RESOLUTION 2009

It is that time of the year again when we make resolutions for the coming year. The only problem is that some of us realize we are pledging the same resolutions we made for the past year. Whether it concerns the end of our smoking or drinking habits, a new job, better behavior, or bigger matters such as world peace and the end of poverty, most of us find ourselves making recycled declarations tonight. Champaign, of course, brings out the better of us!

However, I would like to take this opportunity to make a New Year resolution for those who see the whole process of wish-making as a waste of precious time they could spend preserving their lives. The people of Somalia have resolved to remain silent and hope that the New Year will be quiet. We have sworn Never Again, but the people of Darfur no longer care what we swear. The dwellers of the dusty quarters of Afghanistan will throw no ball or fireworks. My resolution is not to think of Baghdad tonight. I get this gangrene whenever Iraq is mentioned. We all know how impossible it is to end a year without a showdown in Palestine. Yes, they know you won’t see anything beyond the discount in the gift shop.

The people of Northern Uganda do not know it’s already a New Year. They have no time to sleep; they cannot know that the Old Year has passed and a New Year has come. It is all a very long day for them. Let’s make different resolutions tonight, then. Let us resolve that by this time next year, we are not repeating the same wishes we are yelling tonight. We must also remember to wish for those who cannot wish tonight.

My New Year resolution is that you will begin to care for those who are struggling to preserve their lives all over the world. Let us wish for tolerance, love and peace in this New Year!

Skidmore We Rejoice To Sing Thy Praise!

Life has been particularly beautiful these past few days. I have been mostly reconnecting and coming into contact with my past lives. I passed through New York City where I attended the tenth anniversary service of Humanity in Action and spent some moments with Liat and other recent Skidmore graduates of my class year. It was nice to share stories with members of my grade who are also trying to create a niche in the so-called Real World. I enjoyed the words of consolation and hope for what the most recent public parlance refers to as ‘bailout.’

I am now at Skidmore where the reconnection is even better. It has been very exhausting trying to update everyone on my most recent activities, but it is a pleasure to be at home. In the life of a professional vagabond, home is where friends are. When I walk around Skidmore, I relive four years of toiling hard and ripping the most of the opportunities I was granted.

I am giving a public lecture on Thursday at 7pm in Ladd 206 relating to African development. I hope to share my two-penny worth of knowledge with my eager friends here. I have done quite a few public speaking, but at Skidmore, I am guaranteed love even when I blunder. I shall endeavor to give love in return!

AMO, ERGO SUM

We know how to use love, but most of us do not yet know how to love. This simple word has been the puzzle of most pundits, poets and philosophers since time immemorial. The fundamental question on my mind is whether love of one’s wife should be the same as love of one’s child, one’s friend, one’s enemy, other animals and God. Is this four letter word the same when applied to any one of the various entities or should we make distinctions?

I do not think the meaning of love is universal, just as we do not onto our wives as we do onto our enemies, who we must also love in accordance with most scriptures. But what matters is the fundamental basis of love: lack of hate, no prejudice, compassion, altruistic, respect for the other, and the capacity to share in the joy and pain of others.

If one were to love the Gandhian way, their heart would be incapable of any distinctions among the beloved. If we are to be lovers of God, his options would be either to remain alone or make the whole world a beloved. That is to say that there is no distinction between love for God and love of the world. Since we do not see God, at least not physically, as far as I know, is it then possible that it makes sense to love each other as we would love a god?

It is written in the Bible that we should love our neighbours as ourselves, which in essence means we shall not not love ourselves. Therefore selfishness is a virtue…to love ourselves so much that we are willing to love others as much. Is it then possible that we could over come many fears by simply loving? Gandhi held a firm conviction that we could convert our greatest enemies by love. This idea resonates the turning of the other cheek and letting the coat thief have thy cloak too.

