Mosi-oa-Tunya
Mosi-oa-Tunya is ‘The Thunderous Smoke’;
twixt Zambia and Zimbabwe it sits;
Doc Livingstone, that missionary bloke
observed its wonders, loving it to bits.
This waterfall feeds two almighty gorges,
descends into a geologic gash
one hundred metres deep, and there it forges
a one-point-seven-kilometre slash.
The longest single cascade in the world,
it feeds a tropic forest with its mists,
whilst downstream, from a straddling bridge folk hurled
on bungy cords amend their bucket lists.
To those of us who lived there once, it calls—
those rumbling waters of Victoria Falls.
Paul A. Freeman is the author of Rumours of Ophir, a crime novel which was taught in Zimbabwean high schools and has been translated into German. In addition to having two novels, a children’s book and an 18,000-word narrative poem (Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers!) commercially published, Paul is the author of hundreds of published short stories, poems and articles.
I remember reading about Victoria Falls in my youth. When I started the poem and read Dr, Livingstone had seen it, I just knew that is what it was but renamed. I was going to point that out but did not have to, since you said it at the end. The imagery was perfect.
Glad you liked the imagery, Roy. For your information, the falls is still predominately known as ‘Victoria Falls’, or ‘Vic Falls’ around the world and on maps. In country though, it is equally well known as ‘Mosi-oa-Tunya’ (as the Ndebele tribe have called it since they migrated to the area), or ‘The Smoke that Thunders’, which is the translation from the Ndebele language. There is nothing contentious intended. It’s just a place all we folk who fell foul of ‘Comrade’ Mugabe and had to leave remember with fondness.
The grandeur of nature does indeed enchant, and it remains in memory. In just a few well-chosen lines you call up a dramatic picture. I sort of wish I had been there to see the falls myself! Nice work, Paul.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano. It is quite amazing to be standing in a patch of rainforest that only exists because it’s fed by a waterfall.
Quite a memory, Paul. Having watched that cascade flow into an impressive geologic gash, and produce rain forest, must give you a sense of placement on earth and in history. You manage to display the variety of all that by carefully choosing words to express it here. I’m glad I don’t have a bucket list to entrust to a bungy cord!
Yes, Margaret, visiting Vic Falls certainly does put you in your place.
Just like you, bungy jumping is certainly off the list, if it ever was there.
I love this poem, Paul, because of how well it describes and explains one of the most uniquely beautiful places in the world. So beautiful, in fact, that we have photographs of the waterfall and rainbow displayed in our house, because one of our sons visited there last year with his girlfriend. Incredible! Thanks for writing a poem that only you could have written.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Russell. Vic Falls certainly does hold a spell over those who have lived in that part of southern Africa.
I’ve sent the link to this poem to an old Zimbabwe friend, who no doubt will pass it on to the exiled diaspora.