A note on how to use this poem: Take it. This poem is yours, is ours. You can use the whole thing or only a part. You can rap it, sing it or put it to music. You can translate it into movement or dance or paint it on a wall. You can read it quietly to yourself, all at once or in parts, slowly, and then allow it to speak through you in action, protest or art. If you and your friends are working towards climate justice, this poem belongs to you...
I don’t want your hope
it's useless to me
when there’s a rope around the neck of the world and it's getting tighter.
Suffocating
asphyxiating
Eyes bulging, spitting veins, pop
crack
burst
pulsating fear
muddy tears.
She can’t cope, she can’t breathe
it’s a noose
cut it loose!
This is a Burning Rebellion for a world abused.
This is not a poem
this...
...is a plea.
Where will I go?
What will you do?
Who will we be?
Forget what they told you
look
see.
Urgency, URGENCY
this is a state of emergency.
We are emerging,
see.
This is a warning,
mamelani!
Ache, shake, earthquake,
do you know what’s at stake?
Wait, I’m thirsty, can I have some water?
No!
Sicele amanzi, amanzi asohlula.
Yeyi! Latshabalala ilizwe.
Mamelani!
This is me opening the tap and drinking a glass full of poison
the world is boiling, like a braai
the land is fried
the river is dry.
It’s a plague
this is mass drought
heatwaves as a starter, main course?
This is our house on fire
this is dire
this is extinction on an amplifier.
There is smoke everywhere,
clouds are dark, heavy, burned,
acid rain falls to the ground.
What have we done, man
Mankind what kind are you?
Mamelani!
Khuzeka wena
This is today
this...
...is now.
This is reality.
This is what we receive from the capitalist machine
the seed of destruction
because of our consumption of production.
Our planetary suction of Carbon Dioxide: the Amazon jungle
bulldozed
as we speak
deforestation
to make way for more meat,
more roads,
more mines,
more cheap stuff we don’t need
all in the name of greed.
Greed for the paper, paper, paper, paper money.
Annihilating the planet as though we have another home.
But this…
…is not a poem
this is a siren.
Firing, crying, virus,
blood on the horizon.
Attention fellow citizens
YINGOZI LE.
* ‘Extinction Song’ performed by Sanelisiwe Yekani, Lerato Sefoloshe, Mlindeli Zondi and Jaques De Silva [read more]
Extinction
This is a Climate Crisis
Extinction
You wanna talk about Isis?
Extinction
I say the ice IS melting
it’s sliced diced and sacrificed on the altar of what ‘feels nice’
Extinction
Donald Trump, you wanna build a wall?
We say no this is a rally call
to take action
reaction
today we say NO MORE.
Extinction
So, I’m chilling
watching TV
when all of a Sunday
the world goes KWA and smoke comes rushing through my window
Oh no I must get out!
I’m sinking
screaming, screeching, suffocating
overheating
overcooling
overdoing.
We are OVERUSING.
We gon’ tell somebody...
that it’s coming to my door.
We gon’ tell somebody...
that it’s washed up on the shore.
We gon ’tell somebody...
this is a climate war
We gon ’tell somebody...
I can’t live like this no more!
Kit Kat,
Lunchbar,
Coca Cola bottle top,
cling wrap,
lighter,
nespresso,
that’s niiiiice...
A bottle of Stony
keeps me holy,
a woolies, checkers even shoprite bag is stuffed right down a dolphin’s throat, oh no!
Can’t live like this
Micro beads clogging
Can’t live like this!
Bottle tops choking
Can’t live like this!
Styrofoam is taking over
Can’t live like this!
Plastic bottles floating
Can’t live like this!
Cigarette butts colonising
Can’t live like this!
Plastic forks poking
Can’t live like this!
Black bags hooking
Can’t live like this!
Food wrappers tie and everybody dies
Every body dies
every body of water
every body of trees
every body of bugs, seeds and bees.
