poetry | Wayne Visser

April 18, 2017

Africa Proud

I stand upright and tall –
No more bowed back
No more bent knees
I look straight ahead –
No more downcast eyes
No more cowering glances
For I am Africa Proud

See me:
My name is Africa
And I am rising to greet you
I am leading the way
And I am Proud

Extend me your hand –
In friendship, not pity
In peace, not trickery
Send me your prayers –
In communion, not guilt
In hope, not resignation
For I am Africa Proud

Hear me:
My name is Africa
And I am calling to welcome you
I am waiting to embrace you
And I am Proud

I dance wild and free –
No more slave chains
No more puppet strings
I sing loud and strong –
No more lamentation
No more discord
For I am Africa Proud

Feel me:
My name is Africa
And I am drumming to wake you
I am singing to inspire you
And I am Proud

Bring me your gifts –
Of fair trade, not charity
Of respect, not advice
Show me your spirit –
Of community, not greed
Of faith, not fear
For I am Africa Proud

Join me:
My name is Africa
And I am seeding the future
I am shining with beauty
And I am Proud

Book

I Am An African: Favourite Africa Poems

This creative collection, now in its 5th edition, brings together Africa poems by Wayne Visser, including the ever popular “I Am An African”, as well as old favourites like “Women of Africa”, “I Know A Place in Africa”, “Prayer for Africa” and “African Dream”. The anthology celebrates the luminous continent and its rainbow people. The updated 5th Edition includes new poems like “Africa Untamed” and “Land of the Sun”. Buy the paper book / Buy the e-book.

April 18, 2017

From Whence We Come

A Tribute to the People of South Africa

Hear the names
From whence we come
Honour the tribes
That make us one

We hear your name –
Venda, Lobedu, Pedi
Ndebele, Kgatla, Ngwato
Tlokwa, Kwena, Hurutshe –
We speak your fame

We hear your name –
Ngwaketse, Thembu, Ndlambe
Ncqika, Gcaleka, Bomvana
Mpondo, Mpondomise, Zizi –
We speak your fame

We hear your name –
Behle, Qwabe, Mthetwa
Ndwandwe, Hlubi, Phuthing
Pulana, Thembe, Swazi –
We speak your fame

We hear your name –
Portugal, Holland, Britain
Malaysia, France, Germany
India, Italy, Middle-East –
We speak your fame

Hear the names
Of our mother tongue
Speak of the words
That make us one

We hear you speak –
Venda, North Sotho, Swazi
South Sotho, Tsonga, Tswana
Ndebele, Xhosa, Zulu –
Your words we keep

We hear you speak –
Afrikaans, Arabic, English
German, Greek, Hebrew,
Hindi, Italian, Portuguese –
Your words we keep

These are the streams
From whence we come
These are the dreams
That make us one

Book

I Am An African: Favourite Africa Poems

April 18, 2017

We Africans

We Africans
We, the spark of creation
We, first nation of nations
Remember us
For you flow from our ancestral streams
And your hopes are what mirror our dreams

We Africans
We, the crossers of high seas
We, the keepers of memories
Remember us
For you pulse with the blood of our veins
And you cry with the fear of our pains

We’re born, we rise
We open our eyes
We crawl, we walk
We’re learning to talk

We Africans
We, the fathers of hungry hands
We, the mothers of thirsty lands
Join with us
For your toil is sweat on our furrowed brow
And your guilt is shame for our here and now

We Africans
We, the sons of rusty chains
We, the daughters of dried-up rains
Join with us
For your suffering leaves tears in our eyes
And your great escape is our freedom’s rise

We plant, we reap
We strive, we weep
We serve, we slave
We hope, we brave

We Africans
We, the farmers of the plains
We, the hunters of the rains
Stand with us
For your food is our planted gorge
And your iron is our fiery forge

We Africans
We, the nomads of the sand
We, the stewards of the land
Stand with us
For your drink is our handpicked beans
And your wealth is our tunnelled seams

We dig, we drill
We bend our will
We melt, we mould
We bleed for gold

We Africans
We, the soldiers of the thorny cross
We, the seekers of the pantheons lost
Rise with us
For your chapels enact our daily sacraments
And your deities fill our starry firmaments

We Africans
We, the pilgrims of the crescent moon
We, the students of our earthly swoon
Rise with us
For your mosques echo our calls to prayer
And your mission is our promise to care

