Who is Zeph Mothopeng?
Do you know him?
Is he a bus driver?
Moving people from apartheid era to the democratic land
Bus drivers are often not praised, and they carry lives
Is he a photographer?
Taking picture of the occasion
I have a will to pay him for his efforts in vain
Who is Zeph Mothopeng?
Is he a today's politician?
Reaping from the poorest of the poor
Talking fancy and having love of money
In the office serving their own stomach forgetting general voters
Who is Zeph Mothopeng?
A prominent businessman and a tenderpreneur
Who sees a success in every poor soul?
Is he an academic?
Who is a social outcast? Always taped amongst books
Without a personal life?
Who is Zeph Mothopeng?
I am concern here!
Is he another an artist? Sculpturing
A painter? Who is painting life?
Is he a preacher fighting evil with words?
A preacher praying for apartheid to vanish
Who is Zeph Mothopeng?
Is he? One of the souls we lost in a battle against injustice.
So that I can praise his name in this poem
Is he one of revolutionist?
I want to pain his grave with freedom paint
And clime the mountains and rhyme a poem
Is he a freedom fighter?
I want to sing about him across the street
When no one does
And remind this land its brutality
Who is Zeph Mothopeng?
In this mist no one see him!
Who is Zeph Mothopeng?
Do you know him?
Now that you don't mention him
Did you fight this freedom alone?
hence none of you is talk about him
Why his name doesn't appear anywhere else
Streets names changes here.
None of those is named after him
As if he was a doormat for freedom!
I noticed one thing, that your poems are having biographical touch. An atmosphere of suspense is created in such a manner that we hold our breath to know Who Mothopeng is. So, lovely tribute!
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
I am not acustomed to your culture in South Africa. So I am not sure who Zeph could be. I know I can sense your hesitance to talk well of him. I like this alot. It opens my eyes to a culture I have no experience with. Thank you Jacques!