School's changed
Aim for the stars
Any which way
Choose a path
Watered down
Curricula general
Competency based
Little History and Literature
Math, English, Kiswahili
Science, Agriculture, Religion
Peppered with Social Studies
Topped with Pre-technical
Designed to produce workers
Who will not reason
Merely follow processes
Keeping the elite smiling
While on safari
(Kiswahili for 'trip')
in Tanzania
over the horizon in a downward slip
across the savannah
the sun had begun to set
thought I'd seen it all
and yet
out on the endless plains
known to the Maasai as 'Serengeti'
not laughing but
and don't think me petty
with leopard-like
rosettes dotted
some funny-looking hyenas
there were spotted
Ameituliza nafsi yangu
Mkuu wa yote duniani
Iwapo nitapoteza njia
Najua penzi lake 'tanipata
Anivite kwake, aniite wake
Know your roots
Sometime when you hear
about the big population of Wayao
in Eastern and Southern Africa
with many kind chiefs
and one king.
You will say
They are so wise ,
With a strong leadership.
When you read the history of the yao people
And find out about the creation of their language.
How they could mix Ndendeule, Nindi
Matengo, and Kiswahili
to make Kiyao
"or Chiyao "
You can think of the wisdom of those ancestors?
Don't forget about the coalition of Matengo, Nindi
and Ndendeule people who made the current Yao people who are in Tanzania , Mozambique,
Malawi , Zambia , South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Yao people are among african peaceful , sociable
and powerful nations who can tolerate
attacks of the weak nations
for a long period while preparing to silence
the attackers systematically.
When you provoke Yao people many times
You will regret one time
and learn a good lesson.
Don't forget some group of yao people
who left Mozambique to South Africa
In 1870 after the war against the coalition of makua,
Lomwe and mwenyemaliya people on the Yao mountain
now they are among the Zulu nation.
At nineteen and eighteen
he said I couldn’t be seen
his reasons being:
too old, too sold, too mould for a being.
So the young and toddler, to that world of pleasure
and measure was his choice
-couldn’t choose an old frog for a voice
So like the devil in the Garden of Eden,
he appeared with a fruit to broaden,
And so in the name of the old
Kiswahili saying’udongo upatilize ungali maji’
He acted dying
On that soul so buying.
And the results so painful
Triplets on arms
Illness at hand
To such a young energetic ambitious being.
Written between 2000-2003
Just the young thoughts of the young mind
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