Elegy for Auntie Nanjala.

[15th Nov. 2014]

To us it has again set,
Snatching you from our midst:
The rain has refused to fall,
The moon has refused to shine,
Birds have refused to sing,
And baobabs and irokos stand still, forever still,
Cold and hunger to wrestle us down.

Sister of my father,
Beloved one of my cheerful cousins,
You whom I saw not at birth;
And couldn't see off after death,
I'll live singing your name-- Joyce Nanjala!
In darkness you've abandoned us...

Khwakosela sina liloba lino,
Nyo likhumale buli busia?
Oh-ho-ho-ho...
Lost in time, and space; a man broken,
Drown in tears--
Painful tears of my people,
Painful tears of my angry self,
Tears for you auntie,
Who abandoned us in darkness...

Only little joy we shared,
Amidst the harsh dictatorial regime of time...
Sacred it was though,
Imagining that I'll miss you forever,
Haunts with passion.

I have no peace auntie,
I have lost taste of life,
Pain and sorrow gnaw at me thus,
Oh-ho-ho-ho...

My grandfather's beloved,
How dare you leave--
Whilst away I am,
Without whispering goodbye?

Across the great river, afar;
Herein, ignorant: who'll reveal to me my father's boyhood secrets?
Who will teach me ways of my people?
Who will redeem my lost self,
From fucking seductions of modernity?
Who will welcome my wife home?
Oh auntie, liloba liakhumala!

If it's only your name that is left,
My moons I'll name them Joyce Nanjala--
A thousand times;
So you could live forever,
And in them I see you,
Who abandoned us in darkness!

I haven't cried enough,
But my glands have ruptured;
I am about to bleed,
Walking on this rough terrain,
Abandoned in darkness...

Let no one wipe my tears,
Let them flow and overflow,
Into the bulging soil--
Beneath wherein you sleep-- forever!
Rest in Peace auntie.
..........................................................
*khwakosela sina liloba lino,
Nyo likhumale buli busia?-- what wrong did we do to this soil for it to finish us every dawn-break?
*liloba liakhumala- the soil has finished you (or us).