Osagyefo - Benjamin Nardolilli

- for Kwame Nkrumah

He thought he could squeeze cocoa pods
And turn them into gold,
Plentiful in his land, he knew
What was really needed,
Roads and places taking people to
Hospitals and schools, around puddles
Massed behind dams.
They handed him the Kente cloth,
He wore it with his pocket watch,
It was a new hour,
For the old Dark Continent to finally shine.

The ones who brought him to the top,
He did not forget, instead he spread his love
And took all the people in,
His verandah boys faded
Under his dreams: shadows of pyramids,
Rails passing from Cape to Cairo
Never stopping for duties or passports,
And the lion cubs of Judah, grown strong
Flowing down the Congo past
A statue standing tall,
Its finger pointed
Up at the sky, to the sun,
Shining like a black star.

A singe of jealousy spread,
Igniting a scent of betrayal
That hung in the tropical air
When he went abroad to dine
With Kaiser and the Kommissar,
Finding his Cleopatra in the Suez.
Upon his return there was anger
At the gash driven through the heartland,
Filled with water, designed
To purge the Volta of volts, anger
Rising in laughter on the porches in Accra,
Inside the buses at Kumasi,
Between bites of bitter cassava.

The moon was rising once again,
The eclipse of the black star began.
In the darkness came the police,
Without warrant, preventive detention
On their lips, blind loyalty filling their stomachs.
In the darkness prices fell and the crops
Were left to rot, or else taken away
To strange markets dominated by Creole,
In the darkness millions stood in circles
Falling on top of one another,
Destined to buy a pack of sugar.

In those lines was his end,
They were too fine to be fought
Too loose to be built upon,
They were coiled at his feet,
Lines of people leading nowhere, like
Lines shuffling through the prison yards
Everyone, waiting for a moment on the telephone
To reach a wire to the outside
And let everyone know they had not vanished.

His beginning had been in bars,
In the shadows they cast upon his face
And on the floor when he paced,
Digging a hole into the soft soil
Of the Gold Coast, thinking
About a new name for himself
That he would take and place atop his head,
Should he ever be allowed to hold
The keys, that grew rusty in those days
Squeezed between sweaty white fingers.


"Osagyefo" is part two of our four-part series of poems on Kwame Nkrumah. Our third installment will be posted next week.

Author Profile - Benjamin Nardolilli

Biography:

Benjamin Nardolilli is a twenty-two year old writer currently attending New York University, where he studies creative writing, history, and philosophy. He has had poetry published in the Houston Literary Review, Perigee Magazine, Canopic Jar, Lachryma: Modern Songs of Lament, and the Delmarva Review.

Five Questions with Benjamin Nardolilli:

1. How long have you been writing poetry?

I have been writing poetry for about three years now. I started during my first year of college but it took a while for me to write anything worth showing anyone else and even longer to write anything publishable.


2. Who are your favorite poets? Which poets have most inspired and informed your work?

My favorite poets are Eliot, Whitman, Pound, Paul Celan, Allen Ginsberg, The Greek Tragedians, and bits and pieces of Shakespeare. I would say that my poetry is mostly informed by them, "Osagyefo" was probably inspired by a mix of Eliot and Pound, but also as much from the way many rock musicians such as Bob Dylan have referenced historical and current events in their work.


3. When did your awareness of Nkrumah, and understanding of his role in Ghanaian and World history, first emerge?

I was pretty much ill-informed about Nkrumah until my junior year (3rd year) of college when I took a course on Ghana at New York University. I knew Ghana had lead the way in African decolonization, but why it had been Ghana and how, I did not know. But during that class I learned how Nkrumah became a leader for Ghana, and then Africa, and eventually for the non-aligned/"third" world. The final grade involved writing a paper comparing Nkrumah and Nyerere's versions of African socialism, which brought me into contact with his thought and not just his political life. As part of my research, I was able to use an original pamphlet from the 1960s that my professor Richard Hull had brought over from Ghana when he was studying there at the time.


4. What inspired you to write about Nkrumah? What about Nkrumah makes him an interesting subject for poetic study?

I feel what makes him an interesting subject for poetic study is the tragedy of his life. He was a smart, ambitious, and dedicated person, who applied his strengths to win independence for his people from Britain. He had a vision that was beyond his time and was already studying neo-colonialism before colonialism was officially done. Nkrumah sought an independent path to prosperity and freedom. However despite his grand dreams and his work as a liberator, he fell victim to paranoia and became deaf to problems at home as he tried to become a world leader. He died, not in his own country, or even his continent, much maligned by the Ghanaian people who probably felt betrayed by a man they had put such high hopes in.


5. How do you think Nkrumah has been, and will be, remembered by history? How do you think he should be remembered?

He will always be remembered as the father of Ghana's independence. That much is certain. And as Africa moves gradually to increasing interdependence, he will be celebrated too, for his Pan-Africanism. His context in the Cold War may not be publicly celebrated. His reputation has certainly improved since his death and the problems of his rule will most likely be seen in the context of their times, especially since there were far worse leaders in other countries.

Contact Benjamin:

ben209(at)nyu.edu
Website: http://mirrorsponge.blogspot.com/