Beyond half of a century ago
That dawn,
We showed
The burning flames after our birth—O’ yes, we glowed!
That dawn,
We chose one song and hailed our new birth in unism…
But soon after,
Here we sit tickling ourselves and yet, still singing dirges!
Countrymen,
Beyond half of a century ago,
We chose to kiss
The path of gold to weave praise songs for our common home—
We swore never to waste
The tears and bloods and sweats offered by our foregones…
Beyond half of a century ago,
We knew ourselves
As one siblings from different uteruses
And bred the spirit
Of communal existence to foster for a common hope:
Beyond half of a century ago,
We knew many
Yet none; we knew a land whose fate we owned
As a common people
And whose success we treasured beyond ourselves…
But now;
Now—beyond half of a century,
Here we stand
Divided and worshipping political gods against our land:
We spit in her face
And adore political demi-gods and their spirits with treasures;
We ease on her sacredness
But offer our souls to protect the latter
O’ yes Countrymen,
Beyond half of a century ago,
Then we chose a path
To make our land great and strong
But here, we stand today
Worshipping political gods and marking time at a cross road we have created
Oswald Okaitei
© 2016
The Poet & Poem’s Theme
Oswald Okaitei is a World Poetry & Canada International Director in Ghana and multi-international award winning poet. He is a Performer Poet who combines music with poetry lines & verses to paint imagery in the eyes of the mind. In this piece, Beyond half of a century ago, Oswald speaks to his countrymen; he reminds them that their motherland that used to be together is now polarized along partisan lines and hence, the reason why they have failed to harvest the dream once dreamt by their fore-parents. Oswald Okaitei was just awarded the Pan-African Poet & Spoken word Artiste of the year (2016) during the Osagyefo Excellence Awards held at the International Conference Centre.
