The very talented Gareth Smit, a photographer, UCT
student and musician wrote a haunting song about the Marikana massacre. While
his parents dined with us on Friday night (17 August 2012), Gareth wrote this song, which his
father sent this morning. Gareth is 23, the conscience of South Africa's young
generation.
Here are the lyrics:
What would you say if I said
they left thirty-four dead?
Say: I haven't got an answer
why we shoot one another.
They promised us freedom,
they promised us grace.
All we got was a reason
to repeat past mistakes.
A sister lost a brother, and a mother lost a son.
Marikana, please remember how your metal's won.
Children lost a father, further down the road.
Father please forgive us, we know not what is owed.
I didn't feel the deadweight
but I heard the noise made.
I didn't feel the dirt-road
but I saw how the blood stains.
It's written on the headlines,
repeated: "Hold your fire"
I didn't hear the outcry -- did you even feel it pass you by?
The miners dug the same ground
upon which dead they were later found.
The gunman shot the rattle rounds
Count the shells on the same ground.
Today we saw the outcome
of fear being outrun.
Tomorrow we'll realise, and history will criticize.
After Nelson I remember,
before, I can't recall.
But if it was anything like this
I'd rather never been born.
What would you say if I said
they left thirty-four dead?
Say: I haven't got an answer
why we shoot one another.
They promised us freedom,
they promised us grace.
All we got was a reason
to repeat past mistakes.
A sister lost a brother, and a mother lost a son.
Marikana, please remember how your metal's won.
Children lost a father, further down the road.
Father please forgive us, we know not what is owed.
I didn't feel the deadweight
but I heard the noise made.
I didn't feel the dirt-road
but I saw how the blood stains.
It's written on the headlines,
repeated: "Hold your fire"
I didn't hear the outcry -- did you even feel it pass you by?
The miners dug the same ground
upon which dead they were later found.
The gunman shot the rattle rounds
Count the shells on the same ground.
Today we saw the outcome
of fear being outrun.
Tomorrow we'll realise, and history will criticize.
After Nelson I remember,
before, I can't recall.
But if it was anything like this
I'd rather never been born.
