I Am An African

    Little Foot

    2005

    Your footprints in the rock
    Supplied a vital clue
    A key that might unlock
    The mystery of you

    They take us on a journey
    Back four million years
    A branching of the life-tree
    When ape-man first appears

    Aeons passed in slumber
    Left undisturbed by time
    Until Man’s blast of thunder
    Exposed the hollow lime

    Even then you stayed hid
    In caves of Sterkfontein
    The world’s first hominid
    A secret yet remained

    Until the revelation
    By digger Robert Clarke
    Brought you commendation
    And freedom from the dark

    Upon an outstretched arm
    Your weary head still rested
    And your shortened palm
    Sparked theories now contested

    Your waking in the valley
    Takes science to the brink
    Could you really be
    The fated missing link?

    Of you books will be written
    Your sleep has turned to fame
    Your progeny are smitten
    And echo your proud name

    Little Foot you have trod
    Our path of history
    Forever after we are shod
    With your humanity

    — Wayne Visser