No matter what your beliefs or ideals, learn to love; you shall no longer need any other commandments. For J.C. himself said that love is the greatest commandment of them all. While we might not know exactly what the word means, in Gandhi’s words, love can make a friend of even a sworn enemy. So, as you face your battles in life, remember to wear the armor of love...for that alone shall protect you.

Poverty

Allow not yourself to be poor
A degrading key to misery’s door
It sucks the man in human
And leaves the soul in demand

Lord, if I desire to be poor
Let not your light shine at my door
But if this be not my fault

Punish me not by default

SERVANTS OF THE EARTH

Indentured servants of the earth
Loving it as a whole
To let it serve all as one
And take only as needs be
What blessings it has to offer
For all of humanity

World Peace

A friend of mine asked me recently whether I believe that World Peace is really possible. I responded in a very jovial manner that I was not contesting for Miss Congeniality, but I love peace. In any case I took the question very seriously because apart from those contesting for miss this-and-that beauty pageant, even our politicians and nongovernmental organizations seem to chant World Peace whenever the opportunity presents itself. I have used it a few times…we all do every now and then; I mean the good guys.

Do I believe World Peace is possible? I have too much faith in humanity not to believe that we are capable of peace just as we are capable of evil. However, we must not equate world peace with an absence of skirmishes; we cannot survive without little misunderstandings that can lead to a disturbance of the peace. My hope is that in a peaceful world, we would be capable of finding humane solutions to our problems.

People often cite heartless brutes like Hitler to make a point that humans are not all that good. Point uncontestable, but we must also remember that while Hitler was on his mission to extinguish whatever was not Aryan, a slim fellow named Mahatma Gandhi was on a mission to unite the world with love even for one’s enemy. My point is that world peace remains impossible because not many of us believe in it. Evil doers are often determined to achieve their aims, while the good give up all too easily in the face of bigotry.

Ghandi teaches us that in order to achieve the purest anarchy, which I choose to call World Peace, we must be willing to offer love for hate, because ‘an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.’ The Bible offers similar instructions when Jesus asks us to turn the other cheek when slapped in one, and offer our coats when our cloaks are snatched away. Some might think this is impossible to do, but think of a society in which everyone is willing to follow these instructions. We wouldn’t have to worry about getting slapped or thieves taking our cloaks away.

So World Peace is not impossible, but we have to be willing to make concessions for one another. But I must acknowledge that we have to use other channels towards the ultimate goal of World Peace. We must seek equal rights, justice, and a socialist ideology that make each of us think that our lives are incomplete if others must suffer to make us happy. Thus I admonish every Miss America to change their dreams as of now into a quest for equality and justice for all. I bet you will earn the crown.

HOPE

Hope brings forth night
And the break of dawn
Cock crows the morning
To the start of day
Even those without plan or chore
Hope brings courage at dawn
To the lowly wretch
As fall flowers blossom in spring
So too may we smile
As stars someday will shine
Even on the wretched divine

TO CHILL OR NOT TO CHILL

Most of us spend our times on the run, moving up and about every moment of the day, chasing one thing or another. We become so entangled that there is often no more time for our friends or those we used to chill and laugh with, the ones we don't have to be formal to; those who simply accept our silliness, albeit out of love.

But then again, we have to live. So we spend most of our lives embellishing different facets of ourselves to please whoever is in charge simply because they have to pay us. While such comformity is sometimes necessary, we must not forget that every human being needs a sigh. We must find time in our busy lives to lick some ice-cream, listen to rub-a-dub and speak without censorship. This may sound foolish for those who are on the run to accumulate as much wealth as possible, but for those who are satisfied with just enough to make ends meet, chilling is the essence of living.

We are all dependent on each other, and like machines, our energy sometimes depreciates or otherwise we get bored from doing one thing over and over. I believe that we are much more productive when we create a balanced life of work and play. The ability to take time off might not be as forthcoming for some people due to the kind of professions they are engaged in, but no matter what, we all need some time to be foolish. Go ahead, dance in the bathroom when no one's looking, lick that ice-cream, and speak some french without apologizing.

