Africanistan: The Ultimate War on Terror
“We love our country.
But to love it you have to be alive.
A corpse has no homeland.”
On an enslaved mass Europe drew cold lines.
Millions tangled in exploitation’s cruel dance.
The hope for a continent in Barbarian hands,
A united, stable Alkebulan a utopian dream.
The General Act of Berlin announced in 1885,
Only Ethiopia and Liberia would be spared.
Foreign soldiers descend on coastal shores,
The latest weaponry blots out Africa’s light.
If trading in its people weren’t brutal enough,
Now minerals overflowed in Europe’s dockyards.
The conniving aggressors greedy for more,
Almost wipe out each other in two world wars.
Post-1945 nations clamor for independence,
Communists subverting old colonial rules.
America and the Soviets in devilish mode,
Instilling their doctrines lit a hellish fuse.
Carnage in Africa, the frontiers unclear,
Instability, ethnic conflict and terror ushered in.
Popular movements had freedom in sight,
Extinguished by a cold war decadence.
The Berlin Wall tumbled and a flicker of hope,
Now Africa is courted like a beautiful bride.
China’s approach is different from the west
Understanding Africa’s worth, they invest.
Excess supply meets unlimited demand,
Building roads, schools, bridges and ports.
Russia still supply 50% of its arms:
Africa seeking fresh prospects anew.
Twelve years ago, Clinton’s emails revealed,
Whispers behind closed doors unveiled.
Muammar Gaddafi’s vast hidden wealth,
Treasure trove of aurum and silver’s stealth.
Nearly one hundred and fifty tons of gold,
Knowledge of this secret stash WikiLeaks told.
A plan was conceived in the Colonel’s heart,
A pan-African currency, a project to impart.
Franco British intrigue craft a motive strong:
Oil, boosted influence and reputations to uphold.
In Tripoli the embattled streets run red,
No-fly-zone, armed clashes and countless dead.
Islamists and Tuareg separatists in Mali,
An excess of arms has primed the north grizzly.
Thousands have perished, a million displaced,
In an endless conflict Mali’s fate defaced.
4,000 of Timbuktu’s manuscripts plundered,
Ansar Dyne’s destruction leaves culture sundered.
Pick-axed and hammered saintly shrines and tombs,
Protecting faith’s purity, the extremists fumed.
Burkina Faso ravaged by relentless perdition.
Executions, looting and arson the story.
Civilians in the crossfire recruited for militia:
Volontaires pour la défense de la patrie.
A coup thwarts another coup’s dark intent,
President Captain Traoré standing firm.
Jihadist activity distresses the land,
Neighbouring countries offer a united hand.
As in Niger, skating on alert’s icy brink,
Deposed President Bazoum a bargaining chip.
Charged with treason, he’s already condemned,
ECOWAS threaten war but their plan is insane.
Twenty-nine dead soldiers in the south ignite,
A counter-offensive killing terrorists overnight.
Niger taking measures to neutralize the threat,
France’s withdrawal cast conspiracies of doubt.
Boko Haram and Jama’at Ahl al-Sunna,
Spread fiery rhetoric stoking angst in Nigeria.
In the troubled north their dominant sphere,
3.6 million have been displaced.
In Zamfara state the usual tale of woe,
Gunmen agitate and lawlessness flows.
Many lives lost; sixty villagers snatched,
And students wheeled off in pick-up trucks.
In Cameroon, lingering tensions of old,
The struggle for language, a tale unfolds,
Torturing, killings and arson explodes,
Amnesty International raises its voice.
Rebel groups rise, in the bushes they hide,
A decade of turmoil, divisions collide.
Factories halt and roads broken wide,
This anglophone crisis the violence divides.
In Central Africa, where hunger takes toll,
Half the population in an arduous hole.
To be born and survive is a fragile goal,
8% don’t see their first year of life.
Wagner’s entry and the Rwandans fight,
Purged Séléka rebels from the country’s towns.
The first in a decade, a calm before a storm,
In a region still marred by conflict’s blight.
Congo-Kinshasa remains insecure,
Six million displaced as suffering obscured.
UN’s future shaky, talks aim to repair,
Gender violence haunts, survivors in despair.
