UNDERSTANDING VALUES

How foreign is a foreigner
In a land of foreign values
If the values of the foreign
Are native to him?

How rightful are a native’s rights
In a land of prayer and righteousness
If he claims for himself the right
To deny an unbeliever his human rights?

Democracy is a car – if you insist
That they exchange their horse for your car
How can you stop them from roughly driving the car
Like they rode their horse, out into the wild?

Religion is a house – if you insist that they
Abandon nature and make your house their home
How can you stop them from inviting their old nature
Into your eternal rigid walls?

Who knows the answer?
Religion doesn’t know the answer
Politics doesn’t know the answer
Only really human beings know the answer.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.

THE PRICE OF CATCHING UP

They promise you it’s great, the key
So you leave your home
And wander there
Where you acquire great knowledge
Which you will store in the emptiness
Of your soul –
For, nothing else can fill you up anymore
Stranger everywhere you go now
Home and abroad.

– Che Chidi Chukwumerije.