SA poem by Saffa teacher abroad: “My Home South Africa”

A heartbreaking poem by a South African teacher living in Australia, Bashi Pather went viral last week. Bashi’s words echoed those of many (although not all) South Africans abroad who feel like they’ve left their heart and soul behind in Africa. In her latest poem, Bashi – who has lived in Australia for 20 years – visits the land she’ll always call home…

Bashi returns to SA on holiday annually. She says: “Stepping foot on African soil each year has given me so much belonging… it’s nourished my soul so that I could come BACK TO OZ for another year. Like a fellow Saffa in Australia said to me once, ‘Your soul is African as it will always be, but for now you live here’.”

But even when she can’t return to South Africa physically, Bashi takes herself there on the gentle winds that blow across the Indian Ocean…

MY HOME SOUTH AFRICA
– By Bashi Pather –

I travel with the gentle winds to the land of my birth
The land where my spirit resides
I feel the colours and hear the call
That tugs at the essence of me

I am the warm breeze coming in from the Indian ocean,
Here children frolic on sandy beaches and surfers contemplate “the big one”,
Women sit on the pavement, with their African art, babes at their breast
And bright colours on their back.

I soar over the Majestic Drakensberg, whose green valleys and mighty peaks
Guard our secrets deep within her heart,
She who has endured the onslaught of evil.

Lying to her East
The city of gold
There the squatter camps thrive
And millions come to dig for that elusive gold
And yet
across the road
The mansions of Sandton
The luxury and the Poverty
That is Egoli

I am the gust of wind that disturbs the regal Baobab,
His wizened branches shade the sleepy lions from the blinding African sun.
In the distance I hear the incessant call of the African cricket
Perhaps he calls the animals of the Savannah for an
Indaba!

A swift current carries me onward, towards the Cape…
I pass by lush green country
That bestows us with the bounty of the land.
Aqua seas greets the craggy mountain
And people in sun hats
Drink coffee in outside cafés

I stand atop Table Mountain breathing in the beauty of this land.

This land that has known such pain and struggle
This land that has risen from evil
This land of heroes
This land of freedom
This land; this land
My home South Africa

© By Bashi Pather

READ ALSO: “I left my heart in South Africa“

If you’re a South African living abroad or who’s returned home, and would like to share your story, please contact admin@sapeople.com