By Professor Timothy Wangusa | The AfricaPaper
Let the flags of all the nations
On whom the sun shines upon its way –
Fold and droop at half mast
To salute Africa’s monumental son!
From northerly Algeria to Azania,
From westerly Senegal to Somalia –
Let there be a hush across the sky
To salute Africa’s monumental son!
Waters of the Zambezi and the Limpopo,
Waters of the Nile, the Congo and the Niger –
Disrupt your everlasting rhythmic flow
To salute Africa’s monumental son!
Peaks of Drakensburg Mountains and Kilimanjaro,
Of Rwenzori, Elgon, Kenya, and Atlas Mountains –
Dispel the glory of your crowns of clouds
To salute Africa’s monumental son!
Sand-dunes and barchans of Sahara and Kalahari,
Thirsty harmattans and rain-sodden oceanic winds –
Stop dead your furious and ceaseless advance
To salute Africa’s monumental son!
* * * * *
For him who was stung into lofty protest
By the fanged Monster of Colour Segregation;
Break into dance, O mourners
For him who was shaped and drilled by Soweto,
And tempered into steel by Robben Island;
Break into dance, O mourners
For him who irreversibly raised our human profile,
By equating white with black and grey and all colours;
Break into dance, O mourners
For him who taught us not to think with our skins
But with the common blood in our veins;
Break into dance, O mourners
For him who proved that right is truer than might,
That forgiveness absorbs and dissolves all hatred;
Break into dance, O mourners,
And sweat out your sorrow!
* * * * *
And now, O you elders among the ancients,
Receive and install him in ritual style
Upon his throne of extreme achievement
In the company of your prior illustrious sons –
Sundiata and Chaka and Lobengula,
And Kabalega and Kenyatta and Nyerere –
And let a final roll of Africa’s big drums
Signify his triumphal arrival in the extra-world…
The AfricaPaper: The writer is Professor of Literature at
