Father Africa! At a token ignorance,
You have given your inheritance:
To strangers you gave so much.
White fellows who did not eat in our dish.
Behold, with some sham laughter,
They transacted for few daughter;
They brought clothes and rums and guns
To shackle away your sons.
Father Africa, foolish you!
Lo! See Mama Africa's cry
Her hapless tears can not dry
On her black beautiful - dark dimples.
Oh Africa, chaos ripples.
See your sons brutally unfair
Taking hostage His own kin at warfare,
Selling them at ludicrous token.
Oh Africa, your woes betoken!
The sun rose in great grief
And shambled to rest in dumb disbelief,
The rivers pensive in their banks.
Our follies deserve no thanks;
Africa sold her pride at Twenty Pounds,
Her offspring shackled to foreign grounds
On a fettered peregrination to the coasts,
Where they await shipment to wicked hosts.
Father Africa, foolish you!
Had those token Twenty Pounds
Suffice the pandemic poverty that pounds
You and your offspring on the head?
Those you sold - million tears shed
You caused them sorrowful spirituals to sing
They endlessly labour'd where trepidations ring,
They suffer'd severe discomfort - unfair!
They dwelt in dejected despise and despair.
Joseph Oladehinde Ibikunle
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/father-africa/
