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The man from Mbango...




From bussling markets to mosquito-filled wilderness areas. 
Where will this continent be in the future? 
The electricity keeps cutting, the mosquitoes keep stinging & the matatu exhaust pipes keep gushing carbon monoxide fumes. 
The ethnic genocides keep happening & the xenophobia keeps discriminating. 
Everybody wants to be famous but fame is not wealth & in this land wealth isn't easy. 
The troops of malnourished kids thrown aimlessly on paved & unpaved streets. 
The Ubuntuist Utopia, if only it had a bit more capitalist indigenous folk & less communists. 
I'm no pessimist but some of you give me little hope in a better time in future. 
You reap what you sow & you will definetly reap the hate you sowed. 
Who am I? To me, I am but a shadow in an unknown town but who am I to you? 
I should mean nothing to you but politics allows me to be on equal footing as the famous. 
What did I tell you about fame? It is the cheapest thing in the world but somehow every vain hairstyle wants it. 
They ask you "Is fame what you want?" & I tell them "No." 
For, again, there is a big difference between music & fame. 
While music gets you fame, the fame is not the music. 
I straddle between ancient arts & pop culture, gravitating to the former but living in the latter. 
You're too late, I just went past that. 
Your people are not mine. 
Only time will tell & I am of no fault or blame. 
I simply watched the story unfold. 
The man from Mbango lived for the music & left when it stopped. 
He is neither yours or their's. 
Who are these people to judge? 
Only the rains & the sun will judge. 
I am no different from an ant. 
And you, no different to a cockroach. 
I will be in my universe when the party starts in 1420 AD. 
I'll see you when I knock on your door. 
If I don't, you will only feel me as the winds & I will only remain a shadow in your mind. 
Even a jester drinks water.

Mthoko M. Mpofana
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