The African Verses
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Hearty Hope
When my fathers sailed
Long time ago across the seas
They sang, yes they sang
With hearty hope
When they bore the whip
Or saw their brothers thrown overboard
They still sang, yes they went on singing
With hearty hope
The ailers suffered
The noisy boots stomped overhead
As they crammed in the dark below
With bugs and spiders
Women in passionate throes
Emotional convolutions of tortured spite
Even in the muddled groping
They sang; yes, they did sing on
With hearty hope
The ro-ro water unsettled the gut
Weeks of juggling atop the blue-white crests
Of salty, saddened waves within the heart
And without the sailing ships
In chains of pure steel
Backs marked by horsetail whips
In merciless scourging
Did they tire?
No – they sang; they went on singing
With hearty hope
And even when the vessels docked
They filed out distraught
Unto foreign soil, hauled up on the docks
Still in chains to be priced
By the plantation owners
The sun hot on their backs
Anyway they were undaunted by usual heat
Lots more where they came from
And in forced silence
Within their hearts free despite the chains
They sang; they courageously sang still
With hearty hope
Bought and scarred with hot rods
Master’s name imprint
Individualism lost at the stake
New home, new hassles, new suffering
Manual strife, mediocre ill will
Occasioning deathly pensiveness
The lonesome silence in painful heaving
Lowered but still not overcome
With tear-filled eyes unbowed
They sang – they had to go on singing
With hearty hope
Years gave birth to ages
Seasons swapping still
Hamstrung on foreign land
Unable to return
Home unknown or long forgotten
Assimilating forcefully new codes
Taught to be white even though swarthy
Only one tradition stayed
It was their singing
The tireless mouthing the numbers
Of freedom yet unborn, unseen
Known and felt only
With hearty hope
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About the Book
The African Verses is a collection of 110 inspired poems, all of which tell about the African situation, and the need to urgently do something about it.
It is a book that states the fact: Africa is not in the best of shapes; but it does not just state this fact - it goes ahead to prescribe a remedy: we must own the fault for Africa's being like this, and seek to change things. We must not complacently shift blames.
The book is of the view that it is about time to begin a revolution for Africa, by Africans themselves. Enough is already more than enough for African mediocrity.
Like Obama would say, it is time for CHANGE.
About the Author
My official name is Samuel Onyenachi Nze. I was born on October 13, 1980 in Lagos, Nigeria.
I attended St. Jude's Private school from 1983 to 1990; I attended Nigerian Navy Secondary School from 1991 to 1996. In 2001 I gained admission to the Imo State University, Owerri to study Mass Communication, and I eventually graduated from there in 2005.
Next, I worked as a secondary school principal, then as a banker, and then I came over to the USA.
I am currently a graduate student of Communication at Wichita State University, Kansas.