JABBER NOT MY FRIENDS!

I am sure we’ve all had moments when we wished someone could just shut up and maybe listen. Human society is full of the need to talk, sometimes leading to unnecessary jabbering until we loose our listening ears. Balanced dialogue is as important to good conversation as balanced diet is to good health. What we have to say might be very important, but we must be willing to give others the chance to express themselves so that a formidable conclusion may come in the end. Those who selfishly uphold their own voice and opinion to higher truth often fail to hear the echo of reason on the other end.

Improvements in telecommunication have made what is ought to be a two minute conversation into a quarter of an hour of mumbling and no new information. Our streets are full of people clinging to cell phones for hours and saying virtually nothing. Ours is one of the most modernized societies, but we are a generation most intoxicated by bullshit. I always admonish my friends to make an attempt in every conversation to cut the bull and say the shit. Eloquence is not about how long you speak, it is about how good is the information rendered. We could prevent our audience from descending into intellectual slumber by simply avoiding unnecessary tangents and saying just what’s ought to be said.

Simply put, the economy of words is vital to those who are public speakers. The more we can express ourselves in a few words, the better we can convey our message and avoid the temptation of falsehood. The curse of oratory is to feel that you always have to say something. There is nothing wrong with saying “I have nothing to say at the moment.” According to Gandhi, “silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth.” Many misunderstandings can be avoided just by saying what one has to say, in order words, cutting the bull from the shit. As the Mahatma most accurately emphasizes, “a man of few words will rarely be thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word.”

We can save ourselves from many unnecessary ‘he said, she said,’ by simply measuring our words and remaining silent where there is no pressing need to utter a word. To heed my own advice, I think I have said enough on this matter. A cooking pot for the chameleon is a cooking pot for the lizard. Hush now!

HELP TO SELF-HELP

The ideology of help to Self-help is an idea of self-empowerment that is used by the Danish Kofoeds Skole system which now operates in several countries in Europe. It promotes self-reliance among people of socio-economic difficulties. Such empowerment is highly needed in developing countries where hopelessness often arises from severe destitution.

I became interested in the idea of help to self-help after visiting the Kofoeds Skole in Copenhagen, where people are gradually empowered and encouraged to self-regulate and become full participants in society. Denmark can afford to take good care of most of its citizens through the welfare state system, but they believe it is also necessary for everyone in society to participate in the maintenance of the system so that it does not crumble. Citizens and residents who receive welfare benefits are encouraged to find employment for their own development; otherwise their benefits are gradually reduced until it is sometimes taken away completely.

However, one element which deters people from engaging in full time employment is the fact that their qualifications are no longer on demand in the rapidly evolving labor market. Globalization and improvements in technology lead to rapid changes in society and the labor market. Hence even recent college graduates need to become flexible and prepared to learn new skills that can make them marketable. The motive of creating alternative skill training for those who need it makes the Kofoeds Skole a paradigm for developing countries.

The Danish Kofoeds Skole also attempts restorative ideas such as accepting those who are often regarded as ‘rejects’ of society. These are people with problems of drug abuse and alcoholism. Often times we tend to forget that behind the destructive element of substance abuse are bigger problems of family crisis, domestic violence, personal loss or other forms of disasters. While the Kofoeds Skole does not directly solve these problems, it gives individuals an alternative life by empowering them to help themselves through the concept of help to self-help.

I believe that the concept of help to self-help can be a pragmatic element in African development because of the fact that Africa’s problem is not the lack of resources or other forms of human capital. What most of Africa is suffering from is the lack of organization, planning and the incapacity to put the existing resources to efficient use. For instance, development is not entirely possible without a drastic increase in the literacy level in Africa today. But it will also be foolish to halt development until everyone is educated. We would have to invent other creative means of survival while we embark on educational or infrastructural development.

