Written piece
Beasts of No Nation
Mawuena Goh
Ghana
About this piece
This poem titled "Beast of No Nations" highlights the effects of civil wars in Africa today. The title is gotten from a movie that was shot in Ghana about a civil war that destroyed the lives of the people it involved, starring the notable Idris Elba.
Beasts of No Nation
As I look back to the horrifying scenes, of bombs going off
And my people with nowhere to go
The inevitability hits me, we all have to die one day
But surely not in this way
Because Agu and Striker were innocent school kids recruited into the rebel gangs
Supplied with arms by outsiders and invaders
To annihilate the town folk and make them extinct like our jungles
The beast is not the 666 symbol, the beast destroys us now
Today, we stand up to it. Though we are merciless to its power;
We know our act of defiance is something powerful and mighty
There was a generation of Ibo men and women who abandoned ship in order to avoid being slaves
The martyrs of their time; Their blood flows in us
The blood of Harriet Tubman flows in us
We also can continue this tradition of freeing the slaves
And bring respect back to our names, so we would not have to reject them for that of other nations
The beast is still alive, and until slain we labour tirelessly
Not everyone sees this; Some have given up the fight
All they fight for is their daily bread
So, we want our dignity back, and we want our high standing back
We want to ravage King Leopold in his grave for killing so many of us in the Congo
We were once the richest tribe in the world led by a man called Mansa Musa
If history is twisted, then there is yet a twist in this tale
We won’t pick up our arms because we don’t have any, but we call on our ancestors
Who see us from up above
Who commune with us in spirit
For the hope of living free one day