"Letta & Caiphus" by Sihle Ntuli

Letta & Caiphus

the afro-pop song on Radio Zulu
opens with a rooster’s crow     the birth of a new dawn
(or so we thought)
let the clouds emerge       let the sunshine in
because closer to soil    our collective breath   our growing pains
because Not Yet Uhuru    sang mam’ Letta Mbulu
ballad for our Azania
reminding us    of a long walk   still ahead.

& while the stereo was left on Radio Zulu
a song calling out for uNomalanga
as sung by ubab’ Caiphus Semenya

about how easily the sun tends to set on a lover,
in the ballad of dusk       of a sun drifting further away
because of ukudabuka kwakhe
or the tearing inside of him
ballad as a revolutionary act
because to express love openly like this
has always been hard for black men
& even today       in love      most of our comrades still struggle

& of all the afro-pop songs that played on Radio Zulu
most echo the Aristophanic metaphor      a theory on soul mates
& when we were younger    the most compelling songs we heard
were love songs illuminating us          from a dark place
of not knowing      how we would live together
in Mandela’s Zabalaza republic

& there is so much to learn      from the shared experience
of exiled Letta & Caiphus         the beauty of a love story
that somehow from the darkness
two people can still manage
to find each other.

Sihle Ntuli

Sihle Ntuli is a poet and classicist from Durban, South Africa, who has been featured in SAND Journal, Transition Magazine, and Indiana Review. He is the author of the chapbook Rumblin’ (uHlanga, 2020).

Headshot: Niamh Walsh-Forster

Photo Credit: Tiffany Le