Lines from the Riverside

By J.D. Koikoibo

DRAPETOMANIA

I have no desire to stay in
This your neo-colonial plantation
Of culturally modified minds
My desire is to cause disorder
In the order of your Deity
The cornrow of my mind will lead me home
And the seeds I planted in it from you
When you ripped me from my people and culture
To ship me across several seas,
Will sprout and feed my unborn seedlings

My skin is coated with Nun's chocolate
My veins are tributaries to the blood
Covenant of my Fathers and WoYin
My fingers have unlocked from those of Fear
As I walk home holding hands with the Great Spirit
That is how Mother will recognise me
You can whip the devil out of me, but be ready
To lock horns with the beast you awaken
The hold of mental chains has succumbed 
To the pull of my umbilical cord and placenta
Planted in the fertile land of my Fathers

I have no desire to return to
This your neo-colonial plantation 
Of culturally modified minds
I am home with my people
And we are making threads of our hearts
To sew the torn fabric of our culture
As my cornrow-ed mind loosens 
And blossoms into an Afro.

‘Jasper’ Dieworimene Koikoibo writes by the riverside, with an ink drawn from the depths of the Niger.

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