400 And 400 Years Poem by Okoemu Okoemu Okoemu

Line to line of history books
Word to word of public speeches
Lyrics to lyrics of songs and music
All told the ears is 400 years of slavery
The white shipped the blacks
From Africa shutting the gate of no return
In Badagry and in Accra
Sailing through the Atlantic and Pacific
Many dead and thrown into the ocean
For fishes and others to feast on
Those survived, became slaves of slaves
For 400 years,
Tilling and toiling the unfertile soil of overseas
Beaten and chained, locked up and thrown out,
For 400 years, white against black.

And so after
There came the wind of liberation
Freedom for Kwame, freedom for Biko, freedom for Kaunda, freedom for Lumumba and freedom for Sankara, freedom for Fumilayo and freedom for Balewa and freedom for Ghadafi!

Oh that wasn't even up to hundred years
Before another slavery began
Not white against black nor black against white, that could have been vengeance,
But for black against black, for yet 400 years
Like hell,
No lyrics emancipating, no line liberating, no voice protesting and no muscles fighting,
Who is the slave master?
Black man,
Who is the slave?
Black man,
Not now through pacific or Atlantic
Nor through the gate of no return
But in homeland...

One is President, the other is lecturer, the other is governor and more... Even the pastor,
It is a pity when a sick man don't even realise he is sick, so is now, slaves don't even know they are slaves.
Another 400 years, and we are just starting.

-by Okoemu Okoemu Okoemu, Last Son of the Dead