Kashile
Old friend of the family
Servant and nursemaid
To my brothers and me
Kashile taught us all we knew
About life in the wild
And then we grew

I remember the day that I first went to school
He never had been there himself but was nobody's fool
For hunting the forest and fishing the rivers and brooks
Could never be learned very well from schoolrooms and books

And at night we would sit by his fire
And play those old native games
With pebbles and stones
And gaze at the flames

Kashile, old friend of the family
Servant and nursemaid
To my brothers and me
Kashile taught us all we knew
About life in the wild
And then we grew

I remember the day that I went to the war
He just stood there but I knew that his heart was sore
For I saw something deep in those murky eyes
Was it a premonition in a dark disguise?

Did he know of the carnage
And of the tragedy?
Did he know at the outset
What the outcome would be?

Kashile, old friend of the family
Servant and nursemaid
To my brothers and me
Kashile taught us all we knew
About life in the wild
And then we grew

I remember the day when we finally left
There were tears in his eyes and a heaving came over his breast.
For he seemed to know of a future political act
He'd be free in a way but it's not what he wanted in fact

For life would be hell in a nation
Just newly born
And he wouldn't have us as an anchor
To ride out the storm

Kashile, old friend of the family
Servant and nursemaid
To my brothers and me
Kashile taught us all we knew
About life in the wild
And then we grew