Kidnapped
Is there still hope for me?
The sun sets sadly as slowly as he can
By the last light of day
Find a way
Did you see the baby that was stolen?
Did you see the boy that was broken?
However hard you look, you will see
No resemblance at all between them and
The man now woken, now walking.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
MUSIC
PEOPLE
LANGUAGE
UNDERSTOOD
FOR ONE
MOMENT
ONE MANKIND
ONE SPIRIT
1 LOVE.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
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
Never gonna teach nobody
Never gonna preach the Word
To no damn soul
I’m damned myself
Tired of pretending
To know the way to heaven
Maybe everybody should just
Go to hell – then we’ll all grasp
The way to heaven.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
Power is, or derives from, an idea into which all concerned subscribe. This idea is the exponent of a recognition to which a people as a collective have come; in other words, a consciousness into which a homogeneous group, a common type, has awakened. This recognition, this consciousness, now becomes a component characteristic of this homogeneous group which as a group has graduated from type to type. The members of the group thus acquire a distinct, distinctive nature that differentiates, distinguishes and distances them from every other group. They thus become a “People”, the rough draft of a nation. And this people, these people, are the children of an idea to which they have subscribed, out of which their world view has been born. And the concept of Power inherent in this idea becomes the foundational notion and nature of Power that determines their politics and their interpersonal relationships.
Because this power is subject to a context into which they all subscribe, rooted in an idea which has become their mother, they are all bound to it and all bow down before it. It thus becomes the socio-political and culturo-spiritual Soul of their national personality.
When this people comes into contact with a different people of different ideology, a culture clash takes place. Communication gaps and mutual misunderstandings become their meeting points. The divergent concepts of power, born over centuries or even millenia out of different recognitions and perceptions, creates a situation where each group has the feeling that the other group is not “playing by the rules”. Whereas perhaps they simply have a different understanding of the concept of “power” and of “power-play”. You only see what you understand; every other thing remains at best a riddle, if not entirely invisible and impossible to perceive or empathize with in any way. At worst, it is adjudged to be a threat.
This is where the need arises to “learn another person’s language”. The other person’s inner language of concepts. Therein lies the understanding of their concept of Power, and thus of their understanding of what should be the right and balanced form of interpersonal relationships. When two such come to a mutual understanding and meet in the middle, then the product of their new and shared understanding becomes a living guideline and another valuable page in the universal charter of human rights. And responsibilities.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
1. Don’t be afraid to be on the losing side
2. Believe in yourself
3. Identify a cause you would be proud to die for – and then live for it
4. Exercise
5. Avoid the things that harm your body
6. Be on good terms with your family members
7. Know where you come from, and maintain a close relationship with it
8. Think strategically
9. Create opportunities for those less priviledged than yourself
10. Reflect on your path and change it, if need be
11. Think about Africa, for the danger is not yet over
12. Get an education
13. Work extra hard
14. Cultivate a relationship with GOD. He is.
15. Don’t be blindly tribalistic or racial. Look for the truth, and give your loyalty to It alone
16. Serve causes, not people
17. Be fearless
18. Be disciplined, and persevere
19. Be honest and straightforward, and follow the path of integrity
20. Have faith, and believe in miracles – there’ll be help along the way
21. Earn your own money, pay your own bills
22. If you have children, give them your all
23. If you get married, do your best to keep it happy
24. Strive for Excellence
25. Be at home within your own self.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije
In loving Memory of my father, Comrade Uche Chukwumerije 1939-2015.
For people who, by nature, are partner-faithful and relationship-loyal (I’m talking Sex here), there exists in their inside a great big Why when they observe how a person who they know really loves his/her partner with all his/her heart can have a sexual interchange with a third party – one time, or for a shorter or longer period, or intermittently – and yet remain totally committed to and in love with their chosen “permanent” partner. Is it a predisposition or a weakness?
It’s like a puzzle, a mystery that defies solution.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
There is something about Germany. It seems to be, at the same time, 100% Capitalist and 100% Socialist, poised, balanced at the meeting point between capitalism and communism.
This word “Communism” is not much used anymore, as people prefer the less menacing sounding Socialism, – in fact now they only say “Social”, in order to free themselves from adherence to its stricter definitions – but its principles, its Goals continue to live on, refining itself towards realisation, in the heart of many people and many nation-building ideals.
Now East has become West. But what is in the heart cannot be wiped away with signatures and bulldozers. They say in Africa: you can remove the monkey from the bush, but you cannot remove the bush from the monkey. (As an African, obviously I am allowed to use that proverb without being accused of being politically incorrect 🙂 ).
Everything, i.e. every mindset and striving, seems to come together, find a balanced confluence, truly, not in America but strangely enough in Germany. The two sides at the same time.
Mayhaps stems herefrom the Anglo-American fear of Germany. This sensing that it was not only West Germany that went into the East, but also East went into the West. East and West have both … well, not vanished, but become ever more indistinguishable from one another, become something new, something called Germany. A new modern experiment.
If a look is cast at political, social, even spiritual tendencies in the world today, and an eye kept open for the one place where the different, often competing, differing ideologies all seem to have struck cohabitual roots, then ever and again Germany takes the Spotlight.
Socialist at heart, capitalistic in endeavour; and their system of thought reflects this marriage, or attempted marriage, of ideals.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Like a cloud watches a rain drop fall
An archer a misguided arrow reject recall
A mountain an avalanche gather and roll
A doctor a young departing soul
An old woman the memory of early innocent flirt
A tailor a beloved yarn vanish into a shirt
So I remember tonight all those I ever hurt –
Growing up is life’s only comfort.
– CHE CHIDI CHUKWUMERIJE.
Happy 70th Birthday to my dear
MOTHER
If heaven were but a grain
Of those arms on which I was once lain
And only a mere faint echo
Of that inspiration which has become my life-long shadow
Then claim me kiss of death
That upon your hearth
Mother Again will be my first breath
And I’ll never crave rebirth.
It is between Scylla and Charibdis
For me to start to describe what it is
To eternity in the warmth of a bossom
And the gentle resourcefulness of a flower in blossom
So comforting and caring
So loving and true
This comes straight from my heart:
Mother, I love you.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije
1990.
I wrote this poem for my mother when I was 16. Today, almost three decades later, the words still hold true.
HAPPY 70th BIRTHDAY, MUM.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 