Dibussi Tande: Scribbles from the Den

Maroua the Martyr [A Poem]

By Dibussi Tande

Beautiful offspring of the Sahel
Land of shifting sands and shaded streets
Land of Bilbil, Couscous and Folléré
Land of overflowing hospitality
Maroua the beautiful
Boko Haram’s unwilling lover…

We hear your cries of distress
Echoing across the Mandara mountains
We see your tears of desperation
Flowing down the Mayo Kaliao river
We hear your howls of anguish
Thundering down Mount Maroua
We shudder at the woeful wails
Of your hapless children
As your leaves turn into petals of blood

[Poetry] The Revolt of the Children of a Lesser God - Baltimore Today, LA Yesterday...

As Baltimore burns over the death of Freddie Gray, we're once again reminded that today's reality is simply history repeating itself in a different form. Here, for example, is a poem that I wrote on April 30, 1992 (exactly 23 years today) during the second day of the LA riots which erupted after the acquittal of four LAPD officers who had beaten Rodney King to a pulp a year earlier during a traffic incident.

 I bet that today, someone somewhere is writing a similar poem, this time about Freddie Gray and about Baltimore...

Bring Back Our Girls - A Poem for the Missing Nigerian Girls by Zimbabwean Poet Batsirai Chigama

As part of the #BringBackOurGirls campaign, a Zimbabwean poet Batsirai Chigama added her voice to campaign with this poem dedicated to the missing girls of Chibok.

 
Us the gentle souls
whose wombs bear scars
not erased by time
Us whose hearts militants brutalize,
death they sow recklessly
our future they take liberties to destroy
time stands still
deeper each day that passes
the void erupts ...
to this gnawing, mad-like disbelief
silent clouds hover on the sad empty chair
like vultures in wait
as we watch the dinner grow cold
again, tonight.

 

Poetry - The Citadel (Commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Yaounde University Students' Uprising)

By Dibussi Tande

Memory Lane: 20 years ago on April 2, 1991, the Yaounde University students' uprising began. Find below a commemorative poem..

I
The Mobilization:
The fiery speeches
The protest marches
The huge rallies
The call to arms

The angry cries:
la conférence nationale
il y'aura !!
Fait quoi fait quoi
il y'aura !!
Ça gâte, ça gâte !!
Campus Mort!!!

The Ghost of Um Nyobe (Musings from the Other Side of the Bridge)

By Dibussi Tande

(Originally published in Joyce Ashuntantang and Dibussi Tande. (eds.). 2008. Their champagne party will end!: poems in honor of Bate Besong. Cameroon: Langaa Research & Publishing CIG.)

They say you died in enemy territory
They say you died on the wrong side of THE BRIDGE
But what better place to die
- On the other side of the bridge -
Than in the Sanaga Maritime -
The sacred land of the Ngog Lituba*
The springboard of Cameroun nationalism
The heartland of the Cameroun resistance;
Purified with the blood of thousands of patriots
Who said NO! to the imperialists and neo-colonialists?

Countdown to the Obama Inaugural: "On the Pulse of Morning" by Maya Angelou

Poem read by Maya Angelou at the Clinton Inaugural on January 20, 1993

A Rock, A River, A Tree
Hosts to species long since departed,
Marked the mastodon.
The dinosaur, who left dry tokens
Of their sojourn here
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their hastening doom
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages.

"Exile": A Poem By Mbella Sonne Dipoko

Originally published in Ronald Segal, ed., Modern Poetry from Africa. Penguin Books, 1968, p. 164

In silence
The overloaded canoe leaves our shores

But who are these soldiers in camouflage,
These clouds going to rain in foreign lands?

The night is losing its treasures
The future seems a myth
Warped on a loom worked by lazy hands.

But perhaps all is not without some good for us
As from the door of a shack a thousand miles away

The scaly hand of a child takes in greeting
The long and skinny fingers of the rain.

Election Day

By Lloney Eyole Monono (Culled from Dance of the Scorpions, forthcoming, Fall 2007)

maudlin minions marching
drums throbbing
boobs bobbing
butts bucking
horny ululations uttered
seaming songs of no slander
by pale paid paupers

The Reception (Elections Cameroon Style)

By Fayeofori Teke Amabibi  (Buea - October 1992)

The Clamour, the howls
The fire, the smoke
Then the batons, the bullets
And the maiming
Run for cover! Run for cover!

And now the calm
Empty streets, markets and parks
No ruffles – very peaceful
Too peaceful

Lamentations

By Lloney E. Monono (Author of Beyond the Promise)

With tears I remember -
Yes I remember
How you wooed me
You cooed to me
I was your apple
So young and supple
I was beautiful
Intelligent and resourceful – you said
Remember – you said
You love me
You needed me
You were in flames
When you called my name
Your need
Was my need