Dear Aspiring Politician - Christian Foli

Your charisma is outstanding beyond expression

Anyone who does not notice your charming vibrancy

Must have lost the function of their eyes

Of Hope and Dinosaurs - Syl Cheney-Coker

Always, we searched in the stone river,

while the slaughterhouse was waiting for us,

long before we turned the saccharin of words

into inflammable brawls. Full of ancient gluttony,

On Being Brought from Africa to America - Phillis Wheatley

'Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land,

Taught my benighted soul to understand

Little Orchard - Sizo Hlophe

Stand there tall beautiful orchard

Your green 

shine to dilate my visions

I have seen you wilt at your worst

And I have seen you ride the tide to flourish

Sleep, sleep, little one - Baka people

Sleep, sleep, little one, 

Close your eyes, sleep, little one! 

The departure of Hauwa al Kora - Muhammad al Fagīr

Hauwa al Kora, when the travelling party separated,

I was grieved and unwilling.

You have left Keilak the lake of wadis,

you have left the country of the lotus-flower and the papyrus.

Solace - Gebre Kristos Desta

Work in progress

growing continually

whiling away the days.

My Why in Life - Sarah Tut

Once upon a time my people were illiterate.

My ancestors never wrote their names.

They had no clue how old they were, which year they were born. 

They counted years by season, rainy and hot!

Education did not exist in my ancestor’s time!

Both of my parents never went to school!

Follow the Light - Arthur Vine Hall

A dewdrop in shade of slenderest blade;

A foam-flake on verge of mountainous surge;

Optic - Selam Kidane Woldu

I eye the eye

To observe the world that revolves around me

I eye the eye

Does it look out?

I am Somali - Yamyam

In these relentless days,

if you have been truly alive,

reflect on past times,

trace back the lines,

ask yourself:

Who is Somali?

My Picture - Muhammad Harbi

I copy texts from the excess of clouds

I am not a poet

all prophecies have concluded

I returned alone in a crippled ascension

Man against Man - Abdulai Walon-Jalloh

It's in those

Who fight them

To release that

Stored in venom

When Dawn Will Rise - William Joseph Faarax Syad

The distant plains of our loving land

Rise forth into the night

O'er the green vales a sad plaintive moan

Distinctly sounds the light

Countless Words In My Heart - Khuliso Musweswe

My Lord, Your works are wonderful

like the wind drives waves of the oceans

Your works drive millions of words out of my heart

like echoes of strong winds, Your works intensify every word uttered by my lips

Wild Veins - Amadou Lamine Sall

You came from the North

Where the sun is depleting its

Tears behind the bars of the sky

On the back of the lightning I know

Where you came down to sing

The Wind - Bernard Binlin Dadié

 The Wind

 over the mirror of river

     gathers

 the confidences of fishermen.

Congolese Eve - Jean Baptiste Tati-Loutard

I saw her when God created her on the Mountain:

It was a full night, the moon having reached

the fullest level of its light floods.

The Calling - Aaron Brown

I 

In three days, they took down the temple brick by brick:

the steel-toothed claws ripping apart tile and mortar, 

Peace need not be a dream - Natasha Muhoza

Peace need not be a dream,

A wish or child’s naïve illusion

It need not silently flow out of our bloodstream

Instead of flow in-

While feeding the bottomless greed

Of blind ambition,

Thirst for power

Lust for the fleeting things, mortal things,

Self-consuming, self-defeating things of a world in which

We are only passers by

Warriors of the radiant sun - Étienne Goyémidé

My hair has turned white in the shadow of the shields.

My eyes took on the colour of fair combat.

Pride - Gabriel Oluwatomiwa Eniola

He was fibbed to like a house on fire,

He was maligned and unjustly criticized, 

But, despite all that, he pocketed his pride.

He didn't hurl back because of the goal ahead,

And that is why his enemy is always abased.

I too sing Cameroon - Sarah Anyang Agbor

I too sing Cameroon¹.

I am the ninth and tenth provinces

Or is it regions?

I just want to be human,

Not superhuman

Accepted as a person

Staying at a distance is staying alive - Adelle Barry

Staying at a distance is staying alive

Water, soap, forty seconds

Between two palms of hands

Is stronger than the fear

that paralyses our five continents.

KIT Hub in Progress - Irakoze Jeanne

We hardly trust the youth,

Because on it,

We stuck the label of good for nothing;

But the truth is that one doesn't stay small or long

when they have big ideas!

From exile - Mvula Ya Nangolo

From exile when I return

I'm going to beg someone to touch me

Very, very tenderly

And gradually put me et ease

I wish to feel again how life feels

My father - Madeleine de Lallé

My father spoke little.

But on these evenings of sublime beauty

Suicidal Tendencies - Bongiwe Dlamini

I, am pretty.

I am pretty dark, pretty distorted

like those images on your TV Screen

when you lose the signal…pshhht!

Utendi (The Book of Mwana Kupona) stanzas 1-11 - Mwana Kupona

1.

Attend to me my daughter

unworthy as I am of God’s award

Heed my last instructions

for it may be that you will apply yourself to them.