Poison of greed smeared diamonds with blood,
Minerals fueling war, displacement and hunger.
Political solutions urged as elections draw near,
UN peacekeepers targeted; challenges severe.
Chad, with oil wealth, yet so impoverished,
Bearing the weight of war-torn refugees.
300,000 and counting fled from Sudan,
A fragile security, a nation in unease.
Under guise of wiping people’s tears away,
The UAE covertly aids with brazen lies.
In a remote town of Chad an operation thrives,
Weapons and drones for the RSF side.
Hemedti and Burhan, once brothers share,
A conflict spurring chaos in Khartoum and Darfur.
Bullets, rockets, and the fighter jet’s snare,
The devil on horseback returned with flair.
Sudanese Armed Force’s strafing strews panic;
Home invasions, bombed hospitals, people can’t go out.
The pillaging and the killing systematic –
As night fell, death lingers, ready to pounce.
In Ethiopia it seems the madness rages on,
Sexual violence and other crimes scarring the soul.
Terror in Tigray and now fighting in Amhara,
A nation’s recurring agony takes a heavy toll.
Government battle with their former kin,
Allied forces turned foes in a war so grim.
Abiy Ahmed planned to unite within,
But too many militias disagree with him.
Somalian troops have engaged for years,
Hide and seek with Al Shabab, left a brutal scar.
Thousands have fallen but does anybody hear?
Screams and blood sacrifice an endless affair.
A truck bomb in Beledweyne’s town square,
Killed 21 innocents sprouting anguish over here.
Buildings razed, plenty wounded on the ground,
Never-ending turmoil like Black Hawk Down.
Mozambique is a land in flux and dread,
An insurgency’s deadly shadow looms overhead.
A million displaced in Cabo Delgado’s fright,
Another nation struggling as violence excites.
Loved ones beheaded, homes razed to ashes,
Men and boys compelled to join armed groups.
Livelihoods vanished, education’s lost ground,
Healthcare and food scarcity in critical loop.
South Africa’s parliament hall burned down,
Tensions with the U.S. begin to install.
Naval drills in the Indian Ocean enthralled,
South Africa, Russia and China allied.
ANC has past links with these erstwhile friends,
USA frustrated and controversy found.
Accused of arms smuggling aim to undermine,
South Africa’s neutrality in the war in Ukraine.
Changing alliances and strategic coalitions,
South Africa chooses in this dangerous game.
Africanistan unfurling amid proxy’s friction,
Ever-evolving struggles in a global campaign.
Djibouti is a gathering of strange hosts.
Military bases for France, Spain and Germany,
The United States, United Kingdom, and Italy,
Japan and Saudi Arabia: if there’s revolts?
Russia and India seek a presence to be,
Thugs guard the continent by land and by sea.
On African territory set long-term plans,
Colonial frontiers drifting in the sands.
African nations in the Arab League’s clique?
Non-Arab lands in a union they sit.
A paradoxical blend of conquest and culture,
Arabs enslaved blacks so lest not forget that.
What does America bring, a weak dollar’s sway?
Backed by the military they print dollars every day.
What does Britain bring but a duplicitous role?
Preaching democracy, education, and birth control.
The sordid past of Françafrique’s grim view,
A fierce dawn breaks and the policy renews.
Africa’s roar is a force to be reckoned,
Winds of change, chains strained and broken.
For too long held in their pernicious stay,
Imposing notions that affect us today.
White supremacy’s harshness, Arabian superiority,
The darker skinned hue lambasted with no pity.
A narrative marred by such horrible stains,
Yet within our hearts, resilience remains.
Awakening from this long and troubled sleep,
No longer inferior, our dignity we’ll keep.
For we are equal, capable with open eyes,
Our brilliance shining as our spirits arise.
From depths of subjugation, we’ll break free,
A proud united people and strong, we’ll be.
Youth and time is aligned on terrain,
The West grows decrepit and demographics wane.
Empires decline as the past conveys.
Like a sphinx we’ll rise even a millennium away.
So, bear the turmoil Alkebulan my land,
Relay this on the hills and shout up to the sky –
Proclaim to those seeking to seize our hand,
AFRICA RISING, we shall cry again.
https://skendongpoetry.com/archives/11314
