By Dr. Ahmed Gumma Siddiek
I
In an endless horizon,
In a lonely Zone
The Robben Island stood alone
Amid an angry water,
Where nothing to see
But an endlessness angry sea
II
The Robben Island,
stood amid the ocean
A rocky penitentiary
With no emotions
III
A place,
with none-human feature
A symbol that stood
for human torture
Through the century
Through the human history
Stood the Island
as a statue of human misery
IV
To this island,
Mandela and his fellow men
Were brought in chains
Confined in solitary rooms
What crimes did they make?
They only refused the apartheid
They had nothing to hide
They were highly dignified,
And full of African pride
V
Mandela and companions
Were introduced to their new homes
In the Robben Island in solitary rooms
Hundreds of men with smiling faces
Assigned to imprisonment cause of race
In that place
VI
Mandela with heavy shackles
Dangling from his skinny hands
Like a handkerchief of a bridegroom
In his first marriage day
Then to his comrades he would say
‘Oh, men…’
‘Freedom is a state of mind’
‘And that, every dark night’
‘Would be followed by one bright’
“So, keep happy and tight.”
“To win the fight”
“And have back your human rights”
VII
And that, men let’s say that:
‘The prison is a five-star hotel’
‘A temporary motel’
‘Where we should happily stay
‘Live and play’
‘And show no signs of grief’
IX
So, the men faced their fate
like brave men
They held to that belief
And spent imprisonment.
with pleasure, with no grief
X
Then from Robben Island
Mandela marched from his Prison Residency
To South Africa Presidency
He was the greatest dreamer,
in the human history
Who fought bravely,
and set all the African free
