Hapo Zamani Poem by KYOMUHENDO ATEENYI

Once upon a time my child:

There lived on this continent, men.
With hearts of Oak and bowels of Iron
Great Spearmen and prolific at archery.
On this continent they lived, Black men,
The Black pride.

When death shook one,
It was the grief of the whole village
And mourning would be uninterrupted for a fortnight
And hair would be shaved.

When the princess got married
It was all laughter and song.

When the Drum-beat of war went,
So did men rise
And the native one said:
'Let your feet stike no stone'
Off they marched, those ferocious warriors,
To guard the land bequethed to them by the Ancestors
For no mortal could bare the curse of the Gods.

And as a custom,
Females went to cultivate
And shy the village away from the face
of the abomination of femine
with its fat long claws that fear no man.
On this continent men lived.
My son, It was Black Pride!

One finger cannot kill a louse
One hand cannot carry a beehive,
So Gikuyu rumbled
from the above he helms.
Thus a brother could not have bits of copper,
as the other farted gold blocks;
One terkking with his bare feet,
As the other surveyed the clouds with a metallic bird that flies!

Cry aloud my child:
The sea then vomitted white flames
that raged down the thatches
which your forefathers had built for generations
to cover you of their lineage!
But my little one,
So the Banyoro say:
Men are like Eagles, they land and soar
And He is all- knowing,
Amaxhosa who keeps watch.

2007