A Diamond In The Rough Poem by Itumeleng Tebagano

They stripped her family of its riches
They chased you to the furthest ditches
They attempted to rape you severely
Attacked you singularly and severally

You held on and kept your mind active
Struggled to clutch on to being primitive
The odd were against you but you held off
Your enemy and shrugged the mould off

Ancestors threw an unflinching life line
You fight through and in no way decline
You gleam in between a sea of wreckage
You seem to win without any breakage

A country that burst out keeping honour
A diamond in the rough, that’s Botswana
Drops of rain washed you and kept a flicker
To shine a light of hope in our fraught Africa

They said you weren’t much and were small
With only the dress on your back you stand tall
They may overlook you for you are not a giant
But you inspire for your chest is up and defiant