THE FOREVER WARS OF AFRICA

A CHILD SOLDIER BEING TAUGHT HOW TO USE A WEAPON

Picture Courtesy: homepages.wmich.edu


African history
Has always been mired in
Struggles and fight for freedom
The search for an identity
An ever elusive destiny.


From the African liberation movements,
Came struggles against slavery,
Colonialism
And a host of others.


In those struggles,
There were clear goals
Defined ideologies,
Africa fought towards a specific end,
Freedom,
Liberation
And emancipation of the African
From physical and mental slavery.


Those were the days
When Africa rose up in arms
Cried out for freedom in the shanty towns
Slave markets
Within the bellies of slave ships
And in the corn fields of slave masters.


Those struggles were designed
With African unity in sight,
Towards the breaking of the burgeoning shackles
The chains
And yokes that had been placed around
Africa’s neck.


Those were the days of the freedom fighters,
All who opposed colonialism were branded
Rebels and enemies by the colonial masters,
They foraged in the bushes like animals,
Lay in wait and struck at the heart of the oppressors.


Africans have always been born fighters,
We never cower in shadows
Neither do we abandon a fight
But we’ve always fought for that which was right
And never for wrong
Africans always fought for the good
Of the entire continent and never for themselves.


So how come the continent is bejeweled in
Hotspots and intractable conflicts these days?
Gone are the days of the Liberation movement,
The oppressors have long left the land,
The slave raiders gone with sands of time.


Slavery has now taken on an economic cloak
No longer with guns and ships.
Gone are the days when we exchanged our
Brothers for bottles of booze
Muskets and barrels of gun powder.


Why so many conflicts on the land today?
Who are parties in these wars?
Who are these men in jungle lairs
Spreading terror across the land?
Surely, this cannot be about liberation.
The freedom fighters have long gone,
The gunfight for freedom long won.


Africa’s fight is no longer that with guns,
So why so many guns on the continent?
Deranged men roaming the streets
Raping women and enlisting children
In war calling them child soldiers.
When did children agree to become soldiers?
When did they enlist in this war?


What do you fight for?
Please tell me, what is all the violence for?
The freedom fighters of yesterday showed class,
They had intellect
They fought against
Tyranny
Colonialism
And apartheid
By employing guns interspersed with a persuasive rhetoric.


But you do not fight to govern,
Neither do you fight for the good of a nation,
All you seek is money,
Guns and freedom to inflict terror,
All you seek is a license to rampage,
Run amok, it seems you find thrill in the kill,
Blood brings a smile to your parched lips,
You use rape as a weapon, a tool
But what did these women and girls ever do to you?


Stunning atrocities such as endemic rape in Congo,
You continually sexually assault thousands
Of women and girls all in the name of a struggle,
How can ramming an assault rifle into a woman
And pulling the trigger be a sign of struggle?
You are barbaric,
You lack conscience.


Violence sweeps the continent like an epidemic,
Like some viral pandemic, a strange disease of some sort.
Why wage war against innocent civilians?
Where did all these guns come from?
Who really profits from this dastardly business?
In the end, Africa is the one that suffers.


Blood soaked streets and pavements
Sands painted red crying out injustice
Women sexually assaulted sadistically
Left incontinent for life,
The pride of womanhood in tatters and rags.


A continent almost on the verge of implosion
Dizzying in total confusion.
The fruits of an atrocious rebellion,
Civilians mowed down in millions
With guns and deadly munitions.


Songs of African unity a slowly fading rendition
A chronic condition
A continent flailing about in frenetic fashion
Sporting gaping holes, in search of missing dentition.


Bleeding
Battered and
Bruised
In search of a magical concoction,
A long term solution
To a chronic afflication.


When does unity come?
A continent in search of a forefathers’ vision
When shall we stand as one and shout in unison?
An abundance of child soldiers and casualties
Lives lost, number in the millions
Congo
Somalia
Sudan and others
The forever wars of Africa,
Africa, a continent forever synonymous with gunfire?