Answer to a poem out of Africa ~ Chinua Achebe's "Butterfly"

Pic from ABC

Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe won the 2007 Man Booker International Prize for fiction, beating such celebrated nominees as Philip Roth, Margaret Atwood and Ian McEwan. But he also writes poetry. Here is Butterfly, one of his poems from Matt's Poetry Pocketbook. Matthew John Williams (a poet in England) is one of many who run websites to maintain a list of African poetry.

~

BUTTERFLY

Speed is violence

Power is violence

Weight is violence

~

The butterfly seeks safety in lightness

In weightless, undulating flight

~

But at a crossroads where mottled light

From trees falls on a brash new highway

Our convergent territories meet

~

I come power-packed enough for two

And the gentle butterfly offers

Itself in bright yellow sacrifice

Upon my hard silicon shield.

~

~

AFRICAN SOUL

Africa is not speed
But African power is growing
Africa is growing literary weight
~
The African soul seeks safety in cultures
In mystic, undulating beliefs
~
But at a crossroads
Where harsh light
From other worlds
Falls on brash new voices
Convergent visions
Clash
~
You come
Power-packed
With stereotypes
While the confused
African soul
Offers itself
Composed?
Composing?
In colourful sacrifice
On your
Politically
Electrified
Wires
~

Leech Woman ~ Prompt #45 ~ for Easy Street Prompts

Africa is the place to find secrets

~

The secret for combatting aids

Could be held in

Sutherlandia Frutescens

Growing wild in the Western Cape

And in the hills of Zululand

~

And the barren Kalahari

Holds some of the greatest secrets of all ~

The secret for curing obesity ~

The scarce Hoodia plant ~

Coffee in the desert is no problem

With roots from the Shepherd Tree ~

And the Devil Thorn ~

Great for puncturing the feet

Of soldiers and horses ~

Completes its whole lifecycle

In just two weeks

(So find them fast!)

~

And if you think the cactus

Must hold the greatest secrets

Of all in Africa

You think wrong!

No indigenous cacti grow in Africa ~

They are all imports ~

(It is no secret

That prickly pear varieties are an

Unadulterated pest)

