Africa

Today I have tasted Africa;

Smelt its sweet hot breath,

All its heat and perspiration,

Its dust; its unrelenting cycle

Of all things.

I have felt the scar of the child;

The sting of the snake,

The ache of the hunger,

And the drought.

I have reflected, though only briefly,

On the primordial, prehistoric culture

Of this hot dry land,

And seen in a brief instant

The insult and ignorance

Of the white man who knows not Africa,

And its ways.

And thus seen the ugliness,

The sickening ignorance of white man,

Who presumes to inflict upon the African

The curse of Nature which, unlike man,

Knows no wickedness.

Stupid, childish, ignorant white man.

How can you hurt the African

Who has withstood the silent harshness

Of this land for centuries?

Oh fool, you cannot;

So make friends with him.

Share is in his troubles and his ways.

Deep down he is you.

A mystery; seeking to resolve his life

In the timelessness and vastness

Of all Eternity and Space.