Africa's Hope

Look at the floor of heaven Laid with patterns of bright gold For us, they are but little orbs But in his motion Like angels, they sing So many songs of harmony To the souls of immortals And while this muddy vesture of decay Does gross in them We mortals cannot hear it. Hold your fortune for your bliss A gentle scroll A diamond ring All gone Loss upon loss Life upon life Death upon death Pain upon pain A man of the people The villainy the beasts taught him That he executed Until things fell apart Judge him not And mourn him as a legend Chinualumogu! For whose sake The Arrow of the gods granted justice. Christopher Okigbo called them beasts David Diop called them vultures For me They were weeds on our soil Colonial masters Who awakened our sleeping lions Achebe threw the bomb And died before it exploded This cooled his friends And awakened his enemies They laughed at his losses And scorned all his gains He sought no revenge Yet his silence scrapped all nations Thwarted their bargains And with two heads of fools He repaid them for one And then There was a Country He chose not what many men desired And rejected the barbarous multitude; Crystallized the inferiority complex And fought back to back For Africa. No ill luck stirred at first No tears but of our shedding No sighs but our breathing Various creditors sprang Enemies arose Yet he'd give up nothing for the wilderness of monkeys Nor for the generation of wolves An ambassador of love rarely seen His pleas were for the taunted and corrupt And with his graciously seasoned works He obscured the shows of evil What damned error! But some superior would bless and approve it with a text Hiding the grossness with faint ornaments. Look on beauty And you shall see It is purchased on the weight Often have you been told That all that glitters is not gold Farewell, the hope of Africa For now, your suit is cold We love and miss you But our prayers with you shall be Oh, Lord! Arise and await For his gentle spirit Unto you dear God Commits itself to be directed The Beautyful ones are indeed not yet born But the born indeed are most beautifully precious Adieu Albert!