For Comrade Mosie Moolla (1934 – 2023)

11th April 2023

For Comrade Mosie Moolla (1934 – 2023)

1.

 

He walked with us,

traversing many a muddy road,

and though we may have faltered,

he did not allow his travails to dilute his moral code.

 

He walked with us,

with his beloved Jubie - hand in hand,

and though we may have wavered,

he doused not the fire of his revolutionary stand.

 

He walked with us,

always holding firm to the absoluteness of his humane ideal,

and though we may have veered off the path,

he firmly held on to the internationalist ideal.

 

He walked with us,

his gentleness, his warmth, his largeness of spirit folding us all in his loving embrace,

and though we may have been torn in many directions,

he embodied the uBuntu that bound us as one human race.

 

2.

 

He walks with us still,

his simplicity, his generosity of spirit, his love of one and of all,

and though we may have slipped at times,

his hands reached out to us, helping us to once again stand tall.

 

He walks with us still,

his voice resounding in our ears,

and though we may have erred far too many a time,

his beacon of hope stood as a lighthouse, to allay our fears.

 

He walks with us still,

his laughter carried on the winds across our collective home, our earth,

and though we may have tears today stinging our eyes,

his songs we hear, his comradeship we feel, he infuses our days with his irrepressible mirth.

 

He walks with us still,

for his principles cannot be stilled.

 

3.

 

He walks with us yet,

for his convictions will not let us forget.

 

He walks with us now,

reminding us to never before injustice scrape and bow.

 

He walks with us today,

reminding us to never let our humanity swerve and sway.

 

He walks with us uncompromisingly tall,

reminding us that it must always be all for one and one for all.

 

4.

 

May we honour his life with our every deed,

never resting until there is not a hungry human being to feed.

 

May we breathe life into his cherished ideals,

 

shunning the curse of selfishness,

opening our eyes and seeing ourselves for who we really are and how low we have sunk,

 

to see and accept that we now pray to the God of wealth and of riches and of shameful shameless greed and glittering junk,

 

to sew our lips shut and not spout platitudes for we are nothing but hypocrites unless we dare to look within,

 

to perhaps spend a few moments away from our luxurious lives, and honour comrade Mosie as he would want us to,

 

by spending even a few moments to cease preaching our meaningless words,

 

and instead to be true,

for once to keep hushed,

 

and actually for others practically do.

 

 

Hamba Kahle uBaba Mosie!

Matla ke a Rona!

Aluta Continua!

 

 

Afzal Moolla