African Poetry
Themes and Major Issues in The Fate of Vultures & Other Poems by Tanure Ojaide
(toc) #title= (Table of Content) Introduction Tanure Ojaide's collection of poems, The Fate of Vultures & Ot…
African Poetry
Malawi poetry
Nightmare by Frank Chipasula
Darkness chained me to my tattered reed mat; The hand of tyranny sprinkled The soot of ignorance in my eyes, and sleep …
Zambia Poetry
I screw my brother’s wife by Albert Chimedza
I screw my brother’s wife I am the slithering snake in the grass I am the yukky stuff that clogs the veins of the gov…
Uganda poetry
If It Is True by Richard Ntiru
If it is true that the world talks too much then let’s all keep quiet and hear the eloquence of silence If it is true…
South Africa poetry
Civilization Aha by Sipho Sepamla
i thought of eden the first time i ate a fig i thought of a whiteman …
South Africa poetry
On Judgement Day by Sipho Sepamla
black people are born singers black people are born runners black people are peace-loving these myths make of us naïv…
South Africa poetry
Thought on June 26 by Mazisi Kunene
Was I wrong when I thought All shall be avenged? Was I wrong when I thought The rope of iron holding the neck of youn…
South Africa poetry
Elegy by Mazisi Kunene
O Mzingeli son of the illustrious clans You whose beauty spreads across the Tukela estuary Your memory haunts like tw…
South Africa poetry
The Echoes by Mazisi Kunene
Over the vast summer hills I shall commission the maternal sun To fetch you with her long tilted rays, The slow heave…
South Africa poetry
Poems About Prison by Lemuel Johnson
Cold the clammy cement sucks our naked feet a rheumy yellow bulb lights a damp grey wall the stubbled grass wet with …
South Africa poetry
Nightsong: City by Dennis Brutus
Sleep well, my love, sleep well: the harbour lights glaze over restless docks, police cars cockroach through the tunn…
Sierra Leone poetry
The Defiance of Figures in Wood by lemuel Johnson
Nana, what about love? Love?… Love?… Love is not safe. Ama Ata Aidoo, ‘Changes’ But barter we did: it remains still t…
Sierra Leone poetry
Hagar, or, the Insufficiency of Metaphor by Lemuel Johnson
such grief might make mountains stop reverse the waters where they flow Anna Akhmatova, ‘Dedication’ I go, because yo…
Sierra Leone
Magic by Lemuel Johnson
Othello: Come, Desdemona. I have but an hour… The quick straddle will do. for now. nakedness itself is not the point;…
Syl Cheney-Coker
The Brotherhood of Man by Syl Cheney-CokeSylr
The locomotive breaks its run you descend to adjust your gaze your century, looking through your narrow point back in…
Syl Cheney-Coker
The Tin Gods by Syl Cheney-Coker
Watching the tombs tonight the desert raises its shadow the desert sees the caravan along its own arm: playing this g…
Syl Cheney-Coker
The Philosopher by The Philosopher
Who lived here when the stones were green verdigris of age when the reptilians marched like men into the night before…
Syl Cheney-Coker
The Road to Exile Thinking of Vallejo by Syl Cheney-Coker
Like others I get drunk in my blood hiccuping and await the souls of my brothers perennially on the song composed by …
Syl Cheney-Coker
Letter to a Tormented Playwright by Syl Cheney-Coker
Amadu I live alone inside four walls of books some I have read others will grow cobwebs or maybe like some old friend…
Syl Cheney-Coker
Poem for a Lost Lover by Syl Cheney-Coker
Eyes of heavenly essence, O breasts of the purity of breasts Russian sapphire of the blue of eyes O wine that mellows…
Syl Cheney-Coker
The Hunger of the Suffering Man by Syl Cheney-Coker
Sweating between his fingers, the agricultural man sweating in his thorax the musician sweating in his lungs the mine…
Syl Cheney-Coker
Poem for a Guerrilla Leader by Syl Cheney-Coker
Solitude supporting solitude on two pergolas sunset shaping summer where the jungle closes in man eating roots leanin…
Syl Cheney-Coker
On Being a Poet in Sierra Leone by Syl Cheney-Coker, Ser.
