Those that live in foreign lands
But never really left their home
Whose hearts never cup the sands
Upon which their reluctant feet roam
And the prints made where each boot stands
Will be washed away by the evening foam
Of a suspicious tide that never understands
The ripened fruits of an alien-like biome - -
Ye shall go back home with empty hands
To a strange land that is no longer home.
Che Chidi ChukwumerijePoems from the inner river
I like them both
The two sides of Black
The one that is woke
And the one that looks back
I like both of them
The two sides of Black
The one full of flame
And the one that’s laid back
I like the Black that plays
I like the Black that fights
I like the Black that prays
I like the Black that delights
I like the Black that segregates
I like the Black that integrates
I like the Black that separates
I like the Black that tolerates
It’s all Black and it’s all good
It takes a village and a neighbourhood.
Che Chidi ChukwumerijePoems from the inner river
Die einen Weltwanderer,
nach dem sie die Welt durchwandert haben,
meinen, die anderen Wanderer
auf dieser Welt dürfen dasselbe nicht haben:
Bewegungsfreiheit und universeller Zugang,
vor allem nicht bei ihnen und definitiv nicht zu ihnen.
Das Herrenmenschbewusstsein in vollem Gang,
weitergegeben mit der Muttermilch über Generationen.
Oder ist es wirklich einfach nur der Materialismus?
Die mehr haben halten die fern, die weniger haben? -
nach dem sie sie erst geplündert haben.
Und die weniger haben hätten gern, was die anderen haben?
- auch was die noch nicht zurück gaben?
Unterordnet sich Kultur am Ende doch nur dem Materialismus?
Che Chidi ChukwumerijeIm Jahrzehnt der deutschen Dichtung
They that came to remark
the lines of destiny on our palms
are still pulling the discords
of smiles armed with sticky alms
groping the vulnerable.
They are legion. Their allegiance
is with history and vision
It is seasoned with wry reason
when they call aid a mission
targeting the vulnerable.
The enmity is below the thought-line
It is a volition seeded in culture
Only one Dove visits in Love
Every other dove is a vulture
encircling the vulnerable.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Rote Erde
Schwarze Haut
Grün als Zierde
Weißes Lächeln laut
wie das lauteste Lachen -
Nigeria, Du schöne Braut,
mit Dir werde ich vieles machen.
Che Chidi ChukwumerijeIm Jahrzehnt der Deutschen Dichtung
Nigeria
Which will be the first modern, post-colonial Black African country to become independent?
– To stand as a First World country in the midst of global leaders.
– To take the leap from extractive economy to highly productive, manufacturing, innovative and invention-leading economy.
– To develop and run a nation-wide, all-encompassing and unconditional Social Security scheme.
– To become an Export world champion, exporting not just natural resources, but finished products.
– To take its place at the cutting edge of technology and information technology.
– To become a favoured global destination for medical tourism and university education.
– To have a currency that rivals USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CNR.
– To develop and take a leading role in the building of a new economy and new industry around the concept of sustainability. Because that is the future.
– To entrench legally protected civil and human rights.
– To engender independent institutions of democracy.
– To defeat the evil of tribalism.
– To stop begging, taking and being dependent on foreign aid.
– To stop allowing foreign religions to drive it to hate, exploit, oppress or kill its fellow Africans.
– To stop producing economic Refugees in droves.
– To hold regular free and fair elections, free of rigging, where votes count.
– To hold its richest and most powerful accountable.
– To fight corruption impartially, and stand without exemptions under the Law.
– To eradicate extreme poverty, and democratise and ensure education and opportunity for all.
– To work tirelessly for peace and unity on the African continent.
– To push, power and perfect intra-African trade, tourism and transport to the same levels as on other continents and in other world regions.
– To have a modern, disciplined military focused on defense of borders and values, as well as upholding of peace, and not full of megalomaniac dreams of coup d‘etats and executive power all the time.
– To have a depoliticised Police Force that serves the people rather than being used against the people.
– To maintain a hardworking, well-functioning, digitalised, detribalised, highly educated Civil Service.
– To own its own narrative, with its own independent media, on the global stage.
– To become a global lender, instead of a global borrower and beggar.
– To export technology and new technology to the rest of the world.
– To have a power, economic and civil infrastructure that matches every other First World country‘s.
– To become one of the decision makers in the UN, in WEF, in the G8.
– To break the culture of waste, squander and exhibitionism.
– To support and grow small and medium-scale enterprises all over the country.
– To develop a large and economically virile middle class.
– To feed itself independently.
– To power itself independently.
– To ensure electricity 24/7.
– To become a center of future-birthing research and development.
– To become a part of the space community.
– To find its own local solutions to its own local, as well as global, challenges.
– To be a part owner, and controller, of the global market.
– To produce proud citizens who have greater opportunities in their own Black countries than they would in foreign countries where they are never fully accepted.
– To turn around the historical burden of slavery and colonisation, and transform it into global leadership.
– To stand as a First World country in the midst of global leaders.
Which will be the first Black African country to become REALLY INDEPENDENT?
This is the silent question that hangs unanswered in the global imagination of all humankind, and floats inchoate through the heart of everybody of Black African extraction anytime another Black African country celebrates its annual so-called Independence Day.
Today’s it’s Nigeria’s turn. Country of my birth. 1st October.
Happy Independence Day, Nigeria.
Or should I rather say:
Happy Future-Independence Day.
Because only Self-dependence, Self-reliance, is truly Independence.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 