Still inside the station waiting on the freedom train
Its inspector came to check on our tickets if we had paid
Finally my people shall be home amongst their relatives and peers
They could hardly wait to see the city’s horizon slowly disappear into the distance
It was one train with many classes the luxurious was the first,
Then came the middle class citizens and then the economy- that is the worst
Not because of its occupants but mainly their conditions
Where they were packed like animals, sweating like the steam engines!
“All aboard!” that was freedoms last call
The destination was democracy, equality for all, but a few
The few being the masses in the last
That were disposable to benefit the upper class
“Tickets! Tickets please! Amai you did not pay!
Do you think you are going to get a free ride on the freedom train?”
He can clearly see she is sick and in need of urgent assistance
“Amai, I am not a doctor, all I want from you is your ticket!’
So another passenger dies for she could not afford
The medication for her ailments, so she succumbed to her sores
Across the masses gathered was a hovering of pain
Another one of us departed from the freedom train
Mountains rolled and valleys passed the few that had the view
Aboard this runaway train of passengers without a crew, but the inspector
They huddled praying justice would prevail
But lived within the laws of physics, so they were destined to derail
A pregnant mother squirmed as her water broke in panick
Hope was her unborn daughter but her birth was none but tragic
She only saw the light of day minutes before the crash
Sucked back into a darkness with radiance everlasting
Everyday the death toll rises from the freedom trains wreckage
That never saw democracy but destined us to heaven
Through a passage of pain and tribulation attached
That only seems to affect those of us stuck in economy class
If only the inspector started checking on the drivers
There wouldn’t be this ugly scene of checking on survivors
18 April 1980 was the day we left the station
Aboard the freedom train, but still haven’t reached our destination
… Freedom!
"Freedom Train" is part five of our five-part series of poems by Ghanaians on Zimbabwe (though this one is by a Zimbabwean!). To read previous contributions, click here.
Biography:
Outspoken is an underground emcee and spoken-word artist from Zimbabwe. He is one half of the hip-hop duo Dialectric Blue with rhyme partner Upmost a.k.a my bruthaz keepa. Known as Outspoken Alpha Intellect (pronounced Eye-ntellect) he is an activist in social movements advocating for the empowerment of the masses. He is also the front runner to the band Outspoken and the Essence.
He has shared stages with greats such as Pops Mohammed, Kwani Experiance, Likwid Flo, Tamika Harper (Georgia me), Imani Woomera, Comrade Fatso and Chabvondoka, Cajus, Bianca Williams, Kabomo, and Soul Dada, just to name a few! Outspoken has toured South Africa and the east coast of the United States. 2009 saw him and his band traveling to Swaziland to perform at The Bush Fire Festival and most recently to Durban as the closing act of the Poetry Africa festival finale.
Five Questions with Outspoken:1. How long have you been writing poetry?
I can say that I started writing when I was still in junior school, but actually started performing poetry professionally in 2003/4.
2. Who are your favorite poets? Which poets have most informed and inspired your work?
To be honest with you, I started writing as a form of protesting the education system that force fed us information that we didn't want to know and even graded and segregated us through that system. My inspiration then spawned from the downtrodden and oppressed, it was and is influenced by the everyday struggle that we have to face, not by beautiful words or good English. If anything, it is a protest against "the norm" and the trendy. I chose not to read and retrace the footsteps of other poets and rather walk my own. If these paths meet, then I have reason to believe that the many different journeys were inspired to one destination. I do however spend time with great poets by the names of Chirikure Chirikure and Julius Chingono, and most of my friends are into creative writing!
3. What do you hope to accomplish with your poetry?
When I started writing I had no agenda, and to date hold no agenda except to ignite discussion or debate upon relevant issues, showing how another point of view exists! I seek for the future and the present to realise that life is not to be dictated by Hollywood blockbusters, magazine pictures and tel-lie-vision programming! If anything it should serve as brain-cleansing to our current state of brainwashing.
4. Do you see hope of the Freedom Train arriving at the station any time soon?
I don't know why we went on board the Freedom Train to begin with, given how it was known to operate in other countries! Looking at how it is running in South Africa at the moment, one sees the truth of the illusion which is their current state of democracy. The problem with train rides is that they are not to flexible when it comes to direction! Either you are coming or going, but you are stuck on the same tracks, forced to submit to the classes that you can afford, economy class being the most over populated and over burdened while also being the constant that keeps the train running since its always guaranteed to be packed. Another very sad reality is that the station hasn't even been built! Looking at our templates for democracy and freedom anywhere and everywhere on this earth. America to Zimbabwe, it is a situation of politicians taking the peoples power and profiteering from it. We are all gagged, it is only a scenario of who is more gagged than the other, our situation is better than most countries because our oppression is so apparent that you are aware of it. Those that live in the McDonald's illusion and coca-killer reality have a lot to learn about what oppression really is.
