The Vultures - David Diop

The Vultures

In those days 
When civilization kicked us in the face 
When holy water slapped our cringing brows 
The vultures built in the shadow of their talons 
The bloodstained monument of tutelage 
In those days 
There was painful laughter on the metallic hell of the roads 
And the monotonous rhythm of the paternoster 
Drowned the howling on the plantations 
O the bitter memories of extorted kisses 
Of promises broken at the point of a gun 
Of foreigners who did not seem human 
You who knew all the books but knew not love 
Nor our hands which fertilze the womb of the earth
Hands instinct at the  root with revolt 
In spit of your songs of pride in the charnel-houses
In spite of the desolate villages of Africa torn apart 
Hope lived in us like a citadel
And from Swaziland's mines to the sweltering sweat of Europe's
factories 
Spring will be reborn under our bright steps. 

DAVID DIOP

This poem presents us with vivid images of Africa's colonial experience and European control of Africa, under the pretext of a civilizing mission. It can also be closely allied to the work of the Christian missionaries in converting Africa to a religion which demands humility. Although intellectuals as they claimed, their heart is devoid of love. But with all the harsh treatments given to Africa, the poet still sees hope or light after the dark tunnel.     

Continuation of the novel - Whose Child

Lexie Jacobs had fled her home town when she learned that Angela, the wife of David is a baby killer. Angela's first husband upon learning that Lexie was carrying a child for his ex-wife and new husband, visited David and told him that Angela had murdered their first baby and that she has psychological problem. David who was blinded by love would not believe any of it. Concerned for the baby she carried, the man then went to Lexie. David still refused to listen to her, so Lexie had to run with the baby inside her womb. Now David has found them. Angela is dead. David had divorced her and she remarried. Only to be arrested on the ground that she had murdered her new husband's first grandchild. While awaiting trial, one of the inmate murdered her.
With the threat to the baby's life gone, Lexie has no other reason to keep the child. However, David realized that Lexie had made a lot of sacrifices to keep his child safe. He then asked her to marry him. Her love for the child made her to accept his proposal even though she had always wanted to marry a man that truly loved her. David later fell in love with her and they got married not just because of Sarah, but because they love each other and in Sarah's words, "They lived happily ever after."


A mother's love for her children is so strong that she can do just about anything to keep them safe and happy. Cheers to mothers!    

    

Like Celine Dion said, Goodbye Is The Saddest Word

Lexie Jacobs has just given birth to a cute baby girl in the clinic of a town called Mill Creek Montana. Although she carried her for nine months, she wasn't her mother! She was a gestational surrogate who had fled her home town when she learned of a threat to the life of the baby she carried. Almost four years has passed before David Mitchell, the biological father of the child, tracked them down with the help of a private investigator. He was furious with Lexie for making him to miss out on his daughter's firsts and was about to take from Lexie the child whom she has grown to love and cherish. The child Sarah, loved her momma too much and does not want to be apart from her. David, although was not accepted by his child with open arms, was determined to take back his daughter. Hearts were about to be broken and.......


The story will continue in my next post.

One thing i like so much in this book is how the writer presented the child. Sarah was portrayed as an innocent child who also knows what she wants. She has also got a sharp tongue! Lol.

A Perfect Example of the Boko Haram Insurgency

Gabriel Okara

Moon In The Bucket
By Gabriel Okara

Look!
Look out there
in the bucket
the rusty bucket
with water unclean

Look!
A luminous plate is floating –
the moon, dancing to the gentle night wind
Look! All you who shout across the wall
with a million hates.
Look at the dancing moon
It is peace unsoiled by the murk
And dirt of this bucket war. 
  
This poem shows the poet's deep concern for the violence and ravages of war and the destruction of human life. Ordinarily a quiet and peace loving man, situations like these sharpened his longing for harmony and his hatred for the divisions that plague human relationships. The use of the moon here symbolizes peace and concord.

Today, it has become common knowledge that the Boko Haram insurgency has claimed the lives and properties of many. But the worse part of these stories is that innocent people and children are usually the victims of these needless killings. TOO BAD.

I think it rains by Wole Soyinka

Wole Soyinka

I think it rains

I think it rains
That tongues may loosen from the parch
Uncleave roof-tops of
the mouth, hang
Heavy with knowledge

I saw it raise
The sudden cloud, from ashes.
Settling
They joined in a ring of
grey; within,
The circling spirit.

O it must rain
These closures on the mind, blinding us
In strange despairs, teaching
Purity of sadness.

And how it beats
Skeined transparencies on wings
Of our desires, searing dark longings
In cruel baptisms.

Rain-reeds, practised in
The grace of yielding, yet unbending
From afar, this, your conjugation with my earth
Bares crounching rocks.

   By Wole Soyinka

What makes this poem difficult is that the poet explores a state of mind by using rain as a symbolic image. We must be able to see the quick parallels and associations which the poet draws. Rain is used in this poem as a bringer of relief and as an agent of good. Through the symbolic image of the rain, the poet narrates the burdensome thoughts that are stifling him and causing him so much despair and sadness. But circumstances dictates that he must keep his peace. 

Footprints In The Sand

Footprints In The Sand

      by Mary Stevenson

One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.

After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.

This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You'd walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."

He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."

This poem written by Mary Stevenson is one of the best poems I have read that is so encouraging. Just when you think that God has abandoned you, that he has left you all by yourself, that is when he is more with you. So whatever it is that u are facing, be assured that God is just there for you.

The Lion and the Jewel

 Sidi, a Nigerian village beauty
 featured in a glossy magazine

The Lion and the Jewel is a play by Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka that was first performed in 1959. It chronicles how Baroka, the lion, fights with the modern Lakunle over the right to marry Sidi, the titular Jewel. Lakunle is portrayed as the civilized antithesis of Baroka and unilaterally attempts to modernize his community and change its social conventions for no reason other than the fact that he can. The transcript of the play was first published in 1962 by Oxford University Press. Soyinka emphasizes the theme of the corrupted African culture through the play, as well as how the youth should embrace the original African culture. 

Summary

Lakunle is a school teacher who wants to marry Sidi, the belle of Ilujinle, but does not want to pay the bride price because he says that such a custom is barbaric. He wants to wed Sidi in the Western fashion. Sidi on the other hand will marry him only on the ground that he pays the bride price. 

The Bale, the lion of Ilujinle, (he is 62 years old) also wants to marry her because of her "beauty and fame that has spread to Lagos and beyond the seas". Sidi refuses the Bale's proposal, saying he is too old for her. The Bale then lied to his head wife, Sadiku, that he has lost is potency as a man a week ago. He warned her not to "parade his shame before the world". Sadiku later told Sidi about it so that she can go and subtly mock the Bale. From their conversation, the Bale soon discovered that Sadiku has betrayed his trust by divulging  the secret to Sidi. He started praising Sidi's beauty just to seduce her. She lost her virginity before she realized what was happening. Lakunle is angry but still willing to marry Sidi without the bride price since she was no longer a virgin. Sidi however married the Bale instead, claiming that at sixty, Baroka is still full of life but Lakunle would be probably "ten years dead".

Ah! did u get that right? I mean the part where she decided to marry the man she once claimed was too old for her. Hehe!