Poem: A long Nightmarish Night
Saidu Bangura. Praia
A Long Nightmarish Night
We went to bed at dawn
and woke up at dusk
got off the bed at midnight
feeling sleepy and afraid,
afraid of the nightmares,
afraid of the blessed liquid
that destroys and leaves us
dry, thirsty, and homeless –
our dear ones dead and gone;
afraid of seeing the unplanned
plans that have planned us,
afraid of the hills, the mountains
the hills and the mountains,
emptied of the green forests
coming down to our homes
with showers of gruesome pains,
the results of unplanned plans;
afraid of sleeping at night,
of the terrifying dreams
that await us if we dare
come out during the day
to see our daydreamers,
our own people that we
have denied opportunities
that we have denied light –
for we sleep during the day
and in darkness walk the night
(or did you say work the night?)
tormenting our very own
with our unplanned plans –
how we have had long nights
how April has become August –
August, our new April ushering
fake dawns of changes that only
metamorphose into nightmares,
nightmarish pains of terror
of the long nightmarish night
we have had since April 27,
and all the Aprils that brought
us to this new august of pains,
to this long nightmarish night.
A letter to Mama-Salone
by Dr Saidu Bangura
A letter to Mama-Salone
Saidu Bangura,
Palmarejo, Praia,
Santiago Island, Cabo Verde.
Dear Sweet Mama-Salone:
I know you sometimes don’t want
to be bothered with onerousletters.
I hope you have restedquietlywell
from the troubles of those dark days,
from the woes of the nineteen nineties.
Mama, don’t you think it is time to
wake up and stand up for your innocent
grandchildren and great grandchildren?
Mama,for sixty-one years now, we,
your children,have not had it easy
with your twinsons: Seni and Sana.
They have deflagrated everything
and razed the structures left by the
Liz tenants in our beautiful house.
Mama, when are you going to bless
us with a Gbessay to save us from
the thieving and warmongering twins?
Mama,can you make the children
of the seventies to be this Gbessay
to save us from the acts of the twins?
Mama, your daughters are not safe,
your natural beauty is not protected
your natural resources are wasted
and blasted by those Seni and Sana
want to help them in the squander,
your grandchildren have no future
your children in other homes can no
longer returnwhere they wereborn –
Seni and Sanasee them as a threat.
Mama, if you don’t save us from your
twin boys, our home and people will
be deliquesced, wiped off completely
from planet earth and more strangers
will come and take all that we have.
Mama,do you know that Seni and Sana
have made your children from the north
not to understand those from the south,
those from the east don’t understand
those from the west – and vice versa?
Seni and Sana have confused us all, Mama!
Dear Sweet Mama-Salone,
please feel our pains and concerns –
don’t make us, your good children,
to suffer more than we have suffered
under the brutality of Seni and Sana –
under the haze and blaze of Seni and Sana
under the insensitivity of these bad twins
under the collateral damage of these twins –
we don taya wit Seni en Sanaden trick.
Give us a good Gbessay who can free us
from the catastrophes of Seni and Sana,
Dear Mama-Salone, sweet Mama-Salone,
so we can exalt you, o “realm of the free”!
Tata Mama.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
dear Sweet Mama-Salone.
Me na yu pikin,
Saidu Bangura.
First in Ovi Magazine
Dr Saidu Bangura is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cape Verde. He lectures in the English Studies Course, Faculty of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, University of Cape Verde. He holds a BA, English & Linguistics (FBC, USL); PhD in Translation, Communication, and Culture with a specialty in English Linguistics (University of Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain).
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