5. Do you think that poetry and spoken word can help speed the arrival of the Freedom Train? If so, how?
Yes, awareness. Once you are aware you are able to act, in fact you have the choice to act or not, given you situation. It is through your brain registering a sharp pain from your thigh that you can act on the ant that has taken your flesh as its breakfast. First there was the word, now it is on those that choose to act upon it to shape and reshape their existence, not to have a freedom that imposes or infringes upon another, but one that works in a beautiful symbiosis with all attached to it. We all want freedom, but at this point in life we also have to ask this very vital question. "what makes me deserve my freedom?". Let's look outside of the freedom train because lest we forget, it is just a mobile prison until you reach your destination... if you reach your destination.
Contact Outspoken:alphaintellect(at)gmail.com
Nobody dies at Zimbabwe bay
so if we have come here in Bulawayo
through a travel book
I have nothing to complain
when Marechera's black insider house
is nearer to us than before,
let these children sing baobob books
and no night is sweeter than on harmonica,
your Rhodesia is your end, for another house
of hunger
you laugh.
Too late for the setting of the sun and the rolling
of the world
black daphnes are exhibited in hanging
pictures across many galleries
for low voices bubbling below the back stage
and lengthening the shore of Africa,
your seaward silence becomes my Greek stand
in Mandelbrot's fractal dimension.
"To my Zimbawean friend" is part four of our five-part series of poems by Ghanaians on Zimbabwe. To read all contributions to the series so far, click here.
Biography:
Jacob Kobina Ayiah Mensah has spent most of his adult life at Winneba. He was for a short time an assistant editor of a daily newspaper, and has been a long time mathematics and science teacher. He has practised poetry and art his entire life. His poetry has been accepted and appeared in international literary magazines and journals in Australia, UK, Scotland, Japan, and other countries. He is currently the editor of a weekly newspaper, Focusview, which has a poetry page to promote traditional, modern, and contemporary poetry writing, reading and performing in Ghana.
Five Questions with Jacob:
1. How long have you been writing poetry?
I have been writing poetry for the past 19 years.
2. Who are your favorite poets? Which poets have most informed and inspired your work?
My favorite poets are John Donne, Robert Browning, William Carlos Williams, e.e. cummings, Frank O'Hara, Joseph Brodsky, Dennis Brutus, Taban Lo Liyong, Syl Cheney-Coker... and recently, Issa, and Ban'ya Natsuishi. All of them have informed and inspired my work through their individualism and bringing poetry to the most art form.
3. What do you hope to accomplish with your poetry?
To perform with Native Americans, Australian Aborigines, and Romas.
4. Growing up, what was your vision of Zimbabwe?
Zimbabwe was and is still a beautiful country filled with vibrant writers who hold the tension, hold the energy.
5. What is your vision of Zimbabwe now? Has it changed from your vision growing up? If so, how?
Zimbabwe has a future because Zimbabweans have willpower, the beauty and truth, needed to live full life. The writers, including Charles Mungoshi (I love his short stories collection, The Setting Sun and the Rolling of the World) Solomon Mutswairo, Chirikure Chirikure, and others the forefront who candle the country's aspiration. Even the memories of Dambudzo Marechera live on. My vision for that country is stronger and brighter than before. I have described my vision of Zimbabwe in a short poem inspired by haiku:
The unbroken line
of shadows--
scattered stone plants
Contact Jacob:pveronese60(at)gmail.com
I remember when I heard it,
When they discussed it on those talking boxes,
When I saw it on those visual boxes.
When it dominated the sermons,
When even my old man said it before dying.
They said it
Yes, they said it.
That, it's happened in the east,
In the north, south and west.
Even when the Napoleons gathered,
They went on and on with it.
That he's done it there,
And that it comes with the wind.
And then,
Alas, the day arrived,
grew and retired.
I listened, watched, waited and waited some more.
Where was it?
Yes, where was it?
Oh I remember when they talked about Zimbabwe,
How beautiful and prosperous an economy it was
And how elections had turned it into a quagmire,
And that it was coming Mama's way.
But I thought elections were about ballots,
My siblings thought so too.
So those who played the drums
Saw dancers who wanted a different tune
A tune so un-Zimbabwe-like.
"The Wrong Dance" is part three of our five-part series of poems by Ghanaians on Zimbabwe. To read all contributions to the series so far, click here.
