The person who outwardly leaves you today
Already inwardly left you yesterday.
And the person who outwardly comes to you today
Already inwardly came to you yesterday.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Poetry
PRUDENCE
Discretion and guardianship of the tongue are the measure of a man‘s inner strength and level of maturity and, ultimately, worth.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
SOVEREIGNTY
Sovereignty is a state of the spirit
It is an inner attitude
A highness of mind
A quality of the soul
It is the expression of a sense of responsibility
If you don‘t mature into it inwardly
You will seek it outwardly in vain.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
VULNERABILITY
Waking up
Feeling like a wound
And for a second you don’t cover up your vulnerability
Because the world is still asleep
And no-one is watching…
You lie there, your eyes closed
Your wound open
And let your life’s troubles tear at the wound
In your Heart…
And then,
Just when the pain becomes unbearable
You feel the calming weight of responsibility
Descend like balm and bandage upon you
You know your role again
You become strong.
And by the time you open your eyes and arise
The wound has been stitched up again
And you set forth to meet the world
Unperturbed
Resolved.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
SILENCE AND INSULTS ON THE AFRICAN STAGE
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.
DEEP WITHIN THE AFRICAN PSYCHE
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.
NON-MATERIAL THINGS
How frail the body
How it ages
And falls to sickness prey
And life is as a day…
If you send me pictures and reports
Of you enjoying material things
And hope to thereby impress me
Or make me envious
Would you still have the depth of perception to understand
That I pity you?
Send me a greeting to say
How are you? I wish you well…
Then will I see therein your Height
Like an arrow to the heart
That humbles and heals my Spirit.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
AFRICA BLEEDING OUT
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.
VARIETY
I don’t make Afro-pop
Or naija-hiphop
Everything I do is
Alternative
Oil is not the only source
Of Revenue.
Nigeria, diversify
Tap your other talents
Build planes
Phones triggered by thought
Find a unique solution
To the problem of soil Erosion
Restless creativity
Is the mirror altar of the Higher God
Don’t run from yourself
Be a native of your Inner voice
Celebrate the different bird
Celebrate the alternative curious thought
Celebrate the bold Spirit of adventure
Make the celebration of diversity your art and culture
in perception, in Expression, in creation.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
REMEMBER
Sunday
My body has returned from Worship
My spirit not yet
The sounds around me are like a dream
Far away
Where sunrise is sunset
The home around me is
A faint reflection of another Home
I often forget.
– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.
Che Chidi Chukwumerije 