POETRY ABOUT ZAMBIA By Charles Mwewa ______________________________
Mother Zambia
Mother… Of mound display An unexplored Eden in Africa; Full of Nature’s best And an endless of tradition… (To Zambezi - To pay an invocative visit: The people on superstitious gravity) To you Mother… Higher vows I pay. Your soils are veins of life, The peace The Joy The resting Your people, my people, Occupied In structures of thatch And decorated mad walls! Your idyllic terrains; Much more unexploited. Your virile bushes; Much less inhabited. Your smiling hopeful visage Is the ink that pens this message… _______________________________________
Over the Seas
Here my people, I write From over the seas, I write To people dark and lovely, May I write.
I am yours from abroad I am a patriot and a child Your own blood A product of your need.
To my motherland, In the fair and brown land A place of civilization’s splendor And birth place of culture’s grandeur.
Here they come to seek fortune In the lands of fruits and pearls Where music never lacks in tune And women keep long hairs.
I am yours from overseas, My name I have not changed, Though I be gratified abroad Yet my wish I will not alter.
My people, I write And yours still I am Even from over the seas. _____________________________________
Christian Nation
My country is a Christian nation, A declaration of the century A transition indeed To the people in need.
My country is a Christian nation, A declaration of good faith A transition indeed To a people who read.
My country is a Christian nation, A declaration of trust A transition indeed To a people who hate greed.
My country is a Christian nation, A declaration to God’s glory A transition indeed To a people great in deed. ____________________________________
Chitambo
Passing by Chitambo we saw a tomb Whose epitaph was a dual petition To the god of the feast of Hecatomb, Written below was a re-petition.
He passed away with hands in akimbo After braving the nip of fillaria, And shunning many calls from the limbo But was met by a shell of malaria.
This man bemoaned a German war Gotha And found a panacea in helpful Chuma Whom he taught the secrets of Golgotha Whose blood-flow cures the tumor of Guma.
We hear sounds rattle from clouds in Congo Sending dark and heavy rains of defiance Smashing civilizations as ingle, Washing them out without any reliance.
We come home back to village Chitambo To water the plants of our great Sambo Whom we rhyme in our book about poetics Who savors the African politics.
Africa is now a Cinderella Her beauty should not be spurned as loveless And a reed-mat shouldn’t be her umbrella And she shouldn’t be let to hold sap gloveless. ____________________________________________
Mibenge
Mibenge, I do remember, It was here, the root of my roots; Across the trans-border journey Crossing the Luapula River.
I do remember my childhood And our fishing in Mulonga With all the thickets and bushes And our ancestors in ashes.
We have come to Mibenge, The place of childhood scenery In our fondest memories byes Where my own beloved father lies.
These earths calmly rest Ngalula Next to my father’s chummy breasts; In here, I remember innocence. For tears, unlike memories, dry
Mibenge, where men ever fade And depart before they can grey. Mibenge, I remember nuts A treat only called intwilo.
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