Long Kampala Poems

[Verse 1]
Dust on my boots, heat in the air
We pulled off the highway to nowhere
Two shacks, red clay, nothin’ growin’
No clean water, just pain showin’

[Verse 2]
Kids in the dirt, no one cryin’
Too young to know...

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Flowers of peace are now magnificently blossoming
In the gardens of the battlefields of Khartoum and Kinshasa.
And roses of tranquillity and order slowly blooming 
In the flower pots of Kigali’s sorrowful genocide cites.

The smoke of dead...

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As you come to Uganda visit Entebe zoo
Come to the lion cage
Don't stare or watch just look in the lions eyes
It will tell you all the stories of Kampala

You see the red eyes of Besigye...

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Be Aware of Kampala. Part I

Pavements are not for pedestrians but Boda Bodas, you will be knocked down.
Zebra Crossing are not for safe crossing unless you want to be asked if you are a zebra,...

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I cannot get my head around this road;
at first, it brings me nothing but despair:
A swollen stream whose banks have overflowed,
with flotsam strewn in eddies everywhere.

The bodas bob and weave a lethal dance,
their fares seem...

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A flight of birds
Flaunt their enormous wings
Spying the light blue skies,
Of a city protected by trees
Whose sheer leaves 
Dance with the January breeze
That hovers over
A people of different origins

A chrysalis unborn,
Wrapped tightly with love
Soon to...

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I feel for the innocent victims
The ones brutally eliminated
Future and ambitions in tombs
Why is humanity against humanity?

I feel for the innocent victims
The ones butchered without mercy
Nations offended, nations  mourning
Why is humanity against humanity?

I feel...

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To the Darkened

What happened?
 to that sweet voice,
 those of the great States men;
I.K Musazi, Apollo M.O, Grace Imbingira

those that!
Engineered, ostracized, defiance and rejection.
Through the streets of Kampala-mukkade,
Yet with an enthusiasm of high fledged patriotism...

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Karugyembe
Hungry children, each the height of a bucket
Bloodshot eyes
Unshed tears
Rugs stitched together to clothe their bony bodies

Shallow pockets
Not a penny at hand
False confidence
Unfulfilled promises
The pot-bellied politician served his hot air
And fled
Lest his eyes should be...

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Perched on the shore of Lake Victoria 
Is Speke....
Of its beauty I will speak
In any place I shall be

Granite stones chopped into bricks
Layered one upon another....glued by cement
"Monomutapalian architecture perfected" on the shore of Lake...

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The red earth remembers my name,
whispers it in the dust that rises,
welcoming me home, not as I was,
but as I have become.

The streets hum, alive with rhythm,
voices colliding like rivers meeting,
the scent of Indian chai...

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In Kampala African queen lives
In Johannesburg African queen sleeps
In Nairobi African queen smiles
In Lagos African queen sings

In Kinshasa African queen dances
In Addis Ababa African queen debates
In Juba and Mogadishu Africa queen weeps
To Kigali and Accra...

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