The Greeks called you Ethiopia—
The kingdom of the burned faces.
You sent Aesop to tell fables,
You gave Kemet, Nubia to teach
Aristotle, Pythagoras, Plato...all they needed to know.
Indeed, those were the days when
"Sages looked to Egypt for their lore". *
Today you're a divided land
Where multifarious customs
And extraordinary music
Embalm the toiling feet of your
Multitudinous boys and girls.
The Romans revered your bold sons.
You sent Septimius Severus
To drown the Parthians in defeat:
From your mighty rivers more and
More of your sons flooded regal Rome.
Today, you give us a desert
Where we build shrines, pray to water,
For rain is a blessing from Thoth
Shango, Shaka, Cetshwayo...
The Yemenites knew your daughters.
You gave Sheba Queen Makeda,
She ruled her Shebans with wisdom;
Solomon she ruled with beauty.
Together they gave Menelik
To Ethiopia— her future emperor;
Today, your Emperor and Empress
Prostrate themselves for lack of wealth,
At the god of greed and hatred.
You gave Ancient great foundations:
Your greatest architect, Zoser
Your multi-genius, Imhotep
Your warrior pharaoh, Tarhaqua...—
Men whose temples lie in ruins,
But whose legends still stand firm in
Lands now growing in poverty
Ushering in hunger and AIDS—
Oh the contempt! Your mind, abused,
Is now strewn in oblivion,
Afrika.
You gave Haiti L'Ouverture
To revolutionise the slaves,
And French egocentricity died
On that day when the Modern's oldest
Democracy was born, indeed
Toussaint Lives today! When shall he
Rise again and tear down lazy hearts?
History is written by victors!
Afrika.
For Maya, you're carved in history
By hands with "bitter twisted" motives;
Yet your heart, though stretched and torn,
Still contains the strength to forgive:
How else can we explain your endurance
After years and years of beatings?
It's because the flag that blows love
Is still waving boldly inside your heart.
Afrika,It's true that you have been worn out;
But you haven't been defeated!
I can say with firm confidence
You've built walls to resist defeat.
Our modern walls erected by:
Lumumba, Kenyatta, Nkrumah,
Cabral, Garvey, Soyinka, X, ... Fela
Will erect your future walls in:
The West, South, North and East.
Afrika,
Division suffocated you.
Its destruction, therefore,
Will clear the air of strife!
Afrika,
Where is the Light so synonymous
With love, which keeps all things alive?
Where's that vacuum that sucked your Light?
Hear, for all your children cry out
With dusty hands and brittle bones,
For love to touch life in them again.
Where's Worth? Is she sat on the wind's wings
Being blown about from shore to shore?
Uprooted from home, her people,
Significance has been stolen
And is languishing visa-less in foreign flags
* - John Keats (Hyperion Book 1 - Line 33)
Channel Kindo2006
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