I Am Kongo

By Mbizo CHIRASHA, World BEYOND War, August 18, 2020

I AM KONGO

I am Kongo
I roast grenade for supper
Kisangani my stomach shit dysentery
I am Congo of Lumumba and Zaire nzere of Mobutu
I see my dysentery washed by Nzere river every dawn

I am Kongo, my underfed kasiku vomit wind and hatred after hot nights of salongo
I am Congo where locusts eat the naked ness of babies and lizards urinate on sweating tired hungry rocks
My horizons ravaged by acid rain and smoke of mutilated cultures
I am Kongo
I see Njelele’s red earth carrying rituals of rain
His mother tongue burning hot in the empty wind.
I see Tonga and Kalanga licking shadows and smoke
Wild dogs lapping their tongues swallowing riddles, metaphors and dances
Jackals vomiting the flesh of apartheid for GMO generation to breakfast. Iam Kongo

I am Congo. I sing of them children of nyanda nehanda, grandchildren of shawasha and gumboreshumba.Whose blood is in the color of their flag?
Grandchildren tasting omelet of freedom of shukulu Kaunda, samora and Josina.Spears of metaphors falling like hot embers on the hearts of chameleons

Grandchildren of shikulu and samora are griots with machetes skinning off apartheid from the color of their mind
Griots tired of minds bleaching in apartheid coco butter.