, petulance,
|
| African.
| |
| | selfishness and short-sightedness.
|
| I have seen our country torn asunder as
| |
| | But it seems to have happened that we
|
| these, all of whom are my people, engaged
| |
| | looked at ourselves and said the time had
|
| one another in a titanic battle, the one
| |
| | come that we make a super-human effort to
|
| redress a wrong that had been caused by
| |
| | be other than human, to respond to the
|
| one to another and the other, to defend
| |
| | call to create for ourselves a glorious
|
| the indefensible.
| |
| | future, to remind ourselves of the Latin
|
| I have seen what happens when one person
| |
| | saying: Gloria est consequenda - Glory
|
| has superiority of force over another,
| |
| | must be sought after!
|
| when the stronger appropriate to
| |
| | Today it feels good to be an African.
|
| themselves the prerogative even to annul
| |
| | It feels good that I can stand here as a
|
| the injunction that God created all men
| |
| | South African and as a foot soldier of a
|
| and women in His image.
| |
| | titanic African army, the African
|
| I know what if signifies when race and
| |
| | National Congress, to say to all the
|
| colour are used to determine who is human
| |
| | parties represented here, to the millions
|
| and who, sub-human.
| |
| | who made an input into the processes we
|
| I have seen the destruction of all sense
| |
| | are concluding, to our outstanding
|
| of self-esteem, the consequent striving
| |
| | compatriots who have presided over the
|
| to be what one is not, simply to acquire
| |
| | birth of our founding document, to the
|
| some of the benefits which those who had
| |
| | negotiators who pitted their wits one
|
| improved themselves as masters had
| |
| | against the other, to the unseen stars
|
| ensured that they enjoy.
| |
| | who shone unseen as the management and
|
| I have experience of the situation in
| |
| | administration of the Constitutional
|
| which race and colour is used to enrich
| |
| | Assembly, the advisers, experts and
|
| some and impoverish the rest.
| |
| | publicists, to the mass communication
|
| I have seen the corruption of minds and
| |
| | media, to our friends across the globe -
|
| souls as (word not readable) of the
| |
| | congratulations and well done!
|
| pursuit of an ignoble effort to
| |
| | I am an African.
|
| perpetrate a veritable crime against
| |
| | I am born of the peoples of the continent
|
| humanity.
| |
| | of Africa.
|
| I have seen concrete expression of the
| |
| | The pain of the violent conflict that the
|
| denial of the dignity of a human being
| |
| | peoples of Liberia, Somalia, the Sudan,
|
| emanating from the conscious, systemic
| |
| | Burundi and Algeria is a pain I also
|
| and systematic oppressive and repressive
| |
| | bear.
|
| activities of other human beings.
| |
| | The dismal shame of poverty, suffering
|
| There the victims parade with no mask to
| |
| | and human degradation of my continent is
|
| hide the brutish reality - the beggars,
| |
| | a blight that we share.
|
| the prostitutes, the street children,
| |
| | The blight on our happiness that derives
|
| those who seek solace in substance abuse,
| |
| | from this and from our drift to the
|
| those who have to steal to assuage
| |
| | periphery of the ordering of human
|
| hunger, those who have to lose their
| |
| | affairs leaves us in a persistent shadow
|
| sanity because to be sane is to invite
| |
| | of despair.
|
| pain.
| |
| | This is a savage road to which nobody
|
| Perhaps the worst among these, who are my
| |
| | should be condemned.
|
| people, are those who have learnt to kill
| |
| | This thing that we have done today, in
|
| for a wage. To these the extent of death
| |
| | this small corner of a great continent
|
| is directly proportional to their
| |
| | that has contributed so decisively to the
|
| personal welfare.
| |
| | evolution of humanity says that Africa
|
| And so, like pawns in the service of
| |
| | reaffirms that she is continuing her rise
|
| demented souls, they kill in furtherance
| |
| | from the ashes.
|
| of the political violence in
| |
| | Whatever the setbacks of the moment,
|
| KwaZulu-Natal. They murder the innocent
| |
| | nothing can stop us now!
|
| in the taxi wars.
| |
| | Whatever the difficulties, Africa shall
|
| They kill slowly or quickly in order to
| |
| | be at peace!
|
| make profits from the illegal trade in
| |
| | However improbable it may sound to the
|
| narcotics. They are available for hire
| |
| | sceptics, Africa will prosper!
|
| when husband wants to murder wife and
| |
| | Whoever we may be, whatever our immediate
|
| wife, husband.
| |
| | interest, however much we carry baggage
|
| Among us prowl the products of our
| |
| | from our past, however much we have been
|
| immoral and amoral past - killers who
| |
| | caught by the fashion of cynicism and
|
| have no sense of the worth of human life,
| |
| | loss of faith in the capacity of the
|
| rapists who have absolute disdain for the
| |
| | people, let us err today and say -
|
| women of our country, animals who would
| |
| | nothing can stop us now!
|
| seek to benefit from the vulnerability of
| |
| |
|
