The Declaration Poem by Tony Cemaluk

From larger family,
I trace my line.

Not to gold,
Not to fortune,
But to Ngwulu Nnam —
The Obi that refused to fall.

In planting season,1974,
Six years old,
I wore his regalia,
I stepped out as the awakened Chief,
Igbafe Ngwulu —
While tears choked the drums,
The drummers, the mourners,
And the sympathizers.

This is GENESIS.

The Scope is narrow, and it is holy:
Strictly for succession —
Male lineal, from my loins,
Compound, name, Obi and Ngwulu —
Indivisible. Never shared,
Never negotiated.

Obi — the ancestral earth,
Where they birthed and breathed,
Inherited only by male line.
This is the law of the compound.

Money in Trust?
Let Bank keep it?
A Deed?

Who will remain to enforce compliance
When we are gone?

So I chose FOUR D.

Not Bank.
Not Deed.
But Book.

Dearly,
Duly,
Digitally Documented —
Immortalized.

This is PERPETUATION.
Lineal descendants tracked naturally,
Per male stripe.

Hear the WARNING:

The stool is not inheritance of fortune and gold,
It is inheritance of responsibilities,
A mandate to divine duty.

If the custodian fails,
Compound falls,
Name survives only in sorrow —
In sores and stains of sorrow.

So brace up, incumbent of any generation,
Keep the hearth burning,
Without lineal dilution,

That we are guaranteed to come and go,
In a continual coming and going and coming and going.

Custodian of Obi Ngwulu,
Declares —
Legal,
Historical,
Immortal.