ALKEBULAN / Poem by Lily Swarn

Poem by Lily Swarn
Alkebulan, mother of mankind
Land of mystery and allure ,of glorious African civilisations
The cradle of humankind , the emergence of archaic
humans ,hominids
Where we first stood upright in the Savannahs
you retained your dignity brave Africa despite export of slaves or plunder of gold
Looted ,subjugated, you silently kept your roots intact
By word of mouth you taught generations about kingdoms gone
As the green Sahara became a desert,you throbbed to the beat of bougarabou and djembe
Beckoning us with exotic names like Timbuktu and Zanzibar
Evoking primordial feelings in the blistering mid day heat
Bewitching sunsets at Maasai Mara crossings of Wildebeest, cheetahs ,hippos
Photographer’s utopia where oldest roads are elephant paths
Topographical grandeur where God whispers in the iridescent blue wings of a bird or the royal gait of a lion
Hypnotising with sepia , tan,ebony;this vast land of allure
Serenading with ,mbira,ngoni, kalimba, kora, oud
You are mystical ,O land of voluptuous beauty !
Copyright Lily Swarn

Leave a Reply


You are commenting using your account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo


Twitter picture


Facebook photo


Connecting to %s