U-Grand, Malume? by Sizakele Nkosi

"u-Grand, Malume? (Zulu slang: are you ok, Uncle?) is dedicated to two uncles who were victims of the anti-apartheid struggle. The poems are my way of bringing Jabulani Maswanganye’s spirit back home; he joined Umkhonto weSizwe, went to exile in 1977 and never returned. My other uncle, comrade Mandla Maswanganye, was shot dead in 1992 by the Washington DC police. In remembering them – the good and the bad – the poems update both my uncles as to what is currently going on in our black ghetto lives; I believe they can reach them because poems are like prayers."