Once Upon A Time Poem by Phillip Nine Mafunga

Once upon a time, there was Chitepo Herbert
Brilliant n' aggressive mind, which ne'er saw the risin' of the sun
For the forces of darkness snuffed out his daylight abruptly
Yet he still stands tall in our minds for the ideals he stood for
They can blur his influence for all we care n' elevate nonentities in his place
Young minds instead have blue toothed his influence to the now

General Tongo fought n' a just society he desired
He knew brilliant leadership n' openly he spoke
For his was a war to unite n' prosper us all
Like Chitepo, the enemies of our today stole his star
At the dawn of our supposedly uhuru, he met his fate
Yet the young revolutionary minds're tethered to the ideals of the great soldier he was

UmaFukufuku, Chibwechitedza oka Nyongolo
They never come anywhere larger, in both physique n' mental stature
The epitome of the power of unity n' leadership
For that the powers of darkness upon his fate descended
Then the great unwashed amongst us, got swayed
And ‘Zimbabwe will not die; young people will save it.' He thundered

When we thought we had'em all tucked away in history
Then a bright shining star rose humbly from beyond the hills of Njanja
Alex Tawanda Magaisa, a great intellectual mind
He deserve to be in the same history sentence with the greats of our nation
The only professor who decoded complexity to simplicity with little effort
A complete public library of ideas tucked away for the present n' prosperity

Alex might be gone
But his Big Saturday Reads remain for those of us who care to refer
Tawanda of Njanja might be no more
But his efforts at capturing the nation's aspirations during COPAC remain
Professor Magaisa is indeed no more
But through him we can now construct logical thoughts

(IN MEMORY OF DR ALEX TAWANDA MAGAISA)
@5 June 2022
Phillip Nine Mafunga