1986 Poem by Sekyewa Godfrey

1986

The silence of the bush war gun
Birthed a new political terrain.
Everybody thought a rekindled flame
Would burn into absolute freedom.

Our desperate souls brimmed with hope.
In you everybody saw liberation.
The jubilant sound of the drums
Stirred the still waves of the Nile.
As you roared about fundamental change.

You skipped dead bodies and rushed
To take oath. The bible and the constitution
You held both and vowed to protect.
That leaders who stay long in power are
The problem to our Africa, you said.

Surely, you knew our plight and the cure.
But gradually to the throne you begun to cling.
The old tales of freedom begun to break,
The fountain of honour begun to dry.
Slowly, tyranny stretched his deadly talons.

Now, at the altar of your fate we stand,
Uncertain about the future and the present.
In sadness we watch the rebirth of the same.
Slowly we have come to understand,
That your pledges at oath time were a hoax.
(Sekyewa Godfrey)