Where Are They? Poem by Emmanuel Odei Oduro

Where are they?
Where are the Mandelas
The Bikos and the Hanis?
Where are the Nkrumahs?
Where are the many others?
The unsung sons and daughters
The true heroes of and for Africa
The sacrificial lambs of Africa

Where are they?
Where are the true sons of Africa?
The pillars of Africa's rebirth
Who fought like wounded lions
To recapture authority over Africa
And rekindled the reducing African dream

Where are the sons of the soil?
Whose ultimate aim in life
Was to die for the liberation of the land
To free the land from vile oppressors
Just like they also did in times long-gone

Who will step into their shoes?
Like phoenix from their ashes
Again, spark the African dream,
To a totally new dimension
Than did those superb sons
Who now grace their graves
While their fixed footprints
Decorate the sand of time
As immortal memorials
Of their legacy to Africa