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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