The Power Of Libation Poem by Dela Bobobee

“I call on you O Mawuga Sogbolisa!
Kitikata adanu wo to amesi wo asi wo afo
you the greatest God of ancestors of blema
you are the creator of all things on the earth

take, here is the head drink
you are the beginning so take
before the your intermediaries

O Anyigbamadzofli, I call on you
you are the earth we can’t skip over
for we shall still fall on your other side
here is your drink too, take and assuage

new ropes are customarily woven onto the old ones
let us amass new children of sane wisdom
for wisdom is like the girth of a baobab tree
no individual's hands can completely encircle it
let them return home with straws for your shrines
and let the great windows of heaven open
bless our farms in torrents for better crops yield
bless our future ancestors waiting as the unborn

when the fearsome thunder roars in rage
old women hail you, Kabiyesi Olodumare!
but the evildoers run helter skelter in fear
roast the locusts that devour our crops
to fertilize the earth where we eat from

bless our only true homeland Africa
change the hearts of our greedy leaders
remove the scale that blindfolds their eyes
let them have the masses at heart than wealth
let their hoarders return their loots
for their barns are already saturated
let our children stop killing one another
and forge ahead in one unity of progress

the wise elders, I hail you all
one head may not effectively deliberate
yours is the dregs of the drink!
Dahoe! … Dahoe goo! ”