In spite of tokens, salutes, pats and decoys,
please, don’t turn into a tedious turncoat,
or a clumsy claimant and a desperate doll.
Who are you accountable to? Marionette?
Have the decency to put your people first.
Your continent and people are not for sale.
In any given nation, a citizen or a leader
should give their best for its wellbeing.
Life has never been all milk and honey.
Forget the euphoria of independence,
stir out of a starry cloudland or utopia.
African leaders still find a colonial snag
to cut their nations from Western realms’
umbilical cords, horns, ploys and cuddles.
Some are fighting a noble fight, others are fins.
They are dummies dancing to the domains’ tune.
They promise them cover if they scratch their backs.
When they murmur play safe, they mean play ball
of power, patronage and puppetry, of selling one’s
soul to a fierce fiend that makes one a foe to one’s
people! They promise them bliss if they scratch
their backs. When they say play safe, they mean
play ball of power, patronage and puppetry,
of selling one’s soul to the beast that makes one
a people’s enemy. How many are mannequins?
