They took Ayanfe from her mother,
Taking all, with no discrimination,
On a journey of no return,
Through Gberefu, the place of no return,
Turning every town into an extension of their entitlement,
Colonies, they had called it,
Our anguish, their conquest,
Our strife, their honour.
From the Savannahs of Waza, Ogooue River to the shores of Ivory Coast,
Through the dunes of Mauritania, Upper Nile, and Lake Chad,
The continent wept,
And the trees watered with the blood of the soil grew,
Grew so tall that perhaps they could peep into heaven
To tell its inhabitants of the greed of man,
And the wickedness in the souls of the blue-eyed gods.
And when the wells dried up,
And the price of chains too great to bear,
And the cost of cruelty exceeded all gain,
And self-righteous tongues wagged,
Only then did the blue-eyed gods deem us worthy,
Worthy of our last name,
The road home already blurred,
Years of forgotten history!
All hail the queen!
This poem was published in the 15th Issue of PoeticAfrica magazine.
Please click here to download.
More Poems:
Ageless Fetters – George Favour Tonye (Nigeria)
The Year the Giant Slept – Sule Victor (Nigeria)
After the War: The House of Slavery and Exile – Mtamba Samson Raiti (Zimbabwe)
