African Phoenix ====================== Out of the ashes of a phoenix A new African phoenix is born As black and as famished as ever

Carrying the same loads of thorn The same batches of infamy Of disease, of wars, of hunger The same scars in the horn As politicians to each others whisper Sweet lies; with no conscience to scorn As they exhale and praises inhale over dinner And more ranks to their siblings adorn Africa stands aloof as distant as ever As unique as an alien unicorn Writhing in mounts of litter Burdened, broken and outworn O'Africa; You bleeding mammoth of mother You vale of tears; of forlorn Your love is ebbless and silent as a river Your smile as homely as spring as morn You cry for us when we in far lands shiver You sing for us when we are buried and born You grieve for us when we in your arms suffer You pamper us when we are tired and torn O'Africa; You carcass for every alien scavenger You open wound to every Jabir and John How oblivious you are to your Saracean slaver What a merciful saint you are; what a pawn To every megalomaniac and messianic vulture Wasn't it Nkrumah who first saw the throne? They banished him; I can vividly remember They betrayed him for few sacks of corn And after forty years of wines and winter After lifeless, loveless, long nights of lorn After decades of the eternal death's encounter Do I see or do I dream of the first signs of dawn Oh! No; don't you wake me up brother No; not to the same howls and horn Not to the same wolves' prayer As the new century's lonely lovelorn.

Child Soldiers ====================== Heavens cry, mothers bemoan; Father and son trade hot metals; Nations slug out, children at front; Young minds dance the limbo.

Munition, wars, as toy games; Battle field as play grounds; Bullets blow the whistle; Trenches shield blind shots. Murder tutorials the course; Predation, vandalism, an honor; Grades in white stripes; Nation wastes her rising suns.

African Diaspora ====================== In the diaspora he sat down; And there he wept; Remembering Africa; Mouth open, unable to a song. Eyes full of the ocean; Mouth imploded with praises; Thought stacked full of memories, Memories of Motherland Africa. In bits he uttered; Africa, my cherised home; In the diaspora unable to a song; I want to come to thee.