Through the methods of the Kofoeds Skole system, we can improve upon practical skill training institutions for those who can no longer frequent the normal academic school system and improve skills of subsistence agriculture or ameliorate local production. While a Ph.D in agriculture is very important, we do not need it to grow rice, cassava, potato or yam which is mostly our staple food.

The difficulty of acquiring higher education in most of Africa makes it very prestigious to be a college graduate than to be a farmer even if one is extremely successful. It is therefore necessary for Africans to know that while formal education is absolutely necessary, the lack of it should not become an incapacity to obtain other skills. The carpenters, tailors or farmers are as important as the mathematicians or the philosophers in the process of development. In fact, it is extremely vital that we diversify our intellects so as to leave room for a varied approach to development.

IT IS IN YOUR HANDS NOW

I was unable to attend the birthday celebration of my greatest hero, Madiba Mandela, but I was glued to my television set without blink to hear the message from one of the greatest men alive. Nelson Madela has championed history and set a challenge for freedom loving people all over the world. It is with no mistake that we gather together every year to celebrate the day on which we were blessed with the birth of an extraordinary man who was not afraid to risk his life for the liberty of his people. When faced with the dilemma of being bought by tyrants against his own people, Madiba chose instead, to remain in incarceration until the wind of freedom touches the heart of all South Africans.

Instead of indulging into glorious speech about his well deserved heroism, he offered us a simple phrase: ‘it is in your hands now.’ This phrase is very important for us today as witnesses to global tyranny, disease and starvation. As Africans, we have remained passive to the ‘failure of leadership’ in Zimbabwe, we continue to witness the human carnage in Somalia, and poverty and disease are taking a severe tour on our future generation. The challenges of our time are enormous, but our refusal to act against the ‘failure of leadership’ on the continent of Africa is inexcusable. More than fifty years after independence, we can no longer cast blames on the colonialists for the wave of violence that overshadow the freedom of our continent.

Another important aspect of this phrase is that it is embedded with the implication that the onus of finding solutions to our problems rests with us. Incapacity is no longer an excuse for refusing to act when the people of Zimbabwe wail, when xenophobia leads us to raid each other, and when the hunger for power drives us to murder our own people. We cannot blame the West for doing nothing if we ourselves in our own small huts remain crippled in the face of violence, poverty and disease. Leadership is not a position of selfishness, it a position in which one should be prepared to die, ‘if need be,’ to champion the cause of freedom, liberty and the rule of law.

What about those of us who live in the more prosperous regions of the world? Should we adhere to the warnings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere?’ How much are we willing to sacrifice as democratic citizens, in the spirit of Nelson Mandela, for the freedom of others whether they live in Burma, Iraq, Sri-Lanka, Palestine, Uganda or Afghanistan? Some of us will prefer to remain akimbo, but our common humanity in the age of globalization requires that we stand up against tyranny, prejudice and threats to human flourishing. It is crystal clear that on many occasions when humanity had cried out together, the heaviest walls of tyranny have crumbled.

What then, prevents us from standing up for the freedom of our fellow human beings? Is it the comfort of our own freedom or the weight of our guilt? While things may seen deceptively normal in our immediate spheres to make us think that there is nothing to worry about, we must be reminded that it takes very little for sunshine to turn into rain. We must never relent to stand up for equal rights and justice even in the remotest of places around the world. Madiba has now passed the baton to us, and it is in our hands now. The question is: are we determined to champion the next phase of history?

CHRIST

My dear Christian brothers and sisters
Fear not the Armageddon and the looming lake of fire
Pray instead, for the courage and ability
To turn the other cheek
And dare to love your neighbor as yourself
Making the rapture a marching band
And the lake of fire a caressing wind

How To Love The Bomb

The past week started with a cause for celebration. The long awaited deal between his majesty King Jong Il of North Korea and almighty Commander in Chief Bush sarted taking some significant shape. Those of us interested in the issues of nonproliferation smiled a little, but some of us also have it at the back of our mind that we cannot yet put on our dancing shoes.