This is the body of evidence of our blind negligence.
This is an SOS from the sea, she’s on her knees
there is a fire in her belly
burning oil disease
from dumps and lumps
of waste-laced in toxicity
we cannot flush the ocean free.
Don’t you see?
There! Is! No! Away!
We gon’ tell somebody...
that it’s coming to my door.
We gon’ tell somebody...
that it’s washed up on the shore.
We gon ’tell somebody...
this is a climate war
We gon ’tell somebody...
WE CAN’T LIVE LIKE THIS NO MORE!
(And in other news, reports are coming in of roads melting in Australia as temperatures reach a record high of 49 degrees centigrade. World leaders claim that these soaring temperatures have little to do with Climate Change. Scientists, however, disagree and say that we should expect extreme temperatures like this, and worse, in the near future.)
You can run run run but you can’t hide forever.
You can run run run but you can’t hide forever.
We need to unlearn the shock doctrines that condition us and imprison us
in the rat-race of the consumer machine.
Hamster wheels chasing price tag dreams for only
$$$ 2 million trees per day $$$
hypnotised by the Pied Piper’s tune
we are slow-dancing in a burning room
while they disembowel our home, our earth.
Can you hear her howl?
Guts steaming as they rip and tear her flesh and bone
gouge coal from her core
searching for more
and more
and more.
More gold.
More coal.
More gas.
More oil.
Foreign countries mining on African soil
Neocolonialism
rotting red turmoil
death from the inside
it’s a genocide.
They have the Right to Say No to these mine-dumps, these mass graves
they have a right to choose not to be enslaved
but we are afraid, we are
very
very
afraid.
Incinerate our apathy, lethargy
when the planet just wants to be
let be.
Open the blank pages of our minds.
Vula!
Open the blank pages of our minds.
Tick tock tick tock tickedy tickedy tickedy tock.
Tick tock tick tock tickedy tickedy tickedy tock.
Escape the chains of those who are the architects of lies: they hide the truth.
Corporations must be dismantled: they are the problem
alone they stand in their ivory towers
puppeteers pulling the strings
worshipping and applauding
The Right Wing.
Promoting profit over people, not valuing life
turning a blind eye
when we know that
Power must be DECENTRALISED
Power MUST BE DECENTRALISED
POWER MUST BE DECENTRALISED.
You will not discredit me!
You will not rewrite my story!
You will not wipe me out of my existence!
THIS. IS. MY. RESISTANCE.
Comrade Nomalizo Xhoma speaks at the Earthlife Africa Climate Justice March in Johannesburg, 2017
Vukani bantu balomhlaba!
Earthlife Africa Climate Justice March, Johannesburg in December 2019
This is defiance
this is unruliness
this...
...is
civil disobedience.
This is tenacity
(Fight the binary. Kill the binary.)
shake, nyakaza our consciousness.
There is no
Us and Them.
only
You and Me.
and me
and me
and me
And Me.
And I and You and Us and We.
Community.
Transform our ideology.
We the people demand a new world order
to stop the slaughter of the earth, the air, the water
to burn down imaginary borders and create disorder.
Some laws are not sacred, question,
mistrust
what is legal is not necessarily just.
Some laws are not sacred, question,
mistrust
what is legal is not necessarily just.
We the people demand Climate Justice,
it’s just us
calling
justice!
This is no longer business as usual,
to continue like this is delusional.
We are running out of time
Tick tock tick tock tickedy tickedy tickedy tock.
Fighting the oppression of a rigged system
trying to peel me of my roots
trying to dilute me.
They colonised our mother
but I remember
another
way to breathe the untouched air of my ancestor’s land:
Bo Koko le bo rre mogolo
ke nna ngwana lona
ke buwa le lona, KERE nthuseng.
Nneyeng matla a go fetola kakanyo ya me
ke kgakolole tsela TSA segologolo
to help us remember
this place called home.