Biography:
Isaac Oduro-Kwarteng is a fresh graduate from the University of Ghana, where he pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics and Economics. He enjoys writing short poems and short stories. A proud Vandal and Amanfoo, he looks forward to the time when his poetry skills would be developed to the point where he could be published. He is currently a Teaching Assistant at the Mathematics Department of the University of Ghana.
Five Questions with Isaac:
1. How long have you been writing poetry?
I have been writing short stories since primary school. I however started writing poems around 2002 back in Prempeh College for our magazine 'The Stool.'
2. Who are your favorite poets? Which poets have most informed and inspired your work?
I have always been fascinated by a good poem. I like poems that rhyme and at the same time carry on with the main theme. I enjoy the works of a variety of poets. Interestingly, Edith Faalong, my course mate at school, has always struck me as a contemporary 'Queen Midas' of poems - everything she puts down is a masterpiece. I like the works of Maya Angelou, William Carlos Williams and Jamaica Kincaid.
3. What do you hope to accomplish with your poetry?
To enlighten people, to entertain and to educate. I like to write a poem for every situation and aspect of the human life.
4. Growing up, what was your vision of Zimbabwe?
I am quite young and frankly speaking, Zimbabwe didn't catch my attention at a very tender age neither. But my little research about Zimbabwe showed that it was an economic force in Africa in the 1980's and 1990's, a country of a very promising future.
5. What is your vision of Zimbabwe now? Has it changed from your vision growing up? If so, how?
Zimbabwe is a quagmire of a country now. It is a different picture of how it used to be in the recent past. It really is sad to watch what is going on in that country. It shows how political instability, the greed for political power and unwise economic decisions could plunder a rather promising economy into a bad one. It's a lesson for other African countries too.
Contact Isaac:odu.kwat(at)yahoo.com
I knew exactly what you were going through. It's just that I didn't have the right to discuss your problems… hold on just a little bit longer now.
- Lucky Dube, Hold On
In the ruins of Great Zimbabwe [1], swallows
Return with mud. Mute – they make a million
Journeys to build their nests where mosses
Face true north. Brother Silence muzzled
Their tongues with mortis of rigor.
Between Zambezi and Limpopo, the past
And its appurtenances tattoo the plateau,
And Great Zimbabwe hugs her granites;
Each to the other, no need for mortar.
See, O see how she slopes to an almost cornice,
Apex of a gone civilization:
Belligerent – solemn – stoic –
Bivouacked against every minim
Of rain, every quaver of wind.
Some say her tonguelessness begun,
When strange footsteps strayed into her caves,
Forgetting to knock. Whatever the cause,
It unsettles. Who knows, who knows why the sun
Propagates the seer’s gaze with solar-pollen?
The palm wine tapper's calabash is not for the juice
Of coconuts, nor the divining bowl for hand dipping.
Even the River of Crocodiles limps with silt.
Tell me Limpopo, how did Brother Silence cast
His spell over your catchment? But the river elbows me:
I have work to do.
I'm only a middle-aged
River, shifting sandbanks
For my tenant sand martins.
Inquisitor, let me pass.
Who will bear the blame gourd when Great
Zimbabwe is jettisoned into history’s marginalia?
Perhaps a tour guide, a survivor, might
Bring his charges, point where the Great Enclosure once stood,
Where Mwari [2] once spoke, before the outbreak of non-sound.
Perhaps they’ll bask in the familiar comfort
Of old monuments; now and then catch a moment,
Now and then, with the contrails of their breath, cup the numb quiet.
Perhaps, they'll stare into its pools, as if the stare, when
Stretched to the thinness of sand strafing the gut
Of an hourglass, might unpick some mysterium, stitched
To the loin cloth of Great Zimbabwe's skeletons.
O, I wonder if they’ll wonder, whether old
Monuments, like words, possess their own
Etymologies, which untended, shed their clarities.
Let it not be said we hibernated in the bald
Shade of acacias, when our neighbours' fields
Caught fire, from renegade lightning storms.
May it not be mentioned we shared
Laughter-morsels with Brother Silence,
Even as he sharpened his sickle
Against his brother’s windpipe.
I am a stranger troubadour, from another
Corner of our savannah, who, having come
This far between rainbow and earth's paw,
Disembarked my tongue.
I must go now.
The peddler of parables should not
Hear the bearded owl’s ululation.
Let me go now.
This is a song with many voices.
Let someone hum the refrain.