However, the UWC fellows and Interns at the Center for Nonproliferation decided to go out on the coast of California to consult the goddess or god of nature on the ensuring matters. It was then that we realized that each one of us is a jack of all trades, but a master at none. Nevertheless, nonproliferators would do whatever is necessary to stop the bomb.

As for the UWC fellows, it was time to consult the good old belief that there are no problems for us, only challenges...challenges they were. In the end the strategy worked and the reactors were demolished. For security reasons, we can only show you what is on record. But you can contact the producer for materials off the record...trust me, they are entertaining. All we need is love...well, maybe.

Soccer: A Diplomatic Ball

This magnificent game of dribble and shoot-on-goal is to many an opportunity to booze, wear funny garments, body-paint, walk nude or sing and dance. No matter the category you find yourself, soccer has become one of the most efficient instruments of global diplomacy and unity. Every time we are together, whether it is for the various continental club leagues, regional championships, nations’ cups, and the almighty World Cup, we are moved by the tears of winners and losers together. We celebrate our individual countries and clubs with a splendid display of national and club regalia, forgetting the issues at home, and holding ourselves only to the rules of the game, to win by fair play. In such gatherings, the only constitution that matters is the world football federation, FIFA.

We can all agree that our world is full of skirmishes and rough edges at every corner. It is appalling and real that we have not solved the problem of Darfur, Somalia, Sri-Lanka, Iraq, Afghanistan, Columbia, Uganda, nuclear armament, terrorism, immigration, discrimination, civil wars, and all other forms of bigotry. We are also confronted by a battle against natural disasters such as earthquakes, climate change, drought, famine, and what Fanon refers to as ‘rape of the environment.’ But throughout history, soccer matches have brought adversaries together in the same open space to wave their flags and sing songs of love to their national heroes. Even in countries at war, we come across youths sharing the pleasure of soccer on dusty roads and street corners. Albert Camus is known to have said that ‘everything I know I learned from football.’

Soccer players are the only group of diplomats who have fans in the most obscure areas of the globe. Sometime we cannot help but wonder how every youth in the hidden villages of Africa wants to emulate not President Bush or Blair, but people like Maradona, Pele, Beckenbauer, Zidan, Beckham, Essien, Ronaldo, Opong Weah, Zlatan, Eto, Figo, Ballat, Kanu, etc. We celebrate champion nations like Argentina, Brazil, France, Nigeria, Cameroon, England, Germany, Sweden, and rising African countries like Ivory Coast, Senegal and Ghana. Everywhere in the world one can be assured of fans of Man. United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Juventus, Real Madrid, Bolton, etc. In the spirit of the game of soccer, we are champions of the ball. Whether it is the players on the pitch or the supporters in the stands, we feel what Shaggy, in this amazing soccer song calls the ‘rush.’ The rush of winning, losing or just good play by our favourite players.

However, in every aspect of our lives we cannot escape the curse of being human. In Nietzschean rhetoric, the curse of man is that he was ‘once a child.’ Even this beautiful game is sometimes susceptible to the cruelty of angry fans and overzealous players. We often hear rumours of match fixing and racism. But we should never allow the bigotry of the nonchalant few to overshadow the beauty of our game. Our soccer heroes have also taken their success on the pitch to numerous philanthropic and humanitarian endeavours. Many players and clubs have their own foundations and charities all over the world. We also encounter people like Beckham, Thierry Henry, George Weah, Ronaldo, etc as Unicef’s good will ambassadors, inspiring children and revealing destitution in the most wretched areas of the Earth.

As long as soccer exists, we must continue to feel the rush from all corners of the globe and celebrate the warriors who stand firm for our nations in the battlefield of soccer. Whether they win or lose, we must cheer them for engaging in the greatest diplomacy of our time. In a world full of civil wars, poverty, and other forms of human sufferings, we must never relent to feel the rush from a diplomatic ball.

