It seems a long time ago now ....

Free Mandela

Free Mandela
from hangers-on
and sycophants
fawning away

Free Mandela
when yes-men (and women) 
of all shades of politricks
hawk and horse-trade
in his name and legacy

Free Mandela
unshackle him
from being wheeled out
almost Ché-like
come election-time

(In the stark absence of
role models we do 
the I-me-mine me-first 
in the feeding queue
in freedom’s name)

Free Mandela
from apartheid-past 
and apartheid’s past
and the tribalism
it has left us with

Free Mandela
from the racial profiling
we resort to officially 
and in our daily patois
(what a carbon footprint)

Free Mandela
lest he frees himself
before the end of the world 
and Africa Day
pass us on by again

The ritual of thumb-marking and name-calling now past, for now, all in the name of democracy, 25 May 2011, Africa Day.