A poet alone in my country I am seeking the verisimilitudes in life the fire of metaphors the venom of verse my count…
Senegal poetry
The Continent That Exists No More byAmadou Elimane Kane
was walking through distant ages When I arrived in a continent Which perhaps had not existed Save to a distorted gaze…
Annette M’Baye d’Erneville Senegal poetry
Kassacks by Annette M’Baye d’Erneville
You are a man, tonight! You are a man, my son! By your bruised flesh By your spilled blood By your cold glance By you…
Senegal poetry
The Vultures by David Diop
In those days When civilization kicked us in the face When holy water slapped our cringing brows The vultures built i…
Senegal poetry
Africa my Africa by David Biop
Africa my Africa Africa of proud warriors in ancestral savannahs Africa of whom my grandmother sings On the banks of …
Senegal poetry
The Renegade by David Diop
My brother you flash your teeth in response to every hypocrisy My brother with gold-rimmed glasses You give your mast…
Senegal poetry
Your Presence by David Diop
In your presence I rediscovered my name My name that was hidden under the pain of separation I rediscovered the eyes no…
Senegal poetry
Listen Comrades by David Diop
Listen comrades of the struggling centuries To the keen clamour of the Negro from Africa to the Americas They have ki…
Senegal poetry
Diptych by Birago Diop
The Sun hung by a thread In the depths of the Calabash dyed indigo Boils the great Pot of Day. Fearful of the approac…
Senegal poetry
I Will Pronounce Your Name by Leopold Sédar Senghor,
I will pronounce your name, Naëtt, I will declaim you, Naëtt! Naëtt, your name is mild like cinnamon, it is the fragr…
Senegal poetry
New York by Leopold Sedar Senghor
New York! At first I was confused by your beauty, by those great golden long-legged girls. So shy at first before you…
Senegal poetry
What Dark Tempestuous Night
What dark tempestuous night has been hiding your face? And what claps of thunder frighten you from the bed When the f…
Senegal poetry
Visit by Leopold Sédar Senghor
dream in the intimate semi-darkness of an afternoon. I am visited by the fatigues of the day, The deceased of the yea…
Senegal poetry
Prayer to Masks by Leopold Sédar Senghor.
Black mask, red mask, you black and white masks, Rectangular masks through whom the spirit breathes, I greet you in s…
Senegal poetry
Blues by Léopold Sédar Senghor
The spring has swept the ice from all my frozen rivers My young sap trembles at the first caresses along the tender b…
Senegal poetry
Luxembourg 1939 by Léopold Sédar Senghor
This morning at the Luxembourg, this autumn at the Luxembourg, as I lived and relived my youth No loafers, no water, …
Senegal poetry
In Memoriam by Léopold Sédar Senghor,
It is Sunday. I fear the crowd of my brothers with stony faces. From my tower of glass filled with pain, the nagging …
SaoTome poetry
Grandma Mariana by Alda do Espirito Santo
Grandma Mariana, washerwoman for the whites in the Fazenda One day she came from distant lands with her piece of clot…
SaoTome poetry
Where are the Men Seized in This Wind of Madness? By Alda do Espirito Santo
Blood falling in drops to the earth men dying in the forest and blood falling, falling… on those cast into the sea… F…
Nigeria poetry
And If You Should Leave Me by Ben Okri
And if you should leave me I would say that the ghost Of Cassandra Has passed through My eyes I would say that the st…
Nigeria poetry
On Edge of Time Future by Ben Okri
I remember the history well: The soldiers and politicians emerged With briefcases and guns And celebrations on city n…
Nigeria poetry
An African Elegy by Ben Okri
We are the miracles that God made To taste the bitter fruit of Time. We are precious. And one day our suffering Will …
Nigeria poetry
The Incandescence of the Wind by Ben Okri
The incandescence of the wind bothers me in this vineyard. Is there a searing clarity about the noises rising daily f…
Ifi Amadiume Nigeria Poetry
Iva Valley by Ifi Amadiume
Man of my mother’s people, in your hair of cotton wool, I counted strands of wisdom untold. In your eyes luminous, I …