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CORDEL TROVADO

Antonio Cabral Filho - Rj

Meu bisavô João Cabral
Padrasto do meu avô,
Não sabe quanto é legal
Me orgulhar de quem eu sou.

Meu avô “ José Cabral “
É José Pedro da Silva,
Mas acabou como tal
Pelas graças da mãe diva.
*
Meu pai honra meu avô,
São CABRAIS de alto renome.
Seus legados dão valor
A quem tem Cabral no nome.
*
ANTONIO CABRAL DA SILVA,
Que no Cavaco dedilha,
Espero que a lira sirva
De base na redondilha.
*
ANTONIO CABRAL é homem,
Pois homem tem que ser homem.
Quem não tem verve de ANTONIO,
Tire o Cabral do seu nome.
*
Sou ANTONIO CABRAL FILHO,
Que em vossa presença emigra;
Do pinto que não quer milho
João Cabral que lho diga.

Sei que não fez porque qui-lo,
Mas o Antonio Cabral,
Assim, solteiro, sem FILHO,
Não sou eu nem o LEGAL.

Todo CABRAL é parente,
Com raízes além mar,
Tem cara de boa gente,
Mas é bom não descuidar...

Antonio fui batizado
Por glória da devoção,
Mas CABRAL é meu legado
Pela pura tradição.
*
Aquele que nasce ANTONIO
Não se dobra pelo cobre,
Pois vem de filão idôneo
E tem espírito nobre.

ESSAYS ON
LEADERSHIP FRONTIERS OF AFRICAN LITERATURE
By
Alexander   k   Opicho




Alexander K Opicho
(Eldoret, Kenya; aopicho@yahoo.com)

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents                                                                                                                Page
TABAN MAKITIYONG RENEKET LO LIYONG AND PREFECTURE OF AFRICAN LITERATURE 4
THE CURRENT EAST AFRICA IS NOT A LITERARY DESERT 27
AFRICAN WRITERS HAVE CULTURAL RIGHTS TO FORMULATE AND CREATE ENGLISH WORDS 31
LIKE PUSHKIN, AFRICAN WRITERS MUST CREATE THEIR OWN PROFFESSION OF LITERATURE 35
THERE IS POWER IN THE NAME ‘ALEXANDER’ 40
KENYAN COURTS AND PARLIAMENT ARE BETRAYERS OF HUMANE GOVERNANCE 47
AFRO-CHRISTIAN RESPONSE TO RADICAL LITERATURE IS GOOD AND SWAGGERISH 50
YUNUS’S SOCIAL BANKING IS A GOOD BENCHCMARK FOR THIRD WORLD ENTREPRENEURS 54
HEROISM IS NOT GREATNESS BUT HUMILITY IN SERVICE TO HUMANITY 57
KENYAN STUDENTS; YOUR MOBILE INTERNET CULTURE IS ANTI- ACADEMICS 61
WHAT IS THE MAGIC IN THE WORD ‘DRINKARD’ OF AMOS TUTUOLA 63
SOCIETIES IN AFRICA HAVE TO MENTOR BUT NOT CONDEMN THE LIKES OF JULIUS MALEMA 66
AMERICA WILL NOT WIN THE WAR ON GLOBAL TERRORISM 69
AFRICA CAN OVERCOME A MENACE OF **** IN EVERY 30 MINUTES 71
COMPARATIVE ROLES OF AFRICAN-BRAZILIAN LITERATURE IN THE POLITICS OF RACIAL AND GENDER DEMOCRACY 76
NEO-COLONIALISM IS NOT THE MAIN VICE TO THE GAMBIAN POLITICS 85
RELATIVE MEDIA OBJECTIVITY IS ACHIEVEABLE IN AFRICA AGAINST POWER CULTURE AND TYRANNIES OF TASTE 89
READING CULTURE IS GOOD FOR BOTH THE POOR AND THE RICH 96
VIOLENT DEATH IS THE BANE OF AFRICAN WRITERS AND ARTISTS 100
AFRICAN WRITTERS AND ARTISTS MUST ASPIRE BEYOND A NOBEL PRIZE 104
WHAT ARE CULTURAL RIGHTS OF AFRICAN ENGLISH SPEAKERS? 109
WHY IMPRISONMENT OF WRITERS CONTRIBUTED MOST TO AFRICAN LITERATURE 113
DORIS LESSING: A FEMINIST, POET, NOVELIST, WHITE-AFRICANIST AND NOBELITE UN-TIMELY PASSES ON 121
Amilcar Cabral: Beacon of revolutionary literature and social democracy 127
How the State of Israel is brutally dealing with African refugees 131
Historical glimpses of language dilemma in Afro-Arabic literature 146
THIS YEAR 2013; IS THE YEAR OF GREAT DEATHS 153
AFRICAN LITERATURE WITHOUT POETRY IS LIKE LOVE WITHOUT VAGINAL *** 156



















PROLOGOMENA
BARRACK OBAMA READS MOBY ****
Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
American president is reading Moby ****
Ja-kogello is reading Moby ****
Ja-siaya is reading Moby ****
Ja-merica is reading Moby ****
Jadello is reading Moby ****
Ja-buonji is reading Moby ****
His lovely Oeuvre of Melville Herman
And what are you reading?

Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Because untimely death took his father
Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Because untimely death took his mother
Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Because untimely death to his brother
Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Because untimely death took the grannies
His lovely Oeuvre of Melville Herman  
And what are you reading?

Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Baba Michelle is reading Moby ****
Baba Sasha is reading Moby ****
Baba Malia is reading Moby ****
Baba nya-dhin is reading Moby ****
Sarah’s sire is reading Moby ****
Ja-sharia is reading Moby ****
The ****** is reading Moby ****
His lovely Oeuvre of Melville Herman
And what are you reading?

Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Because here ekes audacity of hope
Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Because here ekes dreams of fathers
Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Because here ekes yes we can
Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Because here ekes American dream
His lovely Oeuvre of Melville Herman
And what are you readings?

Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