When Times Are Bad Poem by Gert Strydom

When Times Are Bad



When times are bad
and I am with my hands in my hair
and black foreigners from all over Africa
overnight becomes citizens
and have more rights as a citizen than me
and affirmative action
puts her claws into my life
then I wonder about justice
and when merit and experience
will ever again apply

where my ancestors Joost Strydom
from Liefenshoek in the Netherlands
as a merchant seaman of the VOC
in 1678 came to Cape Town,

married his pretty well know wife
Maryna Ras who with a horse
could alone ride days long to Cape Town
with whom noblemen tried to have relationships,

where the indigenous zulu-xhosa-pondo-swazi people
are originating from a group
that during the same time
immigrated far away out of the north
from eMbo at the big lakes in central Africa
under the leadership of Nguni and later Dlamini

and then I wonder how
this country rather belongs to them
and they have to have work opportunities before me

and if you now say anything
about the new migration out of the whole of Africa
for which the country’s borders are now wide open
(in such a way that South Africans
must now get visas for Great Britain)
you are seen as xenophobic

and then there are citizens from right over Africa
who become South Africans overnight
attaining more rights than you
who forced by law
get secure job opportunities

and do people from Mozambique murder
Eugene Terreblance,
drug dealers from Nigeria
are caught by the local police

while against your will
you were forced into an army, into a war
still faithfully pay your taxes
when and where you have a job

and the current government
tries to stay in power
while Aids devours its voter numbers

and you as a white man
are despised by the current regime,
are treaded into the ground
while the country are falling to pieces
and then you pray
to Him (the God of the universe) who controls everything
to drastically intervene
rather than rousing people
for a civil war.

[Reference: VOC Verenigde Oost Indiëse companje.]

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Siyabonga A Nxumalo 09 June 2012

I would like to comment on this poem, but some things are better not said......maybe if you can read my poem tittle 'Thanks for....' You'll understand that in this case no one is perfect or a saint...instead of scolding each other we need to try an work together because no matter how hard we can try to resist each other, we will live forever until the judgment day.... Siya_! !

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Gert Strydom

Gert Strydom

Johannesburg, South Africa
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