Python Dance Poem by John Chizoba Vincent

after Odumegwu Ojukwu
after Chinua Achebe
after Christopher Okigbo
after Dele Giwa
after Kofi Awoonor
after Kwame Nkrumah
after Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
after Nelson Mandela
after WoleSoyinka
after Leopold Senghor
after FloraNwapa

I am part of this ancestry black struggle
For Africa to be reckoned in the world
not of ancient historical context of backwardness but of productivity
I wasn't part of the python dance
taken to the East against the voiceless.

Our ancestral souls still beat louder
The shrines of our forefathers are not destroyed by palms of westernisation
We still have men of understanding
Men whose hands are legs of fire
We've told the boys that no youth returns to early grave again, never!

This fashion of corruption is gone
Every darkman rules for others to rule.
No politician shall ride on a state car
Whilst many travels on a trapped
roads.Our python dance shall be forrestructuring of Africa heritages
not for killing our own blood for fun.

This we pledged drinking from one cup
Gathering firewood that would take us throughout the wet season of this storm
Africa is our home and our hearts to
protect and guide from purple aliens
no more python dance to kill our own.


Yours Poetically,
©John Chizoba Vincent