[1] Great Zimbabwe is a complex of Iron Age ruins of a civilisation that flourished in modern day Zimbabwe, after which the country is named. The name Zimbabwe comes variously from the Shona words: dzimba woye (venerated houses) or dzimba dza mabwe (houses of stone).
[2] The Shona Creator God"Interregnum" is part two of our five-part series of poems by Ghanaians on Zimbabwe. To read all contributions to the series so far, click here.
Biography:L. S. Mensah was born and raised in Accra, and been living in the UK for the past four years or so. Recently her work has appeared in the annual Barnet Poetry Anthology.
Five Questions with L. S. Mensah:1. What inspired you to write about Zimbabwe? Was the writing of your poem a response to our submission call, or was the poem already written?
I started this in response to the submission call, though it took me time to find the hook. Since Great Zimbabwe itself has always found expression in much Zimbabwean writing, I thought I'll explore it too.
2. Growing up, what was your image of Zimbabwe? Has that changed?
My image of Zimbabwe was tied to Bob Marley's "Survival," which had songs like 'So Much Trouble in the World' 'Africa Unite', and of course 'Zimbabwe.' Even if one did not understand the songs, that iconic cover, with the red, yellow, green and black of the flags of all these African countries, conveyed the idea of a people with a common destiny. Maybe that is still true.
In Zimbabwe, the change started almost immediately after Independence. It was barely noticed outside of the country itself when Mugabe turned his wrath on Joshua Nkomo's base in Matabeleland, thus effectively playing tribal politics. The Revolution is truly devouring its own.
3. How do you think we, as outsiders, can help with the current political struggles in Zimbabwe? Should we be involved?
I don't think one's origins matter when speaking out against oppressive regimes. Just keeping the plight of ordinary Zimbabweans in the public eye is a good place to start. Somehow African governments are more careful about their reputation abroad since that's where the Aid money comes from (though not in Mugabe's case). He is doing very well impoverishing his own people while setting himself up as a victim of the West.
4. What impact do you think our writing about Zimbabwe can have on the current's current political/economic state, if any?
Wilfred Owen had this to say: All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful.
But even Owen's assertion is only the beginning, for what kind of truth do we even begin to tell? Who decides what is truth and what isn't? Our various subjectivities will find their way into whatever it is we have to say. Still, if that generates debate, then that's good.
At the very least our writing can help keep the issue alive in the public sphere.
5. What lessons can Zimbabwe learn from Ghana's history? What lessons can Ghana learn from Zimbabwe?
I prefer to take the long view: Africa has always had its tyrants - right from the Pharoahs. What that says about our prospects for getting rid of the modern ones, I can't say. However, it is also important to note that they are slowly, but very slowly, beginning to disappear.
Like Zimbabweans, Ghanaians have their monuments too. Still it is not enough just to mull over our sometimes rich black past. Look again at those monuments, and you begin to see the seeds of our difficult present. The reason our monuments have fallen silent is not because we fail to explore them in our writing, but that when we do, we often prefer to stick with the glory bit.
I think the problem all over Africa, we tend to see our leaders, not as people we put in power, and therefore accountable to us, but as fathers of the nation. This gets worse when those leaders have come through the Independence Movement. They start to believe that their sacrifices gives them the right to rule forever.
Mugabe is the classic post independence leader, and as things have become worse, he in turn, has become more brutal, just to stay in power. We know, at least in Ghana, that playing one group against another never helps anyone. There are real grievances but his scorched earth policy is not the way to go. Kristina Rungano, a Zimbabwean poet, offers these lines in her 'After the Rain':
Tomorrow the tree 'd looked a day more ancient
Yet it would still be
The same familiar beautiful Zimbabwe.
(The Heinemann Book of African Women's Poetry)
Contact L. S.:nomadafricanus(at)yahoo.co.uk
Zimba Remabwe [1]
Between the Zambezi and Limpopo,
Land of Shona legend and lore.
Our hearts yearn for more
Stories from Monomotapa
About greatness and gold.
Zimba Remabwe,
They named you Southern Rhodesia
As if the earth belonged
Not to the ones they wronged
But struggle begun to flow like lava
From volcanoes of dissent.
Zimba Remabwe,
The first born soil of the earth.
From Harare to Bulawayo
Every man is a hero
In battles of identity customized
By politics and economics.
The land did not belong to Rhodes,
It did not belong to hordes
Of stale imperialism.
The land Zimbabwe belongs to us,
The ones who bear her struggles,
Who kiss her lips when we fall.
[1] Big house of stone."Zimbabwe" is part one of our five-part series of poems by Ghanaians on Zimbabwe.
