"AFRICA, A LAND OF CHILDHOOD" by John Chizoba Vincent.

This is a land of lands where dreams

are planted in the longing eyes of a child.

Lives are redefined for societal upliftment,

children build castles on the seashore and

watch the passage of tradition and culture

from the custodians to the younger ones.

We speak of those tales under the moonlight,

grace the festivities hopping in around villages.

Boys stay uphills to tell girls tale of prestige,

Girls gather in the stream to sing and dance.

When boys come,  they run here and there

madly to cover their innocent nakedness 

We watch the elders chew kola nuts

under the setting of the old rugged sun.

Children remember the farmland like their palm,

the dreadful thunder,  they chase with a curse.

Hopeful land AFRICA is a land of expression.

We sweep clean our hearts with love.

Our skin colours are our proud name,

no full flame,  next fall, next rise joyfully,

With love and new opinions, we strive on.

She watches signifies come and go,

names immortalized on her wall...

This is the land that harbours our childhood.

Boys chase girls along the village tracks,

not without sending our souls' errand to

  

tell them of our longing thoughts craving.

When we misbehave,  we tell the elders the lie.

Cry of fearful rodents we follow downhills to

derive joy from their fears and heartbeat.

We have no problem except those we created,

We have no sin except those we learned of.

Life, a funfair,  sure path to imperfection.

Elders meet elders,  women meet women,

boys tell boys tales and girls giggle often.

Africa  made us who we are to the world,

a spotlight of the undescribed world of sin.

Images and prime creature above all species.

Downhills are green grasses spreading potentially.

Tell men of high condition that manage the globe

that our black colour is not a crime to nature.

Africa is a land of childhood. 

You can reach John Chizoba Vincent @ chizobavincent@gmail.com

AN EMPTY SKULL WITH COBWEBS BY JOY ISI BEWAJI.

What Timi Dakolo said...

“We as Christians give our tithes to God. Whether pastor chop or not na him go answer to God.”

“A canal mind cannot understand the things of the spirit.”

“You don’t have any right to talk about marriage when you are a divorcee (or unmarried)”

“You need patience and understanding and high level of communication to stay married.”

"This generation is impatient."

And the worst of the bunch goes thus…

“All men love curves and boobs and a beautiful face, but we would forever respect a complete and intelligent woman.”

Yet all of you – obtuse and brain-dead are clamoring to place a crown on his head. What do you find in this tedious, colorless spittle that makes it any less redundant as the yarn of an average Nigerian?

This is what your great grandfathers said. It is what your grandmothers told your mother. It is what your mother is spitting all over your face for the last 30 years, so much that you can’t think of any real success that doesn't include a man. There’s no revelation in these excerpts, no thorough or profound thinking. His word is as dull as he looks. But you all need to preserve old traditions, so you line up on his IG spreading your bras and pants for him to walk on because nothing satisfies the average dull Nigerian beyond a broken record of repeated stuff that conceals his/her inability to think for self.

Timi is not a thinker. He is nothing close to Freeze on a scale of intelligence. Freeze is not perfect, but neither are you or Timi. Side chick gossip about Timi is out, and Timi is taking videos of himself smiling… as a child in need of new knowledge. Olodo rabata.

You don’t like Freeze because he dedicates his time to shame your twisted religion. If he isn’t saying something worthy of attention, why do you pay him any? On a scale of basic intelligence, Timi is a fetus where Freeze is grey and tending to his garden.

His word is as dull as he looks.

You are all afraid. Afraid that these things we talk about will force you to think, apply your brain. And since it’s just an empty skull with cobwebs that you possess, truth startles you, exposes your lack of sense; and the emptiness causes an echo that travels too far for your comfort. Nigerian celebrities are probably the most ignorant group of individuals you can find in one space. All you need to do is ask them about feminism, marriage, religion, domestic violence, even rape, and all the maggots suggestive of a brain rotten out of neglect starts to seep through their mouths, noses, and ears.

I don’t care for this topic, but be ashamed that you can’t help being so wow-ed by basic common knowledge. What really is this shit that is making you all go gaga with excitement? You think your instant love for Timi and his ho-hum comments will faze Daddy Freeze?

Joy Isi Bewaji, a prolific writer, columnist, and the managing director of Happenings Radio and Happenings Magazine