Akeem Lasisi - Ritual Poetry for Ken Saro-Wiwa
Kenule Saro-Wiwa,
Your breed defeats the creed of the reeds.
Your presence is the shadow of a kite
That sends off the squawking fowls of memorial pains,
Your breed defeats the creed of the reeds.
You are the trouble Poem the bully refuses to read
Because its diction is baked in the ovum of change.
Multilingual thinker,
Armed with the dialects
Of the air
and sea
Of the sky
and land
Air
and sea
Sky
and land
What merged the black and white wisdom
In the seabed of your Luther King’s heart?
Teach me!
(Nigeria)
Lesego Rampolokeng - Crab Attack/Intro to the Master
Baudelaire lost his hair in the rap-dragon’s lair
Ginsberg howled on the wagon running wild on jazz music
organic nothing plastic from the classics to the beatniks
oral poetics in the mix colonial tactics fake the facts
I take it back… a reappropriation act
‘cos granny thought Shakespeare a star player of soccer
but granny shocker lyrical clocker
dear oh dear she was a wild rhythm and rhyme rocker
I ride the mental colt break unfo-vault
for self-rank pump system shock in kilovolt
jump bolt nut & lock on intellect bank
not verbal gymnast when I flip tongue it’s toil
twist the WORD around dead in the ground snakes recoil
‘cos I carry the sound of soil now check it
(South Africa)
Don Mattera - Dreaming Was Never Free
Oh my land
My earth
My beloved.
In this place of perpetuated poverty
Scattered dark eyes
Glow in the nightdust of Kangwane.
And love still speaks solemnly
Salted by uncompromising tears.
Deep, deep in the willing flesh
The first seeds clash
And memory is born.
And that which was Unseen
Comes to earth clothed in Song
Carrying our grief and expectation.
Though now
Our shadows flicker
In the liquid light of liberty,
A time will come, Beloved
When we will remember
Dreaming was never free,
And that to live and love and believe
Also meant we had to know and sing and die.
(South Africa)
Kgafela Magogodi - the carrot
the carrot attracts a crooked habit
rabbits cross the floor to chew the rot
vote right
there’s no carrot on the left
the parrot sings praises cos the carrot
is in the pot
the only truth to the tooth is the carrot
liars strangle no more they dangle the carrot
to suck you into the rot
they put the carrot in your pocket
to keep you quiet
no more riot
no more riot
no more riot
just the grinding of rot
the carrot dance is a national sport
see how they run like judas iscariot
to grab the all mighty carrot
now children are taught
that life is about who eats more carrot
to excrete more rot
lairs raise the flag of the carrot
even in the toilet
no more riot
no more riot
no more riot
just the grinding of rot
you’re a true patriot
even if you get caught
stealing the carrot
nobody takes you to court
it matters not if you forgot
to give to the poor a cut
of the carrot.
(South Africa)
- Poems from Poetry Africa 2003 -
Kenule Saro-Wiwa / Your breed defeats the creed of the reeds. / Your presence is the shadow of a kite / That sends off the squawking fowls of memorial pains, / Your breed defeats the creed of the reeds. / You are the trouble Poem the bully refuses to read / Because its diction is baked in the ovum of change.