We kneel, we pray
We sing, we slay
We lift our pain
We praise His name

We Africans
We, the singers of life’s sorrow
We, the lovers of tomorrow
Reunite us
For your maps are our patterned mosaic
And your home is our ancient namesake

We Africans
We, the dancers of our freedoms
We, the voices of new seasons
Reunite us
For your culture is our rainbow display
And your genes are our twined DNA

We drum, we beat
We stamp our feet
We weave, we thread
We love, we wed

We Africans
We, the refugees of futile fighting
We, the tribes of lands uniting
Welcome us
For as you gain so we have lost
And what we give is without cost

We Africans
We, the migrants of opportunity
We, the leaders of the fair and free
Welcome us
For as we join as fragile friends
So we prosper in the end

We move, we tread
We search, we spread
We fit, we fight
We claim our right

We Africans
We, the archers of the starry sky
We, the askers of the question why
Celebrate with us
For the dawn is strung with morning dew
And our time has come to start anew

We Africans
We, the scatterlings of the rising sun
We, all proud Africans, every one
Celebrate with us
For our future fate is far from done
And we are all Africans, every one

Book

I Am An African: Favourite Africa Poems

April 18, 2017

Lagos Lives!

A Tribute to Nigeria

Lagos lives
Seeding and sprawling
Steaming and smoking
Grasping at the shoreline
Gasping at the skyline
Clinging to its oil-slicked ropes
And singing of its toil-stripped hopes

Praise be!
To the God who sets His people free
To the fiery preacher on TV
To the Sunday throng that still believe
Praise be!
To the beggar and the banker
To the fisher and the swanker
To the struggler and the smuggler
Praise be!

Lagos breathes
Coughing and crooning
Swaggering and swooning
Shouting at the winners
Flouting all the sinners
Unleashing hope with soaring psalms
And greasing all the outstretched palms

Praise be!
To the Son who died upon the tree
To the light that makes the blind to see
To the ear that hears each prayerful plea
Praise be!
To the leaders and the bleeders
To the hackers and the slackers
To the hopers and the jokers
Praise be!

Lagos moves
Churning and chugging
Squirming and slugging
Jamming on the highways
Cramming in the byways
Convulsing to the market mob
And pulsing to the Fela throb

Praise be!
To the Ghost who lit the flame in thee
To the Word of heavenly decree
To the Three in One and One in Three
Praise be!
To the movers and the shakers
To the moguls and the fakers
To the dealers and the healers
Praise be!

Lagos lives
And breathes
And moves
To a rhythm of its own
To an ancient mystic poem
To a purpose yet unknown
Lagos moves
And breathes
And lives

Book

I Am An African: Favourite Africa Poems

April 18, 2017

Genesis

Out of the void of anticipation
Out of the time before time began
Out of the fire that sparked creation
Out of the earth that rooted a clan

Africa swirled
Africa spun
Africa world
Africa one

Out of the lava of molten streams
Out of the swamps of fetid earth
Out of the semiotic dreams
Out of the soils of fecund birth

Africa rose
Africa spread
Africa chose
Africa bled

From frothing seas and putrid ponds
With plankton tide and Pisces spawn
Life bloomed and bred and burst with fronds
And oceans glowed with Darwin’s dawn

Africa yawned
Africa breathed
Africa formed
Africa seethed

From fertile plains and sandy shores
Some creatures crept and leapt to flight
With fleeting flanks and razor claws
While others learned to walk upright

Book

I Am An African: Favourite Africa Poems

April 18, 2017

Colours in the Dust

A Tribute to Morocco

I leave behind the dusty brown
Of narrow streets and sun-fired clay
Back home to England’s verdant town
Of scholars’ spires and skies of grey

I leave behind the market maze
Where every hue is stacked and strung
And count the march of Christmas days
In gleaming malls with carols sung

I leave behind the emerald bliss
Of gardens in the golden sand
And smile to see the blooms I miss
Still traced upon my lover’s hand

I leave behind the hooded eyes
Of faces drawn like timeless maps
And brush the mask of my disguise
With bright new paint across the cracks

Book

I Am An African: Favourite Africa Poems

April 18, 2017

African Idea

Africa wakes –
It boils and bubbles
It stews and steams
Swathed and swaddled
In wisps of melting mists
And the feathered blue skies
Of my inner eyes

