Eneh Akpan Writes: South Africa

Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts

Showing posts with label South Africa. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 20, 2016

A Man Like Mandela

Nelson Mandela
Courtesy: gettyimages.com

Mandela,

Like Mandela,

A man like Mandela,

I wanna be a man like Mandela.

I wanna be the face of courage,

I wanna be the essence of positive rage,

I wanna be the radar that keeps focus in range.

I wanna be the prime axis of change;

I wanna be the reason to turn the page,

I wanna be the item that gets your wits engaged.

I wanna be the spotlight of my own Madiba;

I wanna be a man like Mandela.

I wanna be the symbol of what makes a man.

I wanna make solitary confinement something grand;

I wanna be the bond of unity in a divided land,

I wanna take fear and bend it into triumph.

I wanna seize emancipation with no strings attached;

I wanna make my name a synonym for survivor.

I wanna be the shape of hope and its father;

I wanna be a man like Mandela.

Mandela,

Like Mandela,

A man like Mandela,

I wanna be a man like Mandela.

Akpan

Monday, December 21, 2015

From a Cell 8

The 8-foot cell that was Mandela's home on Robben Island.

One man

(And he was no ordinary man)

Had a vision and moved the motion to take a stand

The self-named lords tagged him bad gone mad

And shipped the hell-raiser off to rot on an isolated island.

But his was a story that couldn’t be caged behind metal bars.

One man

(I said he wasn't no ordinary man)

Opened his mouth to speak and his voice rose beyond his cell bars

And the nuance of his message held steady thro out every land;

A song of infinite hope that screamed the line, if you believe you can.

The man died but the memories of him live in the legacy of his plan.

One man

(You know, he was no ordinary man)

Learned that courage ain't in the strength of your arms

But triumph over the stuff that cripples your very heart.

The life he led drove the highpoints home like nail piercing plank,

His words reassure us like stars guiding travelers in the dark.

Akpan

Monday, December 8, 2014

Amandla!

Mandela Forever!

They said it was impossible

But the word don't mean zilch

To eyes that visualize the invisible.

Because to you impossible was less than nothing.

It always seems impossible

Until faith trundles in with the outcome,

Can’t no Robben stall the inevitable,

You proved it when you broke free with a song.

That’s why we call you Mandela!

You are the one true Madiba,

The vindicated Giant of Africa.

Madiba! Mandela! Amandla!

Akpan

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Mandela: Couldn't Heaven Wait?

Merry Christmas, Madiba!

One more Christmas and it may have been right.

Then they could have you and paste you like the stars to the sky.

I know there’s always a first time

So why didn’t heaven single out this moment;

Pick a perdurable person to perform a positive pilot project?

It would have felt right

And we wouldn’t whine

Yeah, it may not have hurt as much to cry.

For once, couldn’t heaven wait?

And couldn’t Christmas floor the pedal and get here ASAP?

How do we trade healing for this hurting?

Silence been pregnant since the exit of Mandela.

They couldn’t slam the door on December, that’s alright.

But couldn’t heaven for once, just hold the damn line?

Akpan

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Saturday, April 7, 2012

Strobelight

From the North

An army as commoving as the Harmattan

Declare the arrival of Nok-

A procession of Kemetian titans

Aiming history like a weapon.

Conquering warriors of the tribal divide.

Sons of nativity;

These have been charged with Time’s keeping.

Ancestral progeny

As complete as the effects of a skilled hunter.

They traverse the spine of the Nile

Like lost things marked for the macabre

Till the time of their appearing steps in the strobelight.

Storm clouds of inventive revolutionists muster.

From the Cape of the Town souljas arise

And stand or their history dies.

How are the mighty risen!

Heroes of Sheba origin

Gaining on destiny with chants of ancient ditties.

Men acquainted with courage rooted in the morning of creation.

To fear is abomination.

Dark-skinned, pure hearts;

A rare species of men divinely gifted.

Charged by purpose.

Armed with a pen

Until a darkened history be rewritten

And perhaps, relived with renewed vigor.

Sound the gongs of war!

Behold men and women not used to breaking tradition:

A custom seeded in the release of genius.

Weave a dance, therefore,

To celebrate the home-coming of our champions;

Offspring of past tumult.

Souls who are decided and will remember

The ways of their fathers and mothers.

Deserving reverence reserved for gods alone,

Whose very lives point the way home.

Akpan

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