I CHERISH MY COUNTRY, SOUTH SUDAN
By Gabriel Kuchdit Kachuol, Nairobi, Kenya
I cherish you O my beloved country,
When I look, I see potential energy
I see you beaming with youthfulness,
There is ongoing argument for progress.
When I look to Uppernile, I see white-army
marching not against their fellow citizenry
But against violence, illiteracy, laziness;
When I look to Equatoria, I see arrow-warriors
marching not against their fellow brothers
but against poverty, diseases, selfishness;
When I look to Bahr El Ghazal, I see Mathiang-anyor
marching not against fellow countrymen
but against raidings, revenges, carelessness;
I see everyone carrying a brick of talent
to, like Equatoria tower, my country built.
I see bright future for generations.
I see reformation and regeneration.
I cherish you O my beloved country,
I cherish your expansive swamp marshes
prodigiously dancing, dancing in greenness
and patient servitude to our great biodiversity;
I admire your sacred Nile’s gait and majesty
as it dispatches daily load of fresh waters
to the snaking snaky streams, lakes, rivers
and all the way to the North’s thirsty sands.
Your waters tomorrow will irrigate arid fields
of Taposa in the proud days of development
in the proud days when in our land shall reign
peace, liberty, justice, education and prosperity.
I cherish you o my beloved country
I cherish to contemplate the sky
when I see in the rising sun at morns
the lovely flanks of your mountains!
Behold the Imatongs of Torit!
The land whose name rings
memories of first call to arms,
the echoes of our march to freedom;
Behold the Kaya and Kajokeji ranges
which are like menacing mane of lions
sleeping on green mat of generous bushes;
They are impressive, noble and holy shrines,
The seats of our country’s misunderstood spirits
who patiently wait the day our woe betide generation
shall kneel in contrition, penance and plea to be lifted
from degeneration to climb its heights of regeneration.
I cherish you O my beloved country
let me sing the freedom songs
of your seasons, reasons and treasons
I cherish and cheer you with this song:
You Uppernile, you are the father,
You Equatoria, you are the mother,
You Bhar El Ghazal, you are the son.
You Abyiei, you are abducted daughter
You Abyiei are married to Osiris, your brother.
You o my beloved country are the trinity.
You Uppernile, you are the form of the trinity
you Equatoria are sinews and blood of the trinity
You Bahr El Ghazal are the bones of the trinity.
The poet, GABRIEL KUCDIT KACHUOL, is a South Sudanese student in Nairobi, Kenya. Can be reached via: Kucdidgab@gmail.com
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