Fighting The Bully With My Pen Poem by DOMINIC PREMPEH

Why should I mind him?
And his jungle-like tantrums
No!
I will go the Achebe and Sembene way…
Use my pen to fight the oppressor
Pity the brain that behaves all-knowy
Not even in our culture but an alien one
His soil type, depicting the parent material he comes from
Tells his story
Formally educated in an alien bullshit
But dearth in literacy especially the home-made
His talks, his actions, his reactions….
Who else will do these?
An educated illiterate….
Achebe should have known him…
A bully amongst peers
He wouldn't have used Okonkwo in ‘Things Fall Apart'
Sembene would have used him instead of Dawuda
In ‘The Last of the Empire'
A stooge of a hated neo-imperialist indirect rule
Behaving the snowball way, his place is the dungeon
Not amongst us, never!
We are people of peace and culturally mannered
Raised in an African culture of respect and harmony
Respect for black blood, black race and the black land
I am not physically strong to face your ‘buffoonish behaviour'
But, this piece will face you, squarely.

(16th Nov.2014. Ethics Class, GIJ)