Why I love Africa (poem for #AfricaDay)

In honour of Africa Liberation Day which is today may 25, I want to post this poem to pay tribute to where my heart calls home - Africa. #tobeAfrican is to love Africa, and love our sweet motherland. Happy #AfricaDay

It takes a village to raise a child

It takes a male child to start a village

It takes a female child to educate them all

In Africa

One man’s inactive car

Is many other men’s community service

Because you will need others

When your own car breaks down in Africa

It doesn’t fall into winter

And then spring into summer

People may be raining away

But life and warmth never run dry in Africa

Tangerine tree, football field, sugarcane seller

Very different but similar

Who needs Mapquest? In directing and navigating

All landmarks are on deck, in Africa

What if the peanut seller is sick with malaria?

There are a hundred and one people

Minding and carrying their own business on the streets

Of Africa who would give you some help

Cock-a-doodle-doo, hold up, kokrokoo…

Meat that has been frozen for three weeks is not my kind

This particular bird has exhausted my piece of mind

And I’ll have fresh cooked chicken at half-past two, in Africa

Tough love smoothens rough edges

Polishing an individual in responsibility

The rod has its place in Africa

And insubordination is not spared

Where the generation gap seems to grow

Day in day out, year in year out

An 84 year-old man finds a way

To start school, in Africa

Where else does a song, which talks about ‘down there’?

First get banned for its profanity

Then helps an opposition party

Win an election, in Africa

Chains were broken with the slave trade

But shackles remain within families

Every brother and sister from another mother

Is my sibling in Africa

Let everything that has breath

Smile for the camera

Because laughter triumphs over pain

Which is no stranger to Africa

The old man left me with something

Food that taught me maturity

Thoughts that fed me wisdom

To survive in Africa

Diverse yet so much the same

Many but this one name

Several ‘blanks’ but still no shame

Boarder is no bother to Africa

Before corn was popped, it was roasted

Before democracy, there was order

Before makeup, there was beauty

Before you, you can still see Africa

Full of life in the midst of death

Full of strife in the midst of despair

Full of giving in the midst of nothing

The beauty of Africa will fill and fool you

Tradition has suffered various additions

Custom has embraced many storms

Culture has welcomed several mixtures

Africa has still lived Africa

Can you trust respect?

Can you judge hospitality?

Can you explain happiness?

Can you understand strength?

Africa lives in me and I can

That’s why I love Africa