What happened?

KWENU! Our culture, our future

What happened?

Nwachukwu Matthew Ezewudo

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Children of my mother, kinsmen of the same fate

And our lots as progenies of Africa bother us

So that when the rest of the world step into outer space,

Our own kind and brother slaughter us like rams, spilling blood leisurely

The very value of life is low, that among us is the cheapest form of man

Whatever, whenever we had become today, a spectacle of global pity

So that even this land of two rivers and the delta

Where we have been fishing and farming before Mungo Park and the Landers

There have been tribes and languages, here even before the time of Jesus

We did evolve dynasties and religions and trade before Portugal came

For peoples come together to be stronger, national

But for Nigeria, ditto Africa, apparently we came to war and self-destruct

For Lugard in 1914 and subsequently till 1960 and '63

And we were named republic, with a foreign language and taste

So there was Babel in government and populace; in churches and mosques

Striving to be more foreign than foreigners, change overtook us

Today we appreciate New York and Jerusalem and Riyadh to our own

Across Africa, our gaze is to the west, some to the east, but never within

Forty-seven years on, with computers and telecoms and mathematicians

Counting and adding ballots and numbers still eludes us like since independence

And for peanuts and false promises we still slaughter ourselves unchecked

Yes! a few of us with the power and money manipulate all our wills

Hate and prejudice stir our emotions; we all become less human

And collectively, we allow ourselves mediocrity, as the world leaves us behind

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