Africa

A place to be; a home to live, Full of cultures and traditions, rivers of live. In crossing the Mediterranean, ‘criss-crossing’ the continent, you see… A mountain of rivers, running the Niles to desert, crossing the Niger to the ocean, a Congo in the Basin, an orange of waters, the Silver of Gold Coast. Africa! A Limpopo in Zambezi. Wild wild cat mewing on jaro mountains, climbing the Zuma face, and ascending from the Jos-Plateau. Africa! A sight and sound, a sound of Saka Zulu, and a sight of Mandela. A sound of Mau Mau song, and a sight of Jomo Kenyatta. The voice of Nkrumah, prompting tying broom sticks together. The zikist Movement, and the freedom of the child. Africa! A child once weeping, but Ngugi says, ‘Weep Not Child’. Once tried, in ‘the trial of Brother Jero’. Once chained, Kaunda assured, ‘Zambia shall be free’. Achebe saw ‘Things fall apart’, observed, ‘The center cannot hold’, but, Addis Ababa held the center. Africa! Chanting a new song, the song that unchained the chains of Mandela, replacing the guns with tables and chairs. A song written in ‘So Long a Letter’, making brothers sit with brothers, a song recited while sitting around a table. A song of reasoning; a song of understanding; but the last stanza of the song says; Not yet Uhuru