Demo-cracy: Your Role

When elections are over, rhetoric on democratic governance often neglect the power of the ‘demos’ and focus on the delivery power of elected leaders. The people are also made to believe that their powers end at the ballot box every four or five years. This phenomenon is mostly real in acclaimed democratic countries such as the United States and Scandinavian countries. My speculation is that the monotony of the comfort of successful democratic countries leads to apathy and inaction. People no longer see themselves as engaging in a revolutionary action especially when it has very little to do with the homeland. The patriotic spirit required for democratic action can fade away when political change seems to lead to very little difference in ideology or political doctrine.

Taking the Lincoln definition of democracy for instance, “the government of the people, by the people and for the people,” we can admit that true democracy is now practiced only in very remote areas of the world. In case you are still wondering where I am leading you, then ask yourself whether you deny your government’s activities. If your answer is yes, then you need to reclaim your democratic right to sanction the actions of your elected representatives. Some of you are already thinking about the impossibility of sanctioning a government’s action alone…yes you should, because that’s not the point. The collective action of a majority is the fundamental pillar of a democracy that must be implemented for sanctioning a government. After all, it was the same collective that guaranteed their mandate to rule.

If you have been following recent developments abroad, you must have come across the news on South Korean nonviolent action against the government. The protesters are angry that South Korea has accepted to resume imports of US beef, which were suspended in 2003 after an outbreak of mad cow disease in cattle there. They accuse the government of failing to safeguard their health, despite government assurances that the beef is safe. Some cabinet members have offered to resign amidst this organize manifestation of demo-cratic power.

This is not the first time we have witnessed the power of the demos. If you live in the United State or Indian, you already know that the Civil Rights Movement and the Ghandian Nonviolent Movement were demo-cratic endeavors; the bravery of Tiananmen Square in China, the crushing of the Berlin wall, popular overthrow of Ivory Coast’s Robert Guei, the very recent orange revolution in Ukraine, are all evidence of practical demo-cracies…our rights as citizens not only to elect our leaders, but to hold them accountable for the power invested in them, always.

This is not a call for people to take over their government at every blunder, but we must remember to always make our governments aware that they are accountable to US, the demos. When governments get away with lies, declare war without our consent, and condemn in public the lives they live in private, we must never relent to practice our demo-cratic rights. If we vote them, they must deliver, otherwise why vote?

Journey To Monterey

I believe some of you might be wondering where is the lion's den. I have decided to go into early retirement in Monterey, California. After several vain attempts at Job applications, I decided why not start life upside down by retiring and rejuvenating for a productive life like you have never imagined it. California is the right place for such early life adventures. I have made a short video for your pleasure.

But on a more serious note, I am planning to resume a summer fellowship in nonproliferation studies at the Center for Nonproliferation Study in Monterey, California. Not quite an early retirement, but Monterey is not a bad deal for an intensive study in nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction. After seeing the beauty of this coast and the purity of the air, I will do anything within my power to stop any tyrant from playing with nukes.

Otherwise, I am currently learning to be a good cook and hoping that everything will be well. I miss you all, and I hope to visit most of you whenever I can afford to do so. In any case you are all welcome to come to California and hopefully study some nonproliferation methods with me.

In other matters, congratulations to all my friends who are Obama supporters. I wish you a victorious election year! I have enjoyed the entire primaries, and I hope Obama will give America the leadership it deserves. The World needs America, the America I knew when I was just a little boy living in a refugee camp in Guinea, the America I saw rescue its citizens during the war in Sierra Leone, the America I saw in schools as members of the Peace Corp, the America I know through you my good friends. We need that America!

EVEN LIONS HUNT SOMETIMES!

