NO BEEF POLAN’

This poem is dedicated to Ama Sumani, a cancer sufferer who was deported to Ghana, West Africa by the Home office.

No beef Polan’
But i must tell of what boy London did to me
In need of a free hand, he came to me
To toil in chill and heat and fill a bleeding bonbonnierre
So his noble friends might have sugar and sweets
And cotton to cover a sinful pact


No beef Polan’
But his rant of ‘apes obey’ yet sadden me
And his logic and legalities yet mock me
Knotted, tied upstairs, I cry
Broken— so broken, I died
Like a beast of burden
I died

No beef Polan’
None from a slained man
I lay dead and walked in the cloud
Looked down and I saw a lot cast on me
And many trampled upon me
And I wondered if I will ever rise again

No beef polan’
Yet crossed many rivers and mountains
For need of freehand
And pray Jesus on the sea brought
The sons of asewa
And when the break for a paid one came
He remembers his long forgotten cousin’s
Polan’
Then I asked, am I not a man enough?

No beef Polan’
But for time, i cleaned his field
So that blood drips
And death whispers in my ear
As my bones continues to mesh to my flesh,
As i continue to ask, am I not a man and a brother at all?


Gbenga Afolabi (c) 2008



WHAT IS A LIFE WORTH?
Slavery is the greatest savagery that could have been committed to any man let alone millions of innocent men and women over a very long period of time. Prised away from families and friends and sold as animal is not a hilarious event. The recipe for enslavement is a profound hatred. It is even more worrying if the enslavers are men and women who pride themselves on their level of development which purportedly is guided by the Christian religion. But if all else is false, one thing I know is true, and that is that Jesus was no slave master.
How do you put a price on a life? How do you put a price on millions of innocent lives? How I ask. A great evil was done, a colossal mistake was been made in the name of God, Jesus and Angels but, what yet burdens my heart is the meagre effort that is dedicated to redeeming the self.
Slavery is savagery, slavery is genocide, and slavery is racism. In his book, Animal Farm, George Orwell’s characters wrote that ‘all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others’. I wish to ask if this is the case. Is what is good for the goose also good for the gander? Is what is good for the white also good for the black man? Are all men truly treated as equals, when England needed slaves she went to Africa, yes after all the British scientist James Watson claims that the black man is less intelligent that than the white. When Great Britain needs additional work force she goes to Europe. Let us ask ourselves.
The truth is this racism still occurs at the highest level.
I asked before what a life is worth, what 2 million lives are worth.