Friday, August 10, 2007

30 years of Africa

Thirty Years of Africa

Africa of the brightest days
Where shine the clearest rays
Africa of the darkest nights
Our land of kingly might

Thirty years ago,
You had your go
From the hands of colonialists
Into the hands of neo colonialists
Seventy years were too long;
too long
And the tethers are still strong:
You have not broken free
In years ten times three

Thirty years of Africa
Thirty years of slavery
Thirty years of misery
Thirty years of civil wars
Thirty years, thirty years

We die
Maimed by strange diseases
Our lives cheaper than a bowl of rice
Sold at thirty pieces of silver
Up North the children have no joy
They no longer sing or play
They no longer make no toys
Only the sound of heavy boots
Marks the birth of a new day
Only the sound of guns
Punctuated with political hot air
Rents the air like thunder.

In the West drums still beat
The same old regular rhythms
But the women no longer swing their hips
Their breasts are fallen ooo
Their faces are wrinkled with sorrow
And the children wail in pain
As they watch the firing squad
Tear down the walls of peace
ln the heat of noon.

The pearl of Africa
Once hurled into the depths of the lake

The lake blasted away
With thirty high tech bombs
Bombs exchanged for precious grain
Heads blasted for jealous gain
There, in the heart of the pearl,
The dust is happily settling
And the children win smile again .

This poem was presented at the Kisumu Social Center as part of 1993 national celebrations to mark thirty years of Kenya’s independence .

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