This Africa –
Drenched in sun and sorrow
Stretched in time and place
Bridging north and south
Cleaving tribe from tribe
Birthing a prodigal progeny –
Alive in my mind

Africa moves –
It spawns and spews
It morphs and multiplies
Enhanced and entangled
In human chains of need greed
And white lightning webs
Of synapses firing

This Africa –
Shadowed in war and want
Bursting with light and longing
Dancing dust clouds around fires
Beating drum songs of desires
Endlessly en-route –
On my famished road

Africa sleeps –
It drifts and disperses
It seeds and suckles
Soothed and silent
In fields of ripening toil
And the wandering blotch-herds
Of scattered thoughts

This Africa –
Whispered in myths and mysteries
Cradling its loves and losses
Chanting with hope and defiance
Hawking praise and prophecy
Woven in patchwork tales –
Echoed in my prose

But is Africa real?
This Africa of mind and magic
This Africa of dreams and dust
This luminous continent
Glowing in the dark interior
Of my gold-threaded caves –
This Africa of my psyche

Is Africa fact?
This Africa of books and bards
This Africa of fables and fiction
This luscious land mass
Teeming with the wild life
Of my untamed frontiers –
This Africa of my stories

Is Africa true?
This Africa of tongue and touch
This Africa of nose and noise
This muddled melting pot
Spicing the pallid palette
Of my doldrum days –
This Africa of my senses

Yes! Africa lives –
Africa breathes and beats and blooms
Africa strives and thrives and jives
Africa shakes and aches and breaks
Africa weeps and rises and leaps
Africa sings and soars on the wings
Of my imagination

This is Africa
This is my Africa
This is my Africa imagined
This is my imaginary Africa
This is my image of Africa
This is my idea of Africa
This is my African idea

Book

I Am An African: Favourite Africa Poems

April 18, 2017

God Bless Africa

God bless Africa
For she is the seed of humanity
And I am the future through her
When her roots sprout, I am born
And as her leaves unfurl, I grow
When her branches spread, I learn
And as her flowers bud, I bloom

God bless Africa
For she is the fire of creation
And I am transformed through her
When problems loom, I am challenged
And when solutions hide, I search
When suffering strikes, I ache
And when relief calls, I answer

God bless Africa
For she is the tree of life
And I am alive through her
When her roots are dry, I thirst
And when her trunk is cut, I bleed
As the seasons turn, I change
And as her fruits ripen, I flourish

Book

I Am An African: Favourite Africa Poems

April 18, 2017

Mandela and De Klerk

A Tribute to Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk

Divergent paths by twists of fate
Ordained to meet, then separate
High branches grown from different stems
That intertwined to make amends

Who are these sons of destiny
That changed the course of history?
Who are these dons of liberty
That led their people to be free?

Mandela – from the Themba clan
Among the hills of Transkei land –
Was schooled to be a royal chief
But chose instead the golden Reef

De Klerk – of Afrikaaner stock
Who staked their claim to Transvaal’s rock –
Was steeped in National Party depths
And followed in his father’s steps

Both knocked upon unopened doors
Both tipped the scales of unjust laws
And each was raised to lofty heights
By willing hands and vexing plights

Mandela – asked to fight the ground
Where dignity was beaten down
De Klerk – compelled to guard the fort
Of privilege the past had bought

The stage was set for black and white
To go to war or lose the fight
There was no neutral ground to stand
Each corner backed their leading man

Mandela raised the nation’s spear
The State replied midst rising fear
The ‘Pimpernel’ was put on trial
And banished to the Cape’s bleak isle

For twenty seven years and more
The battle raged upon the shore
Until De Klerk set Nelson free
To take their place in history

Negotiations followed swift
To heal the wounds and mend the rift
And even while blood soaked the ground
A partnership was sought and found

Until the day – that happy dawn –
A rainbow nation’s dream was born
We owe a debt of thanks and praise
To those who led us through the maze

Mandela brought great unity
And showed that truth can set us free
His lack of spite inspires us still
To strive to serve a higher will

De Klerk’s great gift was letting go
And having faith that trust can grow
He showed that change is like a seed
That knows no bounds of race or creed

And so we raise our voice and say:
We celebrate upon this day
Two heroes of democracy
Who rescued our humanity.

Book

I Am An African: Favourite Africa Poems

April 18, 2017

African Vine

The roots of Africa are deep
Her branches spread wide and low
Her fruits are bitter-sweet
She is the vine on which we grow