This nation rests on the law of the bible,

traitors must forfeit their lives.

Turncoats wound it, rip out its lifeblood:

our power wanes, and we're ripe for invasion.

My people, we're stabbing Africa,

we kill our own through betrayal:

we court celebrity status,

honours for killing Africa.

When we trade our own people to whites for profit

we inflict a deep wound on Africa.

I'm not one to shy from saying so:

your public behaviour bears eloquent witness.

Oh dear! Dear, oh dear! The shame and disgrace of it!

We wither and perish for lack of a healer

and Africa's forelegs sink deep in the quagmire:

we repeatedly stab her year in and year out.

Congress and all the successes we strained over,

education and all that we strove to achieve—

as we idly bicker we're left in the dust

and Africa slips through our fingers forever.

We split into factions, betray our own people,

and Africa leaves as we claw at each other.

We'd be all at sea if we ruled ourselves:

our cry for self-rule is vapid!

Zulu and Xhosa! Sotho, Swazi, Mfengu!

You resemble each other in larking about,

but there once was a time when you were one people,

united when nations were called into being.

To help other nations you shun your own people

in your desperate quest for honour and status.

They gather from you all our closest secrets.

Let me ask you this question: when will it all end?

We're accustomed to service. Mercy, Africa,

Nursemaid slain by your sucklings,

you were like water tossed out on dry earth.

Please explain to me, fellow, just what you all do?

How many Judases toyed in secret

with black people's lives, then died in the dark?

And Africa constantly fades in the distance.

Of all people, why do you act in this way?

It's perfectly clear that we're lacking in leaders,

not those who grow roots from squatting down motionless,

but those in the mist whose roar makes the sun break through,

who bustle about quite as active as vultures.

God bless Africa!

Patch the network of cracks in the wall up with clay,

so the surface appears chameleon-coloured,

a sign to inspire our respect for each other.