AFRICA SHALL SING AGAIN
SAM ONWUKA
Gradually
Like a slow kindling log
A tree trunk
Raising slowly, unwillingly
Fire
For the harmattan.
We had waited like the maimed
Waited and had waited to the brink
To the moment of despair
And all seemed failing
To break
The chill of harmattan.
Editor’s note: First published in Nigeria Magazine, Sunday, March 1, 1970. Source: Archiving.