Biography:
Born in Ghana, Prince Mensah has twenty-five stage plays to his credit. Some of them have been acted at the Accra Arts Center and at several locations in Accra. His articles and stories have been published in the STEP magazine, P & P, Ghanadot.com and The Free Press. His poetry has been published in the Munyori Journal, UNESCO's Other Voices International Project, The Muse Literary Magazine and the Dublin Writer's Workshop.
Prince Mensah has published seventeen books of poetry. They are Memoirs of A Native Son, I Shall, I Will, I Can (Poetry Inspired by Barack Obama), Afrocentric, ecclesiastes, State of An Abstract Mind, The Griot Metropolitan, The Land of Broken Mirrors, Coronation, Enough is Enough, World War-Free, in praise of the calabash, Prophylaxis, Via Dolorosa, Tabula Rasa, Eclectic, Situational Hazard and Chronology.
Prince is a Consultant in Workplace Mediation, an HIV/AID Treatment Advocate and an Eligible Translator/Interpreter in Twi & Fante for the Judicial Consortium of 40 American States. He lives in the United States with his wife, Charisse.
Prince is the head of North American promotions for One Ghana, One Voice.
Five questions with Prince Mensah:1. What inspired you to write about Zimbabwe? Was the writing of your poem a response to our submission call, or was the poem already written?
It was OGOV’s call for submissions that prompted the creation of this poem. After doing some research on Zimbabwe’s glorious past and volatile present, I realized how important it was to stoke the greatness lying latent in this country.
2. How do you think we, as outsiders, can help with the current political struggles in Zimbabwe? Should we be involved?
I think, as outsiders, we can only hold the mirrors of opinion and reflect back to Zimbabwe what it represents to us. President Mugabe gives me great ambivalence. On one end, I am proud he is taking shots from nobody. On the other hand, I am disappointed that he is not employing all the brilliant Zimbabwean minds to build the country. I don’t think all the answers to Zimbabwe’s troubles are in his head. For the sake of the Zimbabwe that he risked his life for, he must give way to ideas that will move the country forward, not backward.
Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah was the biggest African bankroller for Zimbabwean independence. He believed in the Zimbabwean dream. Robert Mugabe’s first wife, Sally, (who is now deceased) was Ghanaian from Cape Coast. He was once a lecturer at University of Ghana. There is an endearing history between Ghana and Zimbabwe, which can be used in several ways to nudge the present government to do the right thing. An epic struggle continues between the old guards who shed their sweat and blood for independence and the modernists who want to open Zimbabwe to more western ideas. In the end, the struggle for power is a Shakespearean tragedy reenacted in varying forms in African countries.
3. What impact do you think our writing about Zimbabwe can have on the current's current political/economic state, if any?
Zimbabweans have the highest literacy rate in Africa so I know that our writings will find their way to discerning minds who can utilize the sentiments expressed in the poems. That being said, if there is a way to post photos from Zimbabwe to accompany the poems, it would be helpful.
4. What lessons can Zimbabwe learn from Ghana's history? What lessons can Ghana learn from Zimbabwe?
Zimbabweans can learn the power of tolerance from Ghana. Trust me; we have had volatile situations that could have ended up in chaos. Yet, there is a cultural underpinning that rejects bloodshed as a way of solving issues. The way of Gandhi is better than the way of guns. In the end, the best person to change Zimbabwe for the better is the Zimbabwean who is ready to make sacrifices and take risks, in order to move the dream forward.
Ghanaians can learn the value of higher education from Zimbabweans. Getting either a Masters Degree or Doctorate is a rite of passage for Zimbabweans. This enables them to excel in and out of their country, enabling them to garner the experience and expertise to contribute to nation building. I do not mean that holding a graduate degree is the panacea to our problems. However, it opens up possibilities for the individual in a country where opportunities are few.
5. Your poem focuses on the history of Zimbabwe. What lessons can we learn from that history to help effect the present?
As one of the earliest kingdoms in continental Africa, Zimbabwe stands for enduring cultural heritage and identity. With centuries of military, political and religious development, the psyche of pre-colonial Zimbabwe was a precursor to the anti-colonial sentiment that surged through Africa through 1960s – 1980s. The lessons that can be learned from the past involve the ability to avoid self-destructive traits and to use whatever helps the Zimbabwean dream to be realized. I trust that President Mugabe and Prime Minister Tsvangirai can work together as fellow Zimbabweans to attack the demons of conflict and power-grabs. In the end, Zimbabwe must not become a victim of vitriol, vanity and vendetta. It deserves better than that.
Contact Prince:Email: pryncemensah(at)yahoo.com
Website: http://www.freewebs.com/pryncemensah/
