Long Kinshasa Poems

Groundhog day 2024 or Forty one days since 2023 Winter Solstice

Rather than be a day late
and dollar short, I opted   
to post poem acknowledging
the second of February,
where eponymous groundhog
gets his (most often male)
foretelling...

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When I look at the Nile or Niger
My heart overflows with joy for such a wonder 
As currents daringly flow on each iconic river 
Every fountain has wealth embedded in its waters
Each mountain, sealed by...

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Where is humanity? 
as Congolese players,
stuffs and fanatics 
were about to sing
their national anthem 
at Afcon tournament,
they put their right hands 
on their mouths
to express the silence 
of the international community 
into the problems of...

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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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I arrived earlier in time
To witness the great work of creation
When from the dust emerged the first man
I saw the destruction of the Noah’s world
And the reconstruction thereafter
The earliest civilization on Egypt soil
Unfolded before my...

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A Holly Day in May

the building is eerily empty today, everybody
has gone to the beach, even those in wheelchairs
I sit on the verandah in the hope of tanning
my scalp looks so white in the bathroom mirror
I...

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Oh! Mother Africa!
From the East to the West, from the North to the South of     
               ...

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The Racial Issue 

I know nothing about being black but when black people
speak about childhood poverty I sense empathy I too know
how it feels like  being dismissed

Once I was invited to a birthday party...

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The canvas shoes in Kinshasa

Once when the time was right
A sweet girl had her picture taken
because she was seven years old
and in her mind, almost a grown-up
Dressed in a white blouse and skirt
pressing a pair...

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American racism
 
I don’t understand it
Well, so they are former slaves
But that was long ago why are they
And the whites harbouring
Resentment about it.
Can’t the let it go!
I’m married to a mixed-race woman
From Kinshasa
It is part...

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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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What fame can do

Parked outside the local supermarket I saw a Rolls Royce
I straighten my shoulder and walked in with dignity.
The staff looked tense like an Imam had visited a church sermon.
Then I saw him,...

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Me a Racist
 

It was overcast this morning with fine rain
but as an offensive racist, I’m
I forced myself to get up at eight and take
a shower.  The water was cold no more gas
I called myself some slurring...

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Me a Racist  
It was overcast this morning with fine rain
but as the offensive  racist, I’m 
I forced myself to get up at eight and take
a shower.  The water was cold no...

Read More