Poetry

Reuters photo

By

Nsah Mala

TO THOSE SENT AGAINST THEIR OWN BLOOD

Listen to me, soul brother!

Point not your AK-47 at me,

the enemy has sent you.

We are not enemies, brother.

They sip foreign champagne,

flash silver teeth from abroad,

mock you with coins for wages,

urge you to spill your own blood,

and laugh your ignorance behind.

You’ll gain nothing if we fall.

Listen to me, soul sister!

Drop not your tear gas on me,

our enemy manipulates you.

We are not enemies, sister.

They’ve plundered our wealth,

wiped anuses with our complaints,

Filled foreign barns with our maize

and sent you in tattered boots to kill.

You’ll gain nothing if we fall.

Can I talk to you, soul brethren?

Did you see the potholed paths you

drove on to butcher us, your people?

The budget has swelled their pockets

like those of a nursing kangaroo.

For half a century, they’ve won wax

on their eyes and ears, pushing us here.

If they stoop, good; if we part ways, better.

But be assured, our kids’ future will be best.

Beware of innocent blood and ancestral wrath!

THE LOCATION OF AFRICAN RESOURCES

If African gold and other minerals

Were hanging down on trees like fruits,

Foreign swarms of locusts would’ve

Striped them naked of fruits and leaves,

Leaving the trees withered like Jesus’ fig.

If African trees weren’t ground-anchored

But rather floated in air like rainy-season clouds,

Foreign automated harvesters would’ve flown in,

Chewing them here and vomiting them abroad,

Leaving us emaciated like kwashiorkor patients.

If African oil wells weren’t lodged underground

But rather fell from above like July raindrops,

Foreign metallic mouths would’ve come

Sucking them here and urinating them elsewhere,

Leaving their owners pale like AIDS victims.

Luckily, God wedged these riches

Beneath or on African ground;

And we often see them carried away,

As we fight and starve to death behind.

Sometimes, we don’t even see

As they’re stolen under cover of night,

Simultaneously accompanying their prices

To distant tax havens for our thieving-chiefs.

Nsah Mala

Nsah Mala is the pen name for Kenneth Toah Nsah, a Cameroon-born poet, author of three poetry collection: Chaining Freedom (Miraclaire Publishing LLC, 2012), Bites of Insanity (Langaa RPCIG, 2015) and If You Must Fall Bush (Langaa RPCIG, 2016). His short story “Christmas Disappointment” was among ten winners in a short story competition organized by Cameroon’s Ministry of Arts and Culture in June 2016. In December of the same year, his short story “Fanta from America” received a Special Mention in a short story competition held by BAKWA Magazine. His poems and other writings have featured (or are forthcoming) in anthologies and magazines in Cameroon, Canada, India, Nigeria, and South Africa. He holds two degrees in (Teaching of) English and French and is currently studying for the Erasmus Mundus Masters Crossways in Cultural Narratives in France, UK and Spain.