By
Professor Peter Vakunta
To conjecture the hurt
And pain and havoc
that this word 'makwerekwere'
has wreaked in South Africa,
One needs to live there!
As pressure mounts on the
Azanian political elite
To fulfill the post-apartheid promises
Made to the rank and file,
The rest of world is shocked
To learn that South Africans of color
Regard Africans from other climes
Not as brothers who helped them
During the Liberation Struggle,
But rather as ‘makwerekwere’.
This derogatory epithet connotes
Undesired ‘foreigners’ perceived by many,
Wrongly or rightly, as job-snatchers
Husband and wife thieves and
Conveyors of communicable diseases.
It bears stressing that we need
Not overreact to this misconception.
The ‘kwerekwere’ trumpeters
Seem to have been benighted
By the horrors of Apartheid.
Many of us know a lot about them
But they don’t know us from Adam.
We must strive to bridge the gap
Between knowledge and crass ignorance
In a fraternal Global Village.
[1] Slang for foreigners, and especially illegal immigrants living in South Africa. It alludes to the anti-immigrant sentiments that have made South Africa hell on earth for most immigrants living there.
Comments