Voice Of The Oppressed

Remembering A Visionary: Poems In His Honour

THE OBSCURE INTELLECTUAL LIVES ON*  by Neba-Fuh

Speak not,
Except your voice improves
Silence's tranquility.

Write not,
Except your ink isn't to soil
The fine works of pulp's craftsmen.

Read not,
Except your prejudices aren't buried
In your mind's contours.

Listen not,
except you worry not of what
May not please your soul's audience.

Dr Jacobs BB lengthens the struggle,
By shortening the fear;
When contemporaries sit on the fence.

He listens,reads,
Writes and speaks.
The obscure intellectual lives on.


A Rare GEM*  by Neba-Fuh

He talked when everybody was expected to be silent.

He ran when everybody was admonished to walk.

He laughed even when it was dangerous to be heard.

He crowed when others insisted it wasn't dawn.

He thought while the sages slept.

He wept while others laughed in ignorance.

He published, never to perish.

* Published in Their Champagne Party Will End! Poems In Honour Of Bate Besong
  Edited by Joyce Ashuntantang and  Dibussi Tande

Poem: Oh Peace!

By Neba-Fuh

Your beautiful face comes out,
In a way you can't do without,
Words pierce, wisdom chills,
Guns trigger, blood spills,

Poem: Downtown Badmentown

By Neba-Fuh

 

Downtown Badmentown!

where sleeping dogs bite,

gnashing teeth, as patience's overtime draws near,

always anticipating the butcher's treachery.

 

Cameri

By Neba-Fuh

Freedom's citadel?
Male brides lead trails to
Holy 'homo...trimony'
Kings weep on maids' laps
In executive offices

Treasure From Above

By Neba-Fuh

Little Angel from Above
Caged in a cell of plenty,
Enjoying the bosom of pleasure's reservoir,
Brimful of ignorance and innocence
While anxious demons clamour
To herald thee into their joint -this filthy world of ours,

Chasing The Wind

By Neba-Fuh

Endless desire to achieve,

Ceaseless ambition to deceive,

Mortals clasp them all,

Thinking harmonium resides in inert fabrics.

Poem: Madiba Mandela

By Neba-Fuh

To Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela On His 90th Birthday

Constant quest for equality, undeterred
Bastion of courage, revealed
Yearning for freedom, undaunted
Unrelenting stamina, tested;

Unruffled and unquelled vision
Imbued in freedom's mission
Incarcerated in Robben island, void of sympathy
Unable to metamorphose activism to apathy;

Poem: Vanity

 By Neba-Fuh   

Mankind's joy rests in the memories of his deeds,
As subtle inward thoughts procreate devil's ploy or virtuous sacrifice,
Even in the temple of doom, breathing beings seek to render fraters breathless,
Just as if oxygen suffices not for all. What a world  !
    

Poem: Wrecked Roon *

Neba-Fuh

Ravaged reckless quisling- Captain of Roon,
Craved in carnal quest for cannabis,
Drowned by the  exigent thirst for rum,
Full of faulty overload of French cuisine,
As Mademoiselles  toy with your extortion key.

Poem: Black Uncle Sam *

By Neba-Fuh

Anytime we lack
We think it is Black,
Even when they win
We never let them in.