Sunday Tribune

Crossing

By Dr Betty Govinden Govinden is a writer and literary critic

Tumbling from the great ghats in

India, To the holding places in Port Natal, Ushered in by the capricious tide;

Crossing the kala pani, Children of the rain and storm, Buffeted by waves;

Stitching fragments of self, Patched together

In the waters of the voyage;

Finding anchors in the wind, Fated to be vagabonds of identity

Their histories sinewed to their bones;

Tilling in coolie canefields, Learning the language and lore Of foreign shores;

Toiling for tea for empire, Castaways, Stonebodies in compounds;

Preserving the ancient hearth, With ladoos and rasgoolas – The remembrance of things past;

Lighting the family God-lamp, With suppliant hands, Watched by the stars;

Working with new kith and kin, For freedom to sprout on parched ground;

Mingling blood and water, To forge a new people, A new heaven and a new earth;

Heaving the sheaves of yesterday:

This Harvest of Memory – New Beatitudes for our time and place…

1860 A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN OUR HISTORY

en-za

2022-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-11-27T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://sundaytribune.pressreader.com/article/282063395979070

African News Agency