Has me,
under a spell it has me.
Has me,
feeling unwell it has me.
Has me,
Eskom and Shell they have me
Has me,
locked in a cell they have me.
VUKA!
Vukani Bantu balomhlaba vukani
Vukani Bantu balomhlaba vukani
Our eyes are open,
we can’t say we didn’t know.
Vukani Bantu balomhlaba vukani.
We can’t breathe Emalahleni.
KHUZEKA HULUMENI
Sok'xaka mas’delela, singakhuzeki.
Sekungabuyeki.
Sekungaphileki.
Sekungaphefumleki.
Nantsi ingozi!
Sithi vuka hulumeni!
DEAR GOVERNMENT
We are reporting to you live
while overheating,
possibly sinking,
and awaiting the coming droughts.
We’d like to know if you have decided to leave South Africa behind?
Why is this crisis not a trending headline?
Why have you not put laws in place to save us
from overheating,
possibly sinking,
and awaiting the coming droughts?
DEAR GOVERNMENT
We are reporting to you live.
Load shedding is on the rise,
droughts are on the rise,
desperation is on the rise.
The only thing not rising is the urgency concerning this crisis.
Open your eyes
is this still not worthy of a news headline?
Or are you planning on leaving South Africa behind
along with anyone else who can’t afford to occupy a new planet.
Leaving the rest, the poorest of the poor, here to end from a mess
they couldn’t afford to cause.
Civilians! Look at how far civilization has gone
and how far gone we are.
What the need to keep consuming has done.
How is this not a state of emergency?
South Africa,
what is our strategy?
Fellow citizens, we will be left behind
overheating
possibly sinking
and ending from the coming droughts.
Hang on
wait
this is rough
someone sold us a terrible idea.
We say enough
enough stuff.
We are on strike,
like,
complicit no more
in a system that doesn’t support us
that doesn’t invest in this planet or limit carbon emissions.
We’re on a mission of Earth recovery
tree for tree
rewilding.
We are storing our energy
for restoring the energy.
This is how we begin again
simplify
see differently
slow
down.
Connect deeply,
encourage, inspire,
understand more,
shift, stand up,
roar!
Thetha, uzoviwa nawe
you are here.
Can you hold the world in your hands?
Not alone.
We are intertwined, interconnected in the network of everything
a tree
is a tree
is a life
is a gift.
We, the caretakers, the changemakers,
we don’t hesitate.
We refuse to be a miseducated, unguided nation
bring your determination.
Reignite, re-imagine a new world
a new order without borders
where dreams of success are redefined and realigned.
If you have more than what you need
build a longer table
not a higher wall.
The only way for us to survive is to let it
all fall
leave the golden egg we have no need for it
at all.
We stomp to a different beat now that stirs our hips, ignites our souls
pulls each of us to our feet and calls for us to
tread lightly.
Let my existence be noticed less than a leaf falling from a tree.
What will your legacy be?
We choose life for us all that all may continue
not just you or me.
This is Not a Song, performed by Sanelisiwe Yekani and Lerato Sefoloshe.
So
this....
...is not a song.
It’s a battle cry!
This is a warning sign
this is the starter gun
on your marks, get set,
go!
This is!
Our future asking to be acknowledged
This is!
A mother wanting to know her grandchild will have a home.
This is!
Love for our team.
This is!
Making sure the things we have don’t cost the Earth
This is!
Learning how to live
each moment,
each interaction,
each choice.
This is…
... A mirror.
Check yourself.
You deserve everything this world has to offer
you deserve a warning, about global warming.
You deserve not to have your lives plundered, robbed and starved.
Here is a match, take it, it’s yours.
(Thank you)
Now: set it alight.
This is!
Listen...
(you hear that?)
It’s the starting gun
(on your marks)
everyone is running
this is a warning
Global Warming
this is a warning
Mamelani!
