Tears of Mama Africa

I think of your tears, Mama Africa,
Your tears of joy in the days of your glory,
You are a symbol of beauty; the joy of nations,
Your breast has fed Kings, Your milk raised princes,
Your mouth gives out wisdom, your lips the kiss of love,
Sages are the fruits of your womb;
The noble, the outcome of your travail.

I think of your tears, Mama Africa,
The tears of fulfillment in the days of your influence,
Your hair is the envy of the world,
Your head, the desire of the earth,
Your eyes are ineluctable, your face inescapable,
The breath from your nostrils sends forth scent,
Your smile brightens the day; your laughter gladens the night.

I think of ur tears, yet, Mama Africa,
The tears of Pains in the days of your ordeal,
Pains of past slavery, of tear in the heart,
Pains of present poverty, eating up flesh from your children;
Drying up the milk from your breast,
Pains of AIDS, scouging your people;
Killing them in their millions.

I think of your tears, Mama Africa,
More tears in the midst of more pains,
Pains of debt and loan, keeping you in financial slavery;
Making your smile irrelevant,your laughter noise,
Pains of corruption, spreading all over you like cancer;
Eating up your cells, making repugnant your breath,
Your tears would make an ocean, Mama Africa.

I think of your tears, Mama Africa,
Your future tears in the day of your freedom,
Tears of joy, realizing your destiny;
Your unstopable emancipation,
I see it afar, yet close in my heart,
Your desired utopia,coming down from the sky;
Carried in the wings of the wind.

I think of your tears,
Tears of rapturous joy,
Becoming a praise among nations;
The glory of the continents,
Wells of tears springing from the bowels of your land,
Your restored glory, greater than the destroyed one,
Let it flow, the tears of joy, O Mama Africa.

by M.D.Adeola