Even the lion hunts sometimes. I have now graduated from college, and the good old days of dining hall meal have ended. This means that from now on I will be my own chef, well, at least until I marry a traditional Sierra Leonean girl. It is amazing that I have been fed all my life, and now I have to prepare my own meal. However, the kitchen remains an exclusive business for women in Sierra Leone. I know my feminist friends are now debating their responses, but trust me; it is simply a matter of division of labour and specialization. My mother wasn’t the cook at home just because my father wanted it that way, but since my father was the breadwinner, as is the case with most Sierra Leonean families, my mother did her own service at home.

This whole cooking adventure is a matter of self-taught. I am my own maestro, experimenting with various condiments without a recipe. I started with basic pasta and meat source. My good friend Peter Brock, who is a maestro chef in his own right, contributed a simple advice: “Jo, remember to put salt in the water before boiling the pasta; it will taste better.” In such peculiar matters, any contribution is golden.

It is rather unfortunate that most of you cannot be here to try my pasta para el Lion, especially Brian McGowan, who was my first adviser on culinary affairs before he left. I must admit that my first year job in the Skidmore dining hall also came in handy. I will also add that I now understand why Peter is always excited about cooking. It is quite a pleasant activity in itself…the smell of vegetables, the boiling of water and the transformation of various condiments into edible stuff. I also had some background reggae music to help me through the process. By the end of the cooking I was quite hungry from dancing in the kitchen. I had a sumptuous meal which was the work of my own hands.

While the food did not conform to conventional recipe, as Skidmore students you cannot agree more that creative thought matters. I promise you all a creation of my own hands in the kitchen whenever I visit or vice-versa. I am looking for vegetarian ideas too. Don’t be surprise if you find my recipe on the cooking show…well, my cooking show…and it will not air in France or Italy.

TRIBUTE TO ROSE SANDOUNO

Knowing what I know now

Should I have loved you more?

When heaven calls on its servant

A humble soul, immaculate and pure

Should I have known it was goodbye?

Or must I have been prepared?

For a heavenly call so silent and serene.

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Clouds of heaven whirl at your presence

Angels whisper rest in peace

On earth friends assemble in vigil

God’s kingdom is for you

You, your brother’s keeper

Those you touched with love

Continue to weep in prayer

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Should I cry for you Sister Rose…Aunty Rose?

Break down in that childish laughter

That has left an echo in my heart

May I Sister Rose, Aunty Rose Should I?

You knew the answers to my questions

And answered them with motherly charm

Pure, spiritual, delightful and strong-headed

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I cry now within the pages of my books

The only image of you, the one I last saw

Bright and merry, so tender and sweet

“Joe, you must grow up now,

Your little one is about to be born”

But if to die is to be reborn in heaven

In my heart you are always alive

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I have grown up now Sister Rose…Aunty Rose

I am grown up

I am grown

Sister Rose

Aunty Rose

Rest in peace

THE OTHER IN US

When all of a sudden we can no longer hear the voices that once kept us alive and gave us a sense of human presence, we begin to notice the missing parts of us that once was. It is natural that we lead our lives through each other even though sometimes we wish our neighbours were not alive. What makes us different from other creatures of the world is our ability to reinvent ourselves into living with each other in spite of our differences, and the things that make us unique to each other. It is only in the collective that we can even begin to imagine that we are different. Therefore, if our uniqueness comes from the collective, united we can create a unique world in which prejudice against one is detrimental to all. If this be a dream, I wish to remain in slumber.

TO MOVE THE WORLD

One more step along the world I have come
Along pavements that seem to lead beyond
From familiar stories a few years done
To a new page almost unknown
Landing on shores that may not bemoan
The filosofia that is not my own

From the lands of the Bambara
Where yemani trees stretch afar
I have swam across the Mano River
Uniting fallen tribes of separate lands
Bearing once more and now
The humble peace my forefathers spread

If these whirly winds be of more use
From the lion’s den I shall arise
Passing through the old and making anew
The cosmos a shape that is yet undone
To leave my mark where I belong