Paradigm shift
But until the White, Arabian and Asian hearts
Become free of Racism
Towards their Black counterpart…
It‘s just a Greek gift
And until the Black and African mind
Becomes free of Colonial Mentality
Tribalism and Religious enmity…
Paradise is still adrift.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Black is not a fad, and not a trend –
It was here first & it is here to stay ‘til the end.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Words/Music: Che Chidi Chukwumerije
Are the Igbo and the Yoruba united?
Are the Zulu and the Xhosa united?
Are the Hutu and the Tutsi united?
If hands and feet are not coordinated
How can you drive and steer the vehicle?
There is a level of identity and reality on which Africans have stopped building bridges to one another, and forging alliances with one another, and initiating peace amongst each other, and finding common grounds and respectful dialogue. – And yet that is the level on which they are really who they really are.
If you ignore reality, you will fall victim to it.
Are the Fulani in Nigeria beholden to the Fulani in Niger?
Are the Oromo in Kenya beholden to the Oromo in Ethiopia?
Are the Shona in Mozambique beholden to the Shona in Zimbabwe and Zambia?
Are the Yoruba in Benin beholden to the Yoruba in Nigeria?
If a foreigner is your brother
And your countryman is a foreigner
Who will you follow
When you come to the crossroad?…
Because you will.
There is a level on which Aricans ignore reality. They scold each other into being modern by lying that their roots are not still feeding their fruits. Yet that is nature.
It was naive inter-tribal non-cooperation and chaos in the ethnic map of Africa that made Colonisation so easily possible.
It is silence on this stage, in this theatre, that imppedes cohesion in Africa today.
And when the stage is not silent, then it is full of distrust and animousity as they are hurl insults at one another. You can see it on the internet everyday. It seems to be the only form of communication that we still have left between us.
No, it is time to reawaken the dialogue. The African multilogue.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
There is a gem
Waiting to be tapped
Deep within the African psyche
It is the knowledge
The Memory
That he, that she, is a creator
And an inventor
One who once did and can again create
Their own technology
Their own religions
Their own socio-political systems
Their own nations and
In all this, their own solutions
To their own problems
Africa does not have to be a source
Of problems to the world
But a source of solutions
A continent that once formed its
Own languages, its own Nations
Its own belief systems
Its own science and technology
Can do it again
It just has to stop believing
That others are better creators
Than it is.
Invention was our first calling.
Material things, non-material things, and Nations.
Innovation alone will protect us and
Keep on taking us forward.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
It is the hope in the eyes
Of the arriving refugee
That breeds the sadness of heart
In the one that welcomes him
For he knows the frustration
That follows and the humiliation
That hollows out…
And the silence.
Knowledge is a heavy burden –
To know that Humiliation is
The highest they will get
And yet they are ready to take it
In the hope of a better life
Makes one sad…
What made Africa do this to itself
And its posterity?
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
The scar whipped
The back proudly
The ground is stepping on me
Yes I will die standing up
If you thirst for freedom then
Feel free
To bury me standing
Upright –
Only slaves prostrate before their executioner!
If the ground stands on me
Well, so will I too.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
From “Palm Lines”
You’re walking on water
Don’t think it is land
The tide is about to turn
Your feet into sand
Signals sent out over the earth
Kill them before they grow
There is a protection Claws in our justice
For a darker tomorrow
Subliminal messages
Password more valid than passport
What is the colour of love?
Blindness is just in court
Mankind will destroy humanity
And claim to be its saviour
And cunning will mask hatred
And none shalt love thy neighbour.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
In Memory.
Let them not remember
That we were not always here;
Let what we tell them
Be all they know –
They can get Independence from the West
If they want,
But not from the Middle East.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
The Crack was so loud
We actually failed to hear
The piercing cry
We are dying even whilst they die
You struck me hard
You were hellbent on killing off
All the love in me
So that you could point at my corpse, my heart
And me the coffin housing it
And declare:
You see! He was dead all along!
And everybody will nod wisely
You cannot murder a dead man.
Africa vanished like smoke in the wind
And left Africa behind
Battling the barrenness you and I…
Strangers stood back
Watched us tear one another to pieces
And when we’re through
They’ll step in calmly and calmly pick up the pieces
And build anew an other Africa again
Their Gain
Empty of all Africans
Biafrans and Nigerians
Hutus and Tutsis, Zulus and Xhosas.
Holy Warriors,
Nationalists, Traditionalists, you
And I
And all that will remain
As a memory of a people that once was
Are the poems and songs we
Left behind…
Even the slogans will be forgotten.
– che chidi chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 