Drought Menace
Peter B. Cuktu · 1982
The plague
Has stripped everything.
The vermins scrambled,
Robbed and raped,
Roped everything away;
The desiccating desert
Is shifting daily,
Sipping the juice of African land;
Poor and persecuted
Rendered landless, fruitless
Homeless, helpless and lifeless.
Noticeable drought effects
Telling here and there,
Daily, the papers
Announce about the activities
Of the energy – sapping drought;
Day after day, year after year
The plague infiltrated,
Making natives beggars on their land;
Majority exploited, victimized.
Exiled and slaughtered;
Poor farmers without seeds
Thrust to rainy areas for refuge;
Animal mortality on the rise –
“Going . . . Gone . . .”
Littered bodies here and there.
Severe frustrations and deprivations
Majority excluded
Individuals and nations
In lack of self fulfilment
Drought victims demoralized and grieved
By grim life, run out, bored, fed up faces.
4.
Eyes rolling in sockets
With gab widening
As years rolled away
With misery and agony
Thoughts . . . and . . . thoughts
Discussions . . . and . . . discussions
In “forest parliaments”
Were disorganized by the scorching drought
Frying Africa mile by mile.
5.
Rise and fall of geniuses
Some climbing and crashing
For search of daily bread –
Husks, fragments,
Boiled-salted leaves
Are delicious meals
Anything can fill
The empty stomach,
But hardly a day passes
Without the mention
To this great “lack” –
Stripped of everything
It’s major cause to aggressive behaviour
Anchored in great sacrifices –
Morally and physically.
6.
What are the whys and wherefores
Of this drought menace?:
Sending thousands on the flight,
Lovers, relatives, parents and children
Scattered and divided in dismay,
Pace of progress and civilization delayed
Social amenities denied: diseases caused;
Human status reduced to nothing
Costly animals sold for few kobo;
Oh! Life does not promise
All of us milk and sugar
For life is ironical, an embodiment
Of sorrow and happiness –
Today it is drought
Tomorrow it is flood,
It was a prayer for lack of rain
Now it is flood sweeping bridges
Ours is a drought-hit area
Others are flood-hit ones
This mourning-laughing world
Belongs to “haves” and “have nots”.
7.
Majority voiced open concern
Relentlessly and vigorously opposed to
Continuous drought subversion
But day after day
The plague infiltrated, roasting plants,
Arresting and chaining many.
8.
The rainy clouds are pregnant –
When entire nations mobilized
Assistance poured. Drought resisting
Trees planted by all means
The plague of drought checked
The rain came in abundance
The parching drought halted fast
The birds of the air sang once more
The fish and the fruits flourished.
9.
It is different now
We and our animals surviving
The dry lakes are full of fishes
Our prayers have been answered
No more wolves in sheep skins
Re-entering our ranches, in kinds or cash
Armed with baits and sinisters’ strings
A clique of fishermen, as usual, attempting
“Scrambling”, hooking fishes
This time, too late
“Stumbling” and falling headlong.
10.
Reeds on paths may not
Be completely moved now
For lack of rains
But when floods and currents flow in,
Even concrete bridges and obstacles
Are swept away;
When aids rained in,
Drought resisting trees planted
Drought-hit areas will emerge
From enslavement and subsistence economy
Into self reliance and freedom
Where there is peace and plenty.
11.
One day will be one day
Shifting slowly, like the drought itself
A new era is forcefully ushering in
The only solution to drought menace –
This most violent enemy
Of African enslavement
Is that “Unseen Strong Hand from Some Place”.
EDITOR’S NOTE
First published in Nigeria Magazine, Friday, January 1, 1982.
Source: Archiving.