» From the Republic of Conscience


    » I


    » When I landed in the republic of conscience


    it was so noiseless when the engines stopped » I could hear a curlew high above the runway


    » At immigration, the clerk was an old man


    who produced a wallet from his homespun coat » and showed me a photograph of my grandfather


    » The woman in customs asked me to declare


    the words of our traditional cures and charms » to heal dumbness and avert the evil eye


    » No porters. No interpreter. No taxi.


    You carried your own burden and very soon » your symptoms of creeping privilege disappeared


    » II


    » Fog is a dreaded omen there, but lightning


    spells universal good and parents hang » swaddled infants in trees during thunder storms


    » Salt is their precious mineral. And seashells


    are held to the ear during births and funerals. » The base of all inks and pigments is seawater


    » Their sacred symbol is a stylized boat


    The sail is an ear, the mast a sloping pen, » The hull a mouth-shape, the keel an open eye.


    » At their inauguration, public leaders


    must swear to uphold unwritten law and weep » to atone for their presumption to hold office


    » and to affirm their faith that all life sprang


    from salt in tears which the sky-god wept » after he dreamt his solitude was endless


    » III


    » I came back from that frugal republic


    with my two arms the one length, the customs woman » having insisted my allowance was myself


    » The old man rose and gazed into my face


    and said that was official recognition » that I was now a dual citizen


    » He therefore desired me when I got home


    to consider myself a representative » and to speak on their behalf in my own tongue


    » Their embassies, he said, were everywhere


    but operated independently » and no ambassador would ever be relieved

Recipients

• 2006 - Nelson Mandela, former President of South Africa