Through the North they came, through the South they fled.Through the dancing Sahara across the shores of Africa, they came with horses to raid our land, to take us to a foreign land. With bond of chains on our arms, all intended to do us harm and big ropes tied to our hands as we marched to a strange land. Our culture, they battered; and our mothers, they murdered. Death reward those who disobeyed, so we marched on without delay. Our faces became bruised and bloodied as the slave masters hounded us. Our eyes were blinded with dust in pools of blood. Our children were taken away on a ship and were sold as slaves. We were taken and captured and tortured daily. They came and stole our history with nothing left but pains and misery. We were murdered and our children cried. The world was silent when we died.
© Samuel Junior Irusota
#ANSAChildren’sLiteratureContest
If this entry is for children's literature contest as indicated, then I will rather the author use a folk narrative style to drive home his point.
Secondly a kind of lullaby that tells the precolonial to our modern day story. For example how we used to build our sandcastle before the intrusion.
I like the metaphor "the world was silent when we died". And because it is children literature category, we should factor HOPE or advocate for hope with the children as the future that we seek to recreate Africa.
I like the poem, just that this particular theme may have been over flogged, hence the need to be as creative as possible when it comes to using this theme.
The obvious theme is that of lamentation and the tone is that of pain and anguish.
Salamatu Sule