by Happy Masuku

Heart Beat.

Heart Beat.

Heart Beat.

Afrika my heart beats.

Afrika my heart sings.

Praises to your hilltops and valleys.

Clan names to your Kings,men of legendary wisdom.

Ululations to your Chiefs,people of a just character.

Afrika your Queens,Fountains of education,Big bottoms,small

figures,little fingers,great strength,housing strangers,loving

neighbours and feeding nations.

Once you were a people pure and innocent,
Then your sons were

ceased, chained, maimed, brain washed into submission of a foreign shame

of intolerance, bigotry and slander,Whatever happened to Ubuntu umuntu

engumuntu ngabantu but now you’re engulfed by greed in your covetous

adopted nature.

Heart weeps.

Heart bleeds.

Heart seeks.

Security and tranquility in your fat land.

Prosperity and fidelity in the wealth of your belly.

Azania what have you profited from your crude oil and overall minerals.

Afrika where are your great pillars and gatekeepers?!

Now you are infested with tin houses.

Children in the streets.

Sisters in the fields, abandoned and exploited.

My pen bleeds as my heart beats.

Mo-Afrika remember the legacy of Mangaliso Sobukwe.

Travail and realise the philosophy of Bantu Biko.

Restore the dignity of Azania namathongo ethu.

I summon the Afrikan diaspora scattered across the four corners of the universe.

Sons and daughters of the sun listen to the sound of the horn calling

to restore our Motherland lest we get a rude awakening.

______________________________
About the author

I am Happy Maseko, I was born on the 31st December 1984 at Emalahleni General Hospital, Mpumalanga, Witbank.
I was raised by my aunt.  I started school at Phakama Primary school. Then we moved a lot, as a result I went to many schools in our municipality.  Later matriculated at Kopanang Secondary School.
I grew up believing that I was a boy and then the harsh realities that come with adolescent made me realised  I was born in the wrong body. I came into the realisation of that one cold winter morning at the library of Empucukweni Secondary School. That’s where the constant urge to learn about lgbti related issues were born.

My aunt passed away in 2001 when I was studying construction through the state’s expanded public works program then I had no choice but to move in with my parents, that’s when I was introduced to activism through Love Life. I had to educate the public about what the lgbti acronym means and basically facilitate lgbti related issues.

In 2006 whilst going about my business on social networks I met Malebu Mathabathe who is the co-founder of Emalahleni lgbt. Before 2007 the group was known as Versatile Women Society. It had about 7 TUT students who were in the closet. What they would do is pop out R50 per month and buy some beverages and have a sit in until the visionary came in and joined heads together with Thandi Maluka, Nhlanhla Mnisi, Simphiwe Nkosi, Nomgqibelo Sibanda, Phylis Mahlangu and Thulisile Tonga actually went ahead and made sure that the organization is registered.

I learned the basic information of how to register and run an organization through learnership,
at the Forum For The Empowerment of Women (FEW).

Even when I had responsibility with Emalahleni lgbt I never abandoned my social responsibility, through volunteering for The Treatment Action Campaign, Gert Sibande District. I was introduced to the Nelson Mandela Foundation where I am learning psychoanalysis through their CCE programs which saw me working with NGO’s like Tshepang Trust and now currently a CCE facilitator for The South African Men’s Action Group.