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