The Colours of Freedom

Etched against the deep blue African sky

Tall, white and elegant columns rise and

grace the porticoed entrance to parliament

where the praise-singer sang

and the people danced – Nkosi, sikhelel’ iAfrika –

as the new flag rose up and up

the tall white flagpole

and millions watched their TV screens

as a new nation was born, in blood.

Blood is red.

Love is red.

Our love is red as blood for our land.

Our black land

black graves above which white doves circle and call

for peace, peace as wide and blue as the sky.

Black holes

down which men are sent deeply.

From the deep mysterious black darkness they return

with riches – white diamonds and yellow gold.

Yellow is the colour of the sun

and nodding sunflowers, heavy with rich black seed…

Nodding yellow and black on strong green stems.

Yellow and black and green

under the wide blue African sky,

where fleecy white clouds pile up into mountains

and turn black

and thunder and flash whitely

and pour out white rain

to nourish the yellow veld

the burnt yellow-black veld

and turn it green again.

From a young green shoot to a tree

We grow rooted and nourished

in our good earth

green and gold.

Green and gold!

Tens upon tens of thousands lined the streets

and shouted

Viva Amabokoboko!

Amabokoboko!

Our green and gold team is the pride of our nation

You have brought the gold cup home.

Gold for South Africa

Rich gold like our African sun.

O may the yellow African sun

heal us.

Bless us, Nkosi.

Grow us greenly

so our red blood was not shed in vain.

Give us red love for each other and our land, black and white.

Cover us with a wide blue peace

the colour of freedom.

Erna Buber-deVilliers

Workshopped with members of the learners’ drama group, Riverside High School, Vereeniging, 1995. Learners brainstormed meanings connected to the colours of the South African flag. Their ideas were then arranged into the above poem, which they dramatised and performed at the local Arts Festival.

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Name	Comment	Date
Louis	1995 - a watershed year for all South Africans - but this poem echoes transition from 1991 - 1995 and still, we are in transit.  A wonderful kaleidoscope of memories this brought to me.  Thanks for this.	2007-09-30
Mandy	Erna, This makes me proud to be a South African. I am working in Scotland at the moment and I feel VERY homesick there is no place like home!! Keep up your poetry, it is going from strength to strength. The workshop must have been fun	2007-10-10
Keke	Freedom is a very sensitive topic to handle, but your depiction of freedom in our land makes easier to breathe. For once a poet speaks about its diversity rather than pre- and post-democracy regimes - how what has changed and what has gotten worse! Your poem qualifies that South Africans are the pinnacle. Much love, sister!	2007-11-23
Erna	Thanks, Keke! I think the poem shows, out of the mouths of babes, what South Africa CAN be if we stand together. The group of high-school kids who contributed the ideas captured in the poem was truly representative of SA demographics. When I read the poem, it gives me hope.	2007-11-25
James	I can’t believe my luck. I have just discovered a load of writing I hadn’t noticed before. Then I came across this Gem. More please Points 4 - Pretty close to perfect. I was captivated	2008-01-06