Africa Speaks Reasoning Forum

The great Queen Nzinga
did not know of leopold
the vampire
She did not know
of the hunger
that would find a vehicle
in leopold the belgian
In the days of the great Queen
leopold was an invisible entity
a demon whose breathe
had filled the sails
of portuguese men of war
she knew nothing
of its hunger for African limbs
as she gazed upon the other
vainglorious caucasian
the first vehicle

She knew nothing specific
about what was to come
But she knew enough
to know she had to fight

Maharere knew nothing
of concentration camps
of manufactured diseases
sprayed onto cattle herds
Poisons
buried in water sources
But like the unknown thousands
who agreed with him
when he said
"Better we die fighting.."
The great Maharere
knew enough
to know he had to fight

Marcus Garvey knew
about the captivity
the millions torn
from thier roots, the millions transplanted
onto hostile soils
and the tens of millions
cut to pieces, starved, drowned
whipped
to death
crucified
by christians
Marcus Garvey knew all these
but he did not know
knew nothing of AIDS
of leukemia and the other weapon
named after the land
Africans call Ebola

But he knew enough
to know he had to fight

Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah
Amilcar Cabral
Funmilayo Ransome Kuti
Like Toussaint
and the great souls
of Haiti
before them
did not know
of the  paris club
the london club
the new world ordered
by the new globalisation
They knew nothing
about the WTO
They did not know
that generations after them
would still be in debt
to the parasites they fought against

They fought only for freedom
they did not ask for reparations
they did not ask those
who had built 'civilization'
from the bones of African ancestors
to acknowledge that truth
speak gratitude
show shame, no.
All they fought for
was for room to breathe
airs untainted
by the foul breath
of blood-gargling demons

But Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah
warned us to guard against
neo-colonialism
A warning
whose time has come
A prophecy about manipulations
whose purposes are now clear
as we now approach
colonialism itself
once again

So I ask
if these with the little
that they knew
could have fought as hard
as they had
Why it is that we
who know not only
what they knew
why we who also know
of sharpshooters in Sharpeville
of the concentration camps 
in Kenya
Of the massacres in Grenada
In Mogadishu
and Cite Soliel
We who know
that the joy
with which an African
was dragged to death
in jasper, texas
was no anomaly
but a common feature
of the ones we still find
so hard
to leave behind
We who know
and yet deny
the true origin
of AIDS and other
such weapons of
a genocide already at the stage
of implementation
We who have seen
the fear born from hatred
the hatred born from fear
even of a five year old African girl
who needed to be 'subdued'
by five grown 'men'
A girl put in chains
by a posse of demons
Where is our memory?

And when we see
an African child
being sold to a 'white'
where is our memory?

We ask of the past
"How could those Africans stand by
while thier own was being enslaved?"
Well now
for an answer
all we need do is look
in a mirror
and ask the shifty faced hypocrite
the multi-lingual multi-cultured
self-eraser ask
how he or she re-acted
when 'madonna' bought the baby John
Ask the self-deciever
if he or she bought the justification
that baby John is better off
in the waste
Then look again into the past
and tell the African being saved
from 'heathenism' and 'cannibalism'
that in the long run
he will be better off
Tell that African that though
the soul pain is great
he or she will get used to it
He or she will create a great art form
from this agony
(And all the world will dance to it)
Tell that African
that he or she will not be the last
tell him to get used to it
Tell her to learn to love it
Because six hundred years
from when it started
it will start again

And rejoice
who knows what great art
will be grown in these new plantations

When we look into the past
and ask how African Kings
and Queens allowed
thier own people to be sold
away
Let us ask the present
Let us look to the 'president'
of Malawi
who said "we have many more.." (for sale)
for an answer
Let us look to trojan horse oprah
who allowed madonna room
in which to air her 'rationalisations'
for an answer

When we measure our selves
as men or women
Let us look at African liberators
from the past
Let us compare
what they knew then
to what we know
now
and let us compare
what they did then
to what we are are doing
now.

two thumbs up! [smiley=2thumbsup.gif] [smiley=2thumbsup.gif] [smiley=beam.gif] i like dat  u speak truth to power!

Thanks brother. I have also been enjoying your works