Give me love, Rwanda Poem by Vonani Bila

Give me love, Rwanda
The flowers which comfort my heart
Are still in blossom,
Bees collecting their honey,
Even the cattle still give birth to young.

I am tired of hatred - of arrogance,
They have taken my appetite away.
Day and night
There are no ululations
Only the echo of bombs and guns.

My heart is peaceful, Africa,
But inside is a hole
From a locust and the drought.
My heart is tired.
Flooded by cascades of blood.

I am tired.
Tired of seeing people fall
From hunger,
The aged stand in the current
Of streams.
I am tired,
Give me love, Rwanda.

I fall on my knees, telling you,
The elders, gods of Africa,
From Timbuktu to Ife to Ogun,
What have the children of Africa to eat?

Children of Rwanda have fled from their homeland -
Children of Rwanda have drowned -
Children of Rwanda have vanished like insects -
Where is the OAU? Where is the UN?

But why is Africa a tragedy?
Where is the love of Lumumba - Toure -
Mashele - Cabral - Mandela?
Ethiopia, we are tired . . .
Sudan, we have had enough,
Sahara, we have spat saliva,
Angola, Mozambique, Bosnia, Liberia,
Haiti, Cameroon, Nicaragua, Chile.
Don't remind me of Nagasaki, Hiroshima.

I am tired of blood,
I am still but a small child,
I ache with hunger
Under the sun beating
While the State's money buys explosives
And the weeping of the baby cannot be heard.

Give me love -
Beautiful Rwanda!
Give me honey -
Beautiful Rwanda!
Give me milk -
Beautiful Rwanda!

Is the Struggle
A woman
With laden breasts?