~

The secret for eternal youth

Aaaaaaaaahhhhh

That is the story for dreamers ~

Especially filmakers

Who think the cradle of answers

Lies in darkest Africa

A sci fi African jungle

Captured on film in the 1960's ~

Orchid pollen

Combined with the pineal juices

Of the newly dead

Creates the wine of eternal youth

~

It takes a hungry woman

To ravish the blood of men

In the passion of love ~

Like an Amazonian warrior

Bent on being a goddess ~
Like a Black Widow spider
In a world of the elusive

Black Orchid

~

Like a

Black Death creates

A Black Phoenix

Secreted in the tombs

Of Africa

~

Troubled souls live in Africa

Rainbows are a little thin
And scarce
In parts of Africa ~
Especially for animals
Especially for animals
In Tanzania
~
Their songlines are burning
At an alarming rate!
~
Poachers
Nasty
Devious
Poachers
Are rampantly killing
Chimpanzees
Zebras
Buffalo
~
The Lichtenstein’s Hartebeest
Is simply
No more!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rainbows are a little thin
And parched
In parts of Africa ~
Especially for refugees
Especially for refugees
In Tanzania
~
Their bloodlines are burning
At an alarming rate!
~
Refugees from war-torn
Burundi
Rwanda
The Congo
Are desperate
Poor
Lost
Hungry
Starving
~
Starving
At an alarming rate!
~
Blindly
They trade
Cook
Consume
~
Crippled
Hungry
Ugly
Poachers
With or without a cause?
~
Only the rainbows know
Their heartbeat
Their soul
Is simply
No more!
~~~
~In response to Refugee link to wildlife decline – BBC News – 22.01.08 The UN says there are more than half a million refugees in the country, mainly living in camps near the western border. The border is also home to important wildlife refuges such as Gombe National Park, which achieved international fame as the site of Jane Goodall's pioneering studies of chimp behaviour...In 1994, when intense ethnic fighting in Rwanda drove an estimated 600,000 refugees into the area of Tanzania surrounding Burigi National Park, wildlife in the park declined sharply.
Buffalo numbers fell from about 2,670 to just 44. Roan antelope declined from 466 to 15 and zebra from 6,552 to 606, while the estimated population of 324 Lichtenstein's Hartebeest, a type of antelope, vanished completely.

** Modified version added to Writers' Cafe.

Pilgrimage painted with Zulu colours

Climb
Just one
Holy mountain~
Beyond
The crush
And stench
Of parchment city
Walls
~
Push the boundaries
Of old visions
But respect them for what they were



Let bare feet
Liberate
The auras
Of grasses
Twigs
And
Cooling
Bristly
Stones~
Linking
Tired frames
To sacred pictures
Of old motherlands~
~
Burn wasted scrolls
Along the way
~
Izimboko
Symbolic staffs
Of fighting
Spirits
~
And remember
To sing
Death's lullaby~
For legends~
With a fragrant essence of
Flowers~
~
Izimboko
Symbolic staffs
Of fighting
Spirits~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In response to South African pilgrims in pictures - BBC News - 21.01.08
An estimated one million followers of South Africa's Nazareth Baptist Church are coming to the end of their annual pilgrimage. They have spent the past two weeks on their holy mountain of Nhlongakazi, north of Durban. The church, also known as Shembe, has an estimated 4 million followers, or amaNazarites, mostly Zulu-speakers. The church was founded in 1910 by Isaiah Shembe, who died in 1935. Since his death, the church has split into several factions. The pilgrims walk barefoot for three days, covering 60km and sleeping in the open. They build fires along the way, sing and burn litter to purify their surroundings...Devotees or preachers wear white gowns and headdresses made of animal skins. They carry traditional Zulu fighting sticks called izimboko. Shembe women worship separately from men. They gather in a group and lay flowers on the hillside to remember the souls of the departed...Pilgrims believe if they reach the mountain, God will ease their pain, enable them to find employment and keep them safe in the year ahead. ~~Pictures and text by Alice Lander.

Africa - Half Storm - Half Rainbow

Zimbabwean artwork auctioned
as part of the ZATA project
for AIDS - Colorado 2006.

New Year is a time to
Invent a new soul
~~~~
January 2008 -
Zimbabwean Gallery's
Half century -
Time to pull out of
The storms
And seek
African colours
Even
Half a rainbow
Will do
~
Mixed joys
Stumble
From a paintbox
On stage
Before
Bemused eyes
~
Frames
Wait
Patiently
~
Inside the bread
A work of art
Cringing
In womb warmth
Struggling
To counter
Birth pangs
Pressures
And new
Harsh
Lights
~
January
Promises to be
A month of
Baking
And
Painting
~
Working to
The gentle drum beats
Of risks
And breaths
In spaces
Beyond
The walls
~
Of
In
Near
Beyond
~
Zimbabwe
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In response to the BBC article on Zimbabwe's National Gallery's 50th Anniversary - 7.01.08
TSVA (new) an interactive, cutting edge show conceived to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe is now in full swing.
Consisting of six elements and realised by an entirely Zimbabwean team of artists and curators, the show disrupts the usual presentation of finished works to an audience at an opening as most of the work is being made live in the gallery throughout this month.
~
This month will see more pairing of conceptual and conventional artists like wire\bead craftsmen, batik artists, paper makers, and crotchet artists.
This in situ dialogue of practical and conceptual energy aims to explore the questions of who and what defines art in an African context and seeks to create hybrid works that define the line between art and craft.
"Bread", conceived by Pip Curling with the idea that "bread is an emotive issue, art should be an emotive issue. . . bread feeds the body, art nourishes the soul" saw her bake the first loaf of bread in the gallery last month.
Inside the bread was a work of art and this month she will be painting a canvas in the gallery related to this highly charged subject matter.
Four other painters will join her in this process of baking and painting before the end if this month.
~
Three conceptual artists, Chikonzero Chazunguza, Gareth Nyandoro and Virginia Chihota have been challenged to investigate the importance of the Gallery by exploring the spaces outside the building.
Three installations will be realised during January and beyond with accompanying performances, that touch deeply on contemporary issues while pushing the idea of "The Museum of the Third Kind" as " . . . a place of passion . . . not grand or majestic but committed to the drum of risk taking". (Renzo Piano)

*Posted "Poetry Showcase" - - 20.01.08 under AuraGem

Happiness to me is an elusive sanctuary. Sometimes it is available. Sometimes not. It is a tidal water world. The purpose of life is to choose to sail a boat, swim, or drown. - Gemma Wiseman

Fractured memories of a child soldier

Africa can be a jungle

Of dominoes

Numbered with wars

And shifting sands

~~

Such dominoes

In the hands of a child

Can only be

Dynamite

But a child

One who God hears

An Ishmael

Blasting murder

With murder

Must be on a quest

Out of sync

With conventional

Celestial calendars

~

Ishmael

Can only hear

His God within

Bereft

Of

Namaste

~

And we

Numb

To any

Aethereal Gods

Dare

To judge

And sentence

This child

With the dates

Of an earthly calendar

~~~~~~~~~~

NOTES: In response to the article "Twist in the Tale of a Child Soldier" - "The Australian" - 19.01.08 - ISHMAEL Beah is the former African child soldier turned best-selling author whose account of his time as a killer, driven by the memory of his murdered family, has sold more than 600,000 copies around the world. His searing tale made one television host's "heart hurt"...But a bizarre set of events, sparked by a West Australian mining couple, has revealed flaws in Beah's tale, A Long Way Gone.
The young author, who appeared on Enough Rope with Andrew Denton in July last year and is a UN advocate for war children, appears to have been two years older when he went to war. He would have been not 13 but 15. And instead of him spending two years in the Sierra Leone army, it would have been two or three months.
His story took place during the civil war that ripped Sierra Leone apart between 1991 and 2002. Tens of thousands were massacred, more than a third of the population was displaced and thousands of children were drafted into the rival forces, the government versus the ideologically-driven Revolutionary United Front.

~

~*~ Posted also on HubPages under AuraGem + Posted "Poetry Showcase" - 20.01.08 under AuraGem.