2003
Children's Song
Lithograph
285mm (width) X 380mm (height)
SOLDIERS' POEM
Lithograph
285mm (width) X 380mm (height)
Anarchy Signs
Children's Song
The sign of anarchy has hidden within its crude lines a children's song from the Anglo-Boer War. It is probably the best known children's song in Afrikaans. Its rather shocking and senseless words are:
Siembamba - mamma se kindjie
Siembamba - mamma se kindjie
Draai sy nek om gooi hom in die sloot
Trap op sy kop dan is hy dood
Siembamba - mommy's little babySiembamba - mommy's little baby
Wring his neck and dump him in the ditch
Stomp on his head and he will be deadSOLDIERS' POEM
A roughly scratched symbol of anarchy that hides a soldiers' poem in very small writing. The poem declares just what was expected of the British soldier at the time of the Anglo-Boer War - never to question any orders and a senseless surrender of conscience.
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
(Alfred, Lord Tennyson The Charge of the Light Brigade 1855)