To Nkrumah - Prince Mensah

Kwame, you taught us well
That our hearts must swell
With pride over our skin,
Our color, our kin.

Kwame, you wanted us as one
But winds fought your plan,
Winds of yesterday that cease not
To assail today's effort.

Kwame, son of the Sabbath,
Your wisdom is bath
In which we soothe harrowing pain,
Inflicted on us by world in disdain.

Kwame, your words gave courage
To the timid, to engage
In dialogues with blind ignorance,
With strength and endurance.

Kwame, we cannot easily forget,
Lest we will regret,
The power you ignited in black man
That he too is Man.

Nkrumah, we celebrate you in song and poesy,
In action, drama and policy.

You are king uncrowned, black Julius Caesar,
Betrayed on Ides of March by razor
Sharp doubt in your great dreams.
Our unity now screams
In songs of chaos, Cold War blues.

To this world, our concerns are refuse
But we shall continue to state our worth,
Relentless to our very death
That being black is to be great:
Such truth cannot be in debate.

Your words shine like golden bracelets
On Africans in torn blankets.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Prince you have brought back memories of Nkrumah. I was 10 when they had the coup and remember a lot of what happened. We tend to forget that he was a man with visions far ahead of his time and focus more on the time things went wrong. Nkrumah was a great statesman and "freedom fighter"

Anonymous said...

Kwame Nkrumah deserves more than the attention you poets are giving him. I wonder what we, black people, do to remember our heroes? We have been treating the most people in our struggles with global injustice as after-thoughts. Well, how long shall we keep our heads in the sand, O ostrich children of Africa?

Anonymous said...

hi Prince,
how on earth can blacks forget such man as Nkrumah. The Jesus Christ that Africans and for that matter Ghanaians has long waited for.Indeed 'Kwame, we cannot easily forget,Lest we will regret,The power you ignited in black man,That he too is Man'. Has one ever pondered over this just for once that 'what or perhaps where would Ghana be by now if it had not been for the tremendous and drastic action taken by our hero who now rests someone beyond the reach and imagination of man?' think my people, think! free your free wills and refuse disdain and daunts because of your colour.