Gedicht
Mafika Pascal Gwala
KWELA-RIDE
KWELA-RIDE
KWELA-RIDE
Dompas!I looked back
Dompas!
I went through my pockets
Not there.
They bit into my flesh (handcuffs).
Came the kwela-kwela
We crawled in.
The young men sang.
In that dark moment
It all became familiar.
From: Jol’iinkomo
Publisher: AD Donker, Johannesburg
Kwela: popular township music originating in the 1950s, featuring street performers on the pennywhistle who also served to alert those drinking in illegal shebeens of the arrival of the police. The word also means “to get up” in Zulu and refers colloquially to the police van, into which one must “get up” under unfortunate circumstances.
Publisher: AD Donker, Johannesburg
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KWELA-RIDE
Dompas!I looked back
Dompas!
I went through my pockets
Not there.
They bit into my flesh (handcuffs).
Came the kwela-kwela
We crawled in.
The young men sang.
In that dark moment
It all became familiar.
From: Jol’iinkomo
Kwela: popular township music originating in the 1950s, featuring street performers on the pennywhistle who also served to alert those drinking in illegal shebeens of the arrival of the police. The word also means “to get up” in Zulu and refers colloquially to the police van, into which one must “get up” under unfortunate circumstances.
KWELA-RIDE
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