I am a product of all things Zimbabwean
My skin having been darkened to its chocolate-brown hue
By the blazing Bulawayo sun
My eyes having seen the wonder of the sun setting behind the Matopo Hills
And rising again over the Eastern Highlands
My voice has screamed into the deep gorge of the Victoria Falls
Which echoed back a timeless truth
That I am a Zimbabwean…bwean…bwean
I am not a Shona
Though the blood of the vaRemba people courses through my mother’s veins
And proudly declares that I am one of them
And even though my surname is Ndlovu
Do not be fooled to think that I am Ndebele
I may owe my being to the Matabele warriors of old
Led by iNkosi U Lobengula, Ka Matshobana
Ka Mzilikazi KaMangede kaLanga
UMadolo aguq’egazini lenkomo
Usebesebe olungangoyise
Lwathi lusobozela ladla lwakufohloza.
Lwathi olukutshiyileyo lwakunyathela ngezinyawo
Usebesebe lukaMzilikazi
I am not Ndebele or Shona
Neither Tonga nor Venda
I am not white or black or anything else in between
But I am a Zimbabwean
And if by chance or circumstance
I may travel to distant lands
And with another land find myself in a foreign romance
Even if I accept their permanent residence
Or my citizenship am forced to renounce
And if in death when I am buried in foreign sands
Then those six feet shall forever remain
A sacred piece of Zimbabwe land
For I am and shall forever be a Zimbabwean!
