Rwanda, Rwanda (poem)
I am pulling out the poems one by one. There goes the anthology idea. Am I ever going to be able to write enough great poems to publish one? Time will tell. This poem is written for war torn countries when they are 'actually war torn'. I wrote this in March 2006 to commemorate the 12th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide. We thank God that human spirit triumphed over selfishness and Rwanda is moving on. Rwanda is slowly becoming 'krabɛhwɛ' (a place to watch) these days with the great work Paul Kagame is doing.
It was specifically for the UCONN Africa Night, and it was recited by two lovely Ghanaian ladies who were at UCONN at the time. The poem was also inspired by the song, Rwanda, by Wyclef Jean, which was on the Hotel Rwanda soundtrack.
Here goes the poem
Rwanda, Rwanda
We wonder, we wonder
And leave others to ponder
Why they wander, they wander
Seeking red from black
Staining their own back
Blood is thicker than water
Family is thicker than enemy
We wonder who is family
But we know who is the enemy
And the battles go on
To end the battles
We wonder, we wonder
In the absence of a border
Would we even bother
In the presence of order
Would we stab one another
In the scarcity of guns
Would we care less
The lessons of war
Would they scare us
We know what to ponder
But after Rwanda, we still wonder
And the battles go on
To end the battles
Rwanda, Rwanda
We wonder, we wonder
Why the fountain of love runs dry
Why the innocent have to die
Why we match fear with a matchete
Why we shoot dispute with a gunshot
Why we confuse hope with bad news
And shade the muscle of our hustle
To keep the battles from going on
To end the battles
We wonder, we wonder
Why we silence ourselves side by side
Waiting for the event to subside
Generate into a genocide
Before we have time to decide
What to do about the massacre
That slaughters Tutsi brothers and Hutu sisters
When we counter the nothing with action
When we counter the wondering with answering
Then we will know
That why we wonder is
Itself a wonder
Rwanda, Rwanda
We wonder, we wonder
It was specifically for the UCONN Africa Night, and it was recited by two lovely Ghanaian ladies who were at UCONN at the time. The poem was also inspired by the song, Rwanda, by Wyclef Jean, which was on the Hotel Rwanda soundtrack.
Here goes the poem
Rwanda, Rwanda
We wonder, we wonder
And leave others to ponder
Why they wander, they wander
Seeking red from black
Staining their own back
Blood is thicker than water
Family is thicker than enemy
We wonder who is family
But we know who is the enemy
And the battles go on
To end the battles
We wonder, we wonder
In the absence of a border
Would we even bother
In the presence of order
Would we stab one another
In the scarcity of guns
Would we care less
The lessons of war
Would they scare us
We know what to ponder
But after Rwanda, we still wonder
And the battles go on
To end the battles
Rwanda, Rwanda
We wonder, we wonder
Why the fountain of love runs dry
Why the innocent have to die
Why we match fear with a matchete
Why we shoot dispute with a gunshot
Why we confuse hope with bad news
And shade the muscle of our hustle
To keep the battles from going on
To end the battles
We wonder, we wonder
Why we silence ourselves side by side
Waiting for the event to subside
Generate into a genocide
Before we have time to decide
What to do about the massacre
That slaughters Tutsi brothers and Hutu sisters
When we counter the nothing with action
When we counter the wondering with answering
Then we will know
That why we wonder is
Itself a wonder
Rwanda, Rwanda
We wonder, we wonder
Comments
They made me pay for a trophy once as one of their semi-finalists in their worldwide poetry competition. Right after that, I gave up on them.