'On my knees for rain' performed by Sanelisiwe Yekani and Lerato Sefoloshe.
On our knees for rain.
Mayine! Si!
On our knees for rain.
Ewe Queen Modjadji, noNongqawuse wayithetha lento,
lento yendlala,
lento yobumnyama,
lento sikuyo.
Ze Ine! Si! Xa silumana sodwa!
We are on our knees for rain,
beneath the now merciless sun! Si!
Ndithi Angena amanzi endlini.
Ndithi Yafika ingxaki endlini.
Ndithi kuphelile ukudla endlini.
Ndithi akusekho ukudla endlini.
It’s Mama on her knees for rain,
it’s Papa on his knees for rain,
we are on our knees for rain,
it’s Grandma on her knees for rain.
And one day I saw my grandmother pray for rain
she took my hands and washed my fears away.
The distance in her eyes felt so far away.
Re batla sediba sa sechaba
se refe bophelo.
And she said step in here with me, feel this sacred stream
listen carefully to the change it brings.
These dead leaves are no longer good to us
help them float away.
Take this, make this, whole again.
Sink this pain, grow this grain.
Mpumalanga is praying for rain.
Khalanyoni,
Khalanyoni,
Khalanyoni.
Wash me, cleanse me, take me back again
wash me, cleanse me, help me fight again
wash me, cleanse me, help us dream again
wash me, cleanse me, hear my voice again.
Ndibuyise, ndenze Ndikhumbule.
Siqhubeke-siye phambili.
Ndibuyise ndenze Ndikhumbule.
Siqhubeke - siye phambili.
Pula!
PULA A ENE spoken by Sanelisiwe Yekani and Lerato Sefoloshe.
Let the heavens open and shower us,
relieve the burning carried at our backs,
let not the seas acidify, let not the farms get dry,
let not this curse fall on us.
To all those stuck in the mud of greed,
those who don’t see the path of need,
our nest of wildlife, our thirst for life.
Whether you are the first or the last, we all live in this world.
No second home
no Planet B.
Know your wealth: it is right here where we stand
we are nothing apart from nature,
we are nothing without our Mother, it is she!
Ask the rain queen - let the floodgates open and we shall be reborn
a Rising Tide
a Sea Change
away from the capitalist slime of the industrial world
away from the burning beast,
the destruction of our own.
PULA A ENE!
Pula ya medupi, a ene.
a re yeng
a re yeng
a re yeng
a re yeng
a re yeng sedibeng!
Drown your fears
submerge your apathy
plunge your indifference
they are not useful to you now
phambili!
Refuse,
reimagine,
redefine.
Stop thinking you can’t because
it’s not your fault?
Come Boris, come Angela, Cyril, come Bolsonaro
let us live simply so others can simply live.
Come children, come adults, people
come on
shut down that dubstep of our dumbstruck destruction
Come!
What are you looking for? What are you waiting for?
Morena? Shame, it’s not him and it’s not them
it has to be me.
Show us
change us
organise us
the children will lead
VUKA!
I don’t know about you, but
I will not go comfortably
into my extinction.
Burning Rebellion, An Ecological Protest Poem 2019 by Well Worn Theatre is licensed under a Creative Commons license BY-NC-SA 4.0
Burning Rebellion was written by Joni Barnard aka Missy Phaya Fly, Lerato Sefoloshe, Sanelisiwe Yekani, Mlindeli Zondi, Jaques de Silva, Kyla Davis. Performed by: Lerato Sefoloshe, Sanelisiwe Yekani, Mlindeli Zondi, Jaques de Silva. Produced by: Well Worn Theatre Company.
This digital/interactive, open-source version of Burning Rebellion was produced by Well Worn Theatre Company in collaboration with the South African Research Chair in Science Communication, based at Stellenbosch University. The SARChI SciCom is funded by the National Research Foundation.
Burning Rebellion is made possible by a generous grant from the National Lotteries Commission.
