On Looking Into Darkest Africa (Italian Sonnet) Poem by Gert Strydom

I have travelled in Africa to places new and some old
have many pitiful states and despotic governments seen,
in war have through Southern African states been
which do to their ancestral forefather worship still hold,

oft of there enterprise, brilliance and expertise been told
that they rule democratic by popular vote in their demesne,
yet I have never seen soldiers and rulers so very mean
where they killed-off tribes and nations so very bold,

while women and children did watch the bush and the sky
for raping soldiers, helicopter-gun-ships destroying their men
dilapidation, havoc, poverty and illiteracy I saw with my very eyes
people without any civilization or knowledge or great ken,
and to the rulers of the great powers this is no big surprise
that by the power of the gun president's for life remain unbroken.

© Gert Strydom