This land of corrupt politicians
Rubbing bellies of stolen funds
Looting without a care
Killing with no remorse
Stoning gays, jailing Trans
This land full of Hate
Poverty and Ignorance
This is not my Africa
My Africa gives a reminiscence glow
Of Love so tolerant
Hospitality so warm
It embraced foreigners
Puts a roof over their heads
My Africa fed them
Africa of whom I sang odes
Loved without reservation
Gave without hesitation
Your hate is Un-African
Corrective rape is Un-African
Homophobia is Un-African
Intolerance is Un-African
Looting is Un-African
Genocide is Un-African
Ignorance is Un-African!
From your greedy hate-filled hands
We shall wrench back our Africa
Make it once again
The land of Love
Where Rainbow shines without Fear!
BY©YEMISI ILESANMI
Thank you very much for this. For too long we have only heard negative things about Africa and its people. If more people had your courage and convictions, Africa, and the world, would be a better place.
I’ve been reading a lot about politics in different African countries, and the same theme keeps popping up: colonialism, redoubled and shoved under the rug with every attempt that Africans have made to liberate themselves.
First it was direct colonialism, under obviously abusive rich white straight etc etc rulers.
Then, when those white rulers started losing their grip, the great powers of America, Europe and Russia raced to prop up their own dictators, like Mobutu and Mugabe, who continued to loot on behalf of their white overlords for a share of the take.
When that failed, the great powers then turned to the debts racked up by such dictators, and demanded that the “liberated” people suspend the rebuilding of their society in order to pay off the debts their dictators had incurred with their looting, generally by making said looting easier (I still can’t get over Naomi Klein’s description of what happened inside the budding ANC government during South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy, or how it apparently left whites with more holdings than they had under apartheid).
And now the churches, too, have come to loot, in order to make up for the white flock turning away and putting their money to better use. And they are determined to not lose their African flock the way they lost the whites, because otherwise they will have nothing left.