To You, Children Of Africa Poem by Chirikure Chirikure

Those stories about
Children singing and dancing
To celebrate and welcome thunder and lightning
Racing each other in the downpour
Stampeding and messing themselves up in the mud
While their elders smile and congratulate themselves
At their bumper rice and groundnut crop -
That - is just fairy tales now.

Translation by Charles Mungoshi


What is happening to children is:
They howl at the blast of the machine gun
Hiding from the hailstorm of bullets
Stampeding in the mud of blood
While the elders cry shamelessly
In the presence of their own children
Sending up prayer after prayer that no one answers.

Children don't know what happiness is anymore
Children don't know what home or family is
Babies have forgotten what to eat is
Those yet to be born are being denied the right of life
And all because of something called - human being
A human being who sings the praises of power and money
Above human life.