Dignity Spills.

Dignity Spills

   There is a war going on South Africa
   declare a state of emergency!

   The war is undeclared,
   so the other side is caught off guard, unarmed
   The war of sons on daughters
   Of brothers on sisters
   Of uncles on aunts
   Of fathers on mothers
   Of grandfathers on grandmothers
   It's a of men on women
   The war of boys on girls

   The war is undeclared,
   so the statistics are impossible to collect properly
   The war is denied by its perpetrators so
   Its soldiers do wear uniforms
   They parade In camouflage
   As loving grandfathers, fathers, uncles, brothers and sons
   The grandmothers, mothers, aunts, sisters and daughters
   Are caught in the intricate web of this camouflage
   The camouflage of trust
   The camouflage of belief in the goodness of human nature
   The camouflage of love
   Only to be reminded
   That grand w/o fathers, uncles, brothers and sons
   Are non other than soldiers of war
   With hatred in their hearts
   Planning to pounce at any moment
   To attack, destroy, maim and kill

   The commanders behave like agents
   They wear different masks
   Saying one thing in public
   Joining the soldiers in secret
   The war zone is not demarcated,
   so the victims do not know where not to go
   The war is everywhere
   In private and public spaces
   In individual and communal places
   In sacred and unholy spaces
   In clean and dirty places
   It goes on relentlessly, unabated, decidedly undeclared

   Like blood; dignity spills
   Unlike blood, dignity is unmeasured
   Wounds gape
   Limbs break
   Souls sprit
   As the war is undeclared
   The zone is not demarcated
   The anti-war volunteers, too few, know not where to go

   The latest victims, infants, babies
   The ordinary victims, girls, women
   Even the elderly, the pensioned do not escape
   Rape rips lives apart
   Incest rips lives apart
   Violence rips lives apart

   The war is on South Africa
   declare a state of emergency,
   the war zone is you!

Makhosazana Xaba is the Country Director for Ipas in South Africa. She has been active in the women's health movement for many years, and presented the above poem at two recent conferences on women's sexual health and rights (see page 18).