Africa, land of great contrast,
Africa, land of the sun,
Of courage and suffering and beauty,
Of struggles for everyone.
Where the desert, aching for water,
Shimmers in dust hope.
And the jungle, tangled and teeming,
Wrestles beneath the sun’s rays.
Where rivers, languid and lazy,
meander snake-like and slow
Or leap forth in breathless abandon
To plummeting rocks below.
Huge mountains, ancient, majestic
Watch o’er the endless plains
Where lion-fearing buck and buffalo graze
On the green of the summer rain.
On land of so many peoples –
Proud or laughing with fun,
Struggling like tropical flowers
Each for his place in the sun.
We must learn to love and to share,
God’s children we are everyone,
White, black and brown together,
Brothers, sisters under the sun.
Catherine van Alphen