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Reverend Paul Damasane
Poem
From out there in the plains of kwaZvimba
Raised by those hands rugged through years of industry
Instructive, caring Mbuya Bona
Learning the ways of truth, honesty, astuteness and love
Family bonds to sustain and build
Christened Gabriel!
Bearer of glad tidings, mercy and blessing
Your deep and solid spirituality that early to espouse
Was it not those stories told by the fireside
Maputi achiputika
Asi hunhu huchiumbwa nehudzamu hwetsika
Pfungwa dzohudiki dzichidzorwa nenhoroondo dzinodakadza
Dzimwe dzichifadza nekusekesa
Madimikira nezvirungamutauro zvojekesa nyaya nehungwaru!
The wisdom of the ages so richly imbued in you
And your leadership ably extended to us
That love for Africa
Its people
Its languages
Its culture
Its philosophy
Fo sho we are as strong as we are proud of who we are
We build our future in strengthening our culture
That foundation, compact and resolute
Your Ubuntu to consolidate
What with the values of Pan-African solidarity you espoused
Our true Africanness to champion
The teacher, disciplinarian, father,
Unifier of family and nation
Shines in you as a sun
Warming us through cultural development
Relentless against the historical imperial onslaught on the fibre of society
You made culture central to our African rebirth
Upholding the free expression and articulation of cultural norms
You freed us from the scourge of Caucasian decadence
Veiled as globalisation
Threatening to corrode and relegate
Our very knowledge and practice
To pagan and superstitious innuendoes
You have made our very thought, world view and scientific disposition
Relevant and significant to our present sustainable development
Gushungo
Your hand has taught us to love and cherish the family
Fidelity, faithfulness and fruitfulness of our relationships
Embracing our differences with grace and tact
Accepting expressive diversity with tolerance and trust
Reclaiming our heritage
To build a hope for posterity
Usakhe ngokuxolisana lokuzwanana
Uthando lobuntu olumnene
Namuhla sihalalisa ngawe Gushungo
Wenze umAfrika wazithanda ngobuAfrika bakhe
Wawakhulisa amasiko
Namuhla
Toyamba
Tobulabula
Tochilebeleka
Tobowa
Namuhla sidla sigwabe ngawe ngeqhayiya elikhulu
Ngwenyama yatumbuluko
Amhlophe maphephethwa engaphandlwanga
Ntabakayikhonjwa
Oyikhombayo wosangana inhloko!
Makorokoto Gushungo
Nyanzvi munezvetsika nehunhu hwedu
Hekani vagary vomachira
Icho chakatimbombo chikatyokera
Hekani Gushungo
Ndimi munemutupo uripakati pemakumbo
Musati hutukwa mutupo ndewenyu
Happy Birthday
Robert Gabriel Mugabe
Epitome of an encultured education and learning
Eloquent as you articulate the Afrocentric narrative
Exquisite in your deportment
Be it formal or casual
The quintessence of gentility and class
Gushungo!
A proud black man of culture standing on his two feet
Supported by God and the spirits of just men made perfect
Amhlophe!
Amatjena!
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