Join Friends of Pambazuka

Subscribe for Free!



Donate to Pambazuka News!

Follow Us

delicious bookmarks facebook twitter

Pambazuka News Pambazuka News is produced by a pan-African community of some 2,600 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators who together produce insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses and make it one of the largest and most innovative and influential web forums for social justice in Africa.

Latest titles from Pambazuka Press

From Citizen to Refugee

From Citizen to Refugee Uganda Asians come to Britain
Mahmood Mamdani
'On the face of it, life in the camp presented a sharp and favourable contrast to the open terror of living in Uganda. But it was the Kensington camp, and not Amin's Uganda, which was my first experience of what it would be like to live in a totalitarian society.' Mahmood Mamdani
Buy now

African Awakening

African Awakening The Emerging Revolutions
The tumultuous uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya have seized the attention of media but what about the rest of Africa? With incisive contributions from across the continent, "African Awakening" presents the 2011 uprisings in their African context.
Buy now

Demystifying Aid

Yash Tandon

Demystifying Aid This pamphlet from Pambazuka Press shows that 'development aid' is not what it purports to be - the effects of actions of well-meaning allies in the North who support aid to Africa for reasons of ethics or solidarity are, unfortunately, the opposite of their good intentions.
Buy now

To Cook a Continent

To Cook a Continent Destructive Extraction and the Climate Crisis in Africa
Nnimmo Bassey
Exploiting Africa's resources has delivered huge profits to the North and huge damage to Africa's environment and economies. Overcoming the crises of environment and climate change means also addressing corporate profiteering and resource extraction.
Buy now

Earth Grab

Earth Grab Geopiracy, the New Biomassters and Capturing Climate Genes
Diana Bronson, Hope Shand, Jim Thomas, Kathy Jo Wetter
As greedy eyes focus on the global South's resources this book 'pulls back the curtain on disturbing technological and corporate trends that are already reshaping our world and that will become crucial battlegrounds for civil society in the years ahead.
Buy now

Pambazuka News Broadcasts

Pambazuka broadcasts feature audio and video content with cutting edge commentary and debate from social justice movements across the continent.

See the list of episodes.

AU MONITOR

This site has been established by Fahamu to provide regular feedback to African civil society organisations on what is happening with the African Union.

Perspectives on Emerging Powers in Africa: December 2011 newsletter

Deborah Brautigam provides an overview and description of China's development finance to Africa. "Looking at the nature of Chinese development aid - and non-aid - to Africa provides insights into China's strategic approach to outward investment and economic diplomacy, even if exact figures and strategies are not easily ascertained", she states as she describes China's provision of grants, zero-interest loans and concessional loans. Pambazuka Press recently released a publication titled India in Africa: Changing Geographies of Power, and Oliver Stuenkel provides his review of the book.
The December edition available here.

The 2010 issues: September, October, November, December, and the 2011 issues: January, February, March , April, May , June , July , August , September, October and November issues are all available for download.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

African Writers’ Corner

Dekha, Wambui, Wangari

(inspired by Wambui Mwangi)

Shailja Patel

2011-09-29, Issue 550

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/African_Writers/76751

Bookmark and Share

Printer friendly version

the greedy old men
vampires
live forever

the women who restore
rebuild replant
remake
die in their fullness...

In the past three months, Africa, and the world, have lost three great activists - Dekha Ibrahim, Wambui Otieno, Wangari Maathai

‘There must be those among whom we can sit down and weep, and still be counted as warriors. I think you thought there was no such place for you, and perhaps there was none then, and perhaps there is none now; but we will have to make it, we who want an end to suffering, who want to change the laws of history, if we are not to give ourselves away.’ – Adrienne Rich

the greedy old men
vampires
live forever

the women who restore
rebuild replant
remake
die in their fullness

reeling
in this wild
and senseless
culling, we

grieve with our labor
dream open-eyed
think back
into history think forward
into spaces
we will not un-see

nothing as easy
as comfort nothing
as false as certainty
only our voices
fragments in gale

cross, re-cross
continent to continent
lay down the only
true immortality

songlines
heartlines
power lines that run
on the voltage
of our courage

SHAILJA PATEL, 2011. All Rights Reserved

BROUGHT TO YOU BY PAMBAZUKA NEWS

* Shailja Patel is a Kenyan poet, playwright and activist.
* Please send comments to editor[at]pambazuka[dot]org or comment online at Pambazuka News.


Readers' Comments

Let your voice be heard. Comment on this article.




↑ back to top

ISSN 1753-6839 Pambazuka News English Edition http://www.pambazuka.org/en/

ISSN 1753-6847 Pambazuka News en Français http://www.pambazuka.org/fr/

ISSN 1757-6504 Pambazuka News em Português http://www.pambazuka.org/pt/

© 2009 Fahamu - http://www.fahamu.org/