Robben Island by Mvula ya Nangolo

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Dedicated to Comrade Andimba Toivo ya Toivo who spent eighteen years

of a twenty-year sentence on Robben Island.

Just how far is Robben Island from a black child at play?

What forces take his father there with all the world between?

Oh! Mother caution your warrior son again

or else he’ll show his might

Just how far is Robben Island from the United Nations

headquarters?

Have I time to ponder now when patriots are drilling fast?

Spears are flying and the shields are once more bloody

for the drums of war are beating again

Just how far is Robben Island from the London Stock Exchange?

You couldn’t hear my talking war drums

for uselessly loud is the enemy’s cannon roar

Just how far is Robben Island from the Yankee’s White House?

I have no sight for I do not speak languages so foreign

the stars and zebra stripes are dazzling me

the US President speaks – his foreign secretary cheats

Then just how far is Robben Island from the field of Waterloo?

A few bushes away

a village or two in between

and the warrior son will take you there