ANTHEM – 9TH JULY, 2011
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By Gabriel Kuchdit Kachuol, Nairobi, Kenya
I still vividly recall 9th July, 2011,
Our national independence day
when we all stood at the foot of our flag,
(a symbol of our resolve and fortitude
to pay with our blood and tears
the exorbitant price of our human dignity and selfhood)
we sung songs of praise and glory to God
who in times of utmost moments of despair
had been our sapping source of hope:
‘We are grateful to thee O God
for granting us our motherland
whom we rise raising flag
with golden guiding star
and sing songs of freedom
with joyful salutation to our patriots
whose blood cements the foundation
of our nation which we all vow to protect.
We beseech Thee, O God, to bless
and uphold us forever united in peace,
justice, liberty and prosperity.’
Many and diverse as our voices were
but we as one voice sung ‘free at last’
thinking we were bidding a farewell
to a bitter and cruel struggle
little did we know the devil lurked,
plotting, possessing our heads and hearts,
turning the joyful tune of our anthem
into a new commandment: ‘hate thy brother as thyself;
obverting the reign of justice, peace and prosperity
with that of corruption, tribalism and poverty.
We went to bed sick with tribo-politico-powerosis,
our spirit of patriotism turned into’ ‘paytoriotism’
we woke up the third morning with evil stupor
that in our minds echoes the dark past
as if destiny appointed that day
to prove to each other our differences;
as if destiny had for us in waiting
a rude leap into moral numbness
that lulled us (citizenry) to naivety
and blind faith in tribal demagogues
who do not only feed us with empty rhetorics
but in whose hands we become willing rapists,
moral rapists of our own motherland!
Pardon our waywardness o motherland!
The poet, GABRIEL KUCDIT KACHUOL, is a South Sudanese student in Nairobi, Kenya. Can be reached by kucdidgab@gmail.com
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