Ubuntu


There she stood the last girl on earth;
Barely ten; barely here;
The wind took her faraway from birth;
With glassy tears I know she stares ...
From the aperture, the medieval face quavers,
Like the cracked brick of the Sahara ground;
Her face bears countless maps like the path pavers;
I sank in tears with this I found;
In my fine linen I stood ashamed,
A wild affair with the black lady of Timbuktu;
The gods are not to be blamed;
My clansmen have forsaken our Ubuntu.
Or can we blame the gods?
A foretold destiny my ancestors waded;
Fela Anikulapo the sage communed through the pods;
When he smoked to them sated;
Where is our Ubuntu?
The last girl on earth is dying;
Where is our Ubuntu?
The gods are crying.

(“Ubuntu” is a poem I wrote after participating in the Nigeria election and i saw how my people are only after their selfish interests without remembering Africa heritage of humanity.)

 ​
Gafar Olorunleke Odubote, “Ubuntu”, copyright 2019

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