Root - Oritsegbemi Jakpa

Instead of telling your children
of our heroes, folklores, tales, and sayings,
you went out all day to talk
and laugh with your visitors
only to come home spent.
Now they grope blindly
among the wild wind of new ways
without the shelter of their history,
their living anchor, their root.



"Root" is part four of our four-part series of poems on Ananse stories. Previous installments can be found in our archives.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

African literature is making a strong comeback. The problem is that we cannot write with the untainted literal gravitas of the Achebes, Soyinkas, Atta Aidoos and Antidohos. How can we maintain our unique identities in these times of globalization? I guess it is only through the folklore of our fathers. Great pieces on Kweku Ananse. This site is a womb for great African writers. I want to be one of the first people to predict it.