Natty Mark Samuels

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To Celestine Edwards

and to Tower Hamlets Council, for their Black History Walks.

PART I

I

He looked like dignity,
The day I saw him speak in Victoria Park.
I was sinking in drink,
Approaching the brink;
The day I stepped out of the dark.

Spoke against human trafficking,
And enslavement by booze.
Made me think again,
Regenerating my brain;
Like a prophet bringing good news.

II

...read more

In Mali it could be Diarre,
In Burkina Coulibaly.
Masters of mud,
Making bogolanfini.
Wrapper for a woman,
For a man a dashiki.
Colours of the earth,
Of cultural identity.
Expertise with mud,
Studied in academy.
Created also,
In the country called Ivory.
Where they call it Korhogo,
Symbols of literacy.
Guinea fowl and crocodile,
Inner beauty and fertility.
The wonder of mud,
In three West African countries.
Where every mud cloth,
Reveals it's unique story.

© Natty Mark Samuels, 2012.

This short play celebrates the late renowned Kenyan environmentalist and Nobel Peace laureate Prof Wangari Maathai.

Dedicated to the remaining few, in Busoga, Uganda.

I hear you talking of genocide and gorillas. But there is more than that to Rwandan history. In telling you of Rwanda, come with me into the 17th century...

There is mud under your toenails, your feet camouflaged by dust…

They tortured his body
Cut it up in pieces.
Dissolved it in acid
Then burnt the rest.
Tried to humiliate him
To obliterate him
But Lumumba lives on and on.
In our thoughts
And in this song
Patrice Lumumba still steps along...

In a time of complete chaos, when disaster came stomping through the land, grabbing what it wanted…

A poem for voices, dedicated to those who teach and to the .

Neighbour of mine, I see your pain is growing. I think to cook today would be too much for you. Come sister, share mbebe and nshima with me.

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