by Benedict Wachira
African youth are watching, but not waiting. They are getting ready.
“We are watching you as you put up your AFRICOM bases in Djibouti, and your
Lilly-pads all over…. Just like the phoenix, our continent is burning, and the heat is preparing
us, preparing us to rise.”
We Are Watching You
by Benedict Wachira
This poem previously appeared in Pambazuka News.
We were not there when you enslaved our forefathers
We were not there when you showed us your brutality through colonisation
We were not there when you forcefully stole our resources
We know what you did to Kimathi, Kwame, Lumumba, Modibo, Barka, Samora,
Sankara, Hani and all those who opposed your interests on our continent
But that was in the past
Today we were born, we have grown and we are watching you
We are watching you as you continue plundering the Congo
We are watching you as you steal our minerals through force when corruption
fails
We are watching you as you put up your AFRICOM bases in Djibouti, and your
Lilly-pads all over
We are watching you as you dump nuclear waste on Somali coast, and as you
support their terrorists from behind the scenes
We are watching you as you suppress our economies every time they threaten
your hegemony
We are watching you as you continue to corrupt and to compromise the
leaders that your system imposes on us
We are watching you as you succeed in brainwashing some of us with your
powerful global media
We were painfully watching you, as you negated the rule of law in Ivory
Coast, through the gun
We were painfully watching you, as you murdered our Brother leader, through
the gun
We were painfully watching you, as you took Zimbabwe's economy to its knees
Today, your killing instincts are leading you into CAR, in the guise of
following some Kony fellow
Today, your killing instincts are taking you into Mali, in the guise of
restoring 'democracy'
Today maybe, Niger, Nigeria or Algeria will be where you will sent your
religious crap heads and divisive empty heads
But what you may not know is that
Today we were born, we have grown and we are watching you
The Sankaras are in their thousands
The Kimathis are in their thousands
The Kwames are in their thousands
The Samoras are in their thousands
The Hanis are in their thousands
The Gaddafis are in their hundreds of thousands
Maybe you cannot see us
Because the only avenues we have are the demonstrations, the blogs and the
never aired press conferences
Continue thinking that we are asleep, or that we are some 'lazy
intellectual African scums'
Yes, we are few in numbers, but what we lack in numbers, we compliment with
our energy and zeal
Our forefathers foresaw this age
An age where you would view us as some backward people
An age when some of us would view us as a lesser people
That was why they left for us the magnificent Pyramids all along the Nile
Pyramids that you once claimed were built by you, Pyramids that you today
claim were not built by humans
That is why they left for us the Great Zimbabwe
So developed they were, that you once claimed that the builders came from
elsewhere
That is why they left for us the complicated underground structures all over
Structures that make a child's play of your subways and skyscrapers
That is why they left for us the arts and cultures
With rhythms that you cannot understand
All these are a reminder, So that when we see them, we may hold our heads
up high, we may be proud of what we achieved, and we may remind ourselves
that we need to regain our lost glory, and bring humanity back into the
world
Just like the phoenix, our continent is burning, and the heat is preparing
us, preparing us to rise
Just like the lion, we will soon roar, and we will care for nothing, but
our freedom and dignity
We have studied your ways
You use your military superiority to rule on us
You take advantage of our goodness to splash your wrath on us
You may not hear our voices, neither do we care
We are organizing
We have learnt from our past
But most importantly
We are learning from your past and present
And when we rise
And when the fire starts to burn
You will realize that the generation has arrived
And we shall not forgive, we shall have no mercy, we shall keep our Utu
aside
We shall use your methods to instill humanity into you
A worse fate will meet your local stooges and puppets
For we have seen that love can't work for you
And we shall end all this
Once and for all
Because we are tired of watching you
This week’s featured author is Nanjala Nyabola. Nyabola is a writer and political analyst based in Nairobi, Kenya.
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