Journey began with end unseen,
bounded with chains in hands and leg
as if a modern day murderer;
Taskmasters with whips long as kakanfo's gun,
lashing slow walkers like horses in polo game;
Hosts turned slaves, guests became masters.
Far and far we traveled
Into the theater of wrath and tears.
Foot bruised, cracked like ogiri Alamo,
we journeyed bare footed, Masters on horses.
From badagry's darkness' abode
to immortal infliction of the Mississippi;
Irin ajo Omo adamo, sebi owo olorun lowa
but olodumare knew not our ordeal.
Tears in our swollen eyes,
anguish in our paralyzed heart,
songs of sorrow coming out freely
like the catholic church's choir during oratorio;
Strips with pattern on our bare back,
laden in soul and body....
We crossed the rough Mississippi.
River Mississippi, confluence of blood, tears, water.
Helplessly, we worked in their oko ireke
with agadagodo in our mouths,
compelled not to taste sugarcane
even against the will of our taste bud;
We were workaholics.....
Hungry workaholics.....
Awon to siwaju Ogun ni n kuku mu lo,
we were frontrunners when war came...
Our tongues tasted blood and pepper.
Killed randomly like cows in the abattoir,
and we survivors, bruised and amputated;
Bi Eda o gba kadara,yo gba kodoro.
In the clutch of circumstances,
we became masters of fate.
Our sore of colonialism was cured
with the penicillin of independence
but I'll forget that bare footed journey?
I'll forget the great river Mississippi,
the confluence of blood, tears, water?
I'll forget that night in England when
war started?
Mourn the dead no more, fellow compatriots!
Anthony Enahoro is gone...
Obafemi Awolowo, in the spirit world...
Tafawa Balewa is dead...
Azikwe Nnamdi have crossed the bar...
But what happens to their legacy?
To their nationalism struggle?
Indigenous people of Biafra....
egbe Omo oduduwa....
arewa youth group.......
This is what our fathers died for?
The legacy they birthed?
The nationalism they fought for?
Tell me! Is this it?
by Timothy
Glossary
Kakanfo - the chief warrior of the old Oyo empire
Ogiri Alamo - wall built with mud
Irin ajo Omo adamo,sebi owo olorun lowa - A man's journey is in the hands of God
Olodumare - God
Oko ireke - Sugarcane farm
Agadagodo - Padlock
Awon ti n siwaju Ogun ni n Ku mulo - The frontiers in a war are the first to die.
Bi Eda o GBA kadara, yo gba kodoro - All humans must submit to fate
