Ode to Madiba
By Charles Quist-Adade, Vancouver, Canada.*
Creator and Godfather of the Rainbow Nation
You were a complex of complexities
In the heart of complexities
You were one and many things
Yet, nothing you were
You were a hybrid of ”hybridities”
Yet, so simple you were
You were the inscrutable heart of complexities
Yet, so transparent you were.
You came, you saw, and conquered
Yet, humbled and conquered you left.
You conquered monstrous apartheid
Yet, defeated by apartheid’s monster child you were
defeated you were by apartheid;s grandchild
dubbed “black-whitexploitation” the new classicism
You were a prisoner
Yet, a jailer you were
You were a forgiving father
Yet, an unforgiving husband you were
You were the formidable God of Steel Madiba
Yet, the soft, soft, mild and malleable Mandela you were
You gave freedom and hope to many
Yet, many you left hapless and hopeless
gasping and wallowing in the abject poverty of yesteryears
You created a rainbow nation of racial harmony
Yet, you left behind ugly scars defacing that noble creation
Creator and Godfather of the Rainbow Nation
You planted your feet firmly
In the soil of Mother Africa
Yet, you allowed your eyes
To roam the Global Village
You saw breath-taking beauty
Yet, you also saw ugly scars dotting the village landscape
You saw harvests of plentitude
Yet you saw harvests of “starvingtude,”and “leanitude”
You saw seasons of selfless giving
Yet you saw cycles of pillage
In life as in death
Your admirers and sycophantic praise-singers
Have raised you onto the pedestal of a Demigod
Yet a mere humble mortal you were
Your well-wishers welcome you to the Pantheon of Saints
Yet, your detractors condemn you to the dungeon of Armageddon
Grand Old man of African Liberation
Son of the of Old Africa
Harbinger of new Africa
You lived, you led, and inspired on this side of reality
Yet, left to join the ancestor on the other side of reality
Our ancestors say welcome, Akwaba to Madiba
Yet, we the living say good bye
Goodnight, Good Old Madiba
Rest in perfect peace, Mandela
Damrifa Due, Damfrifa Due!!
*Dr. Charles Quist-Adade is Sociology professor and Chair of the Sociology Department at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. His research and teaching interests are: social justice, globalization and global inequalities, racialization and ethnicity, media and society, and Social Theory. His other areas of teaching and research interest revolve around Global South issues and religion.
Prior to joining the Department of Sociology at Kwantlen, Dr. Quist-Adade taught at the University of Windsor. He also taught at Wayne State University and Central Michigan University, and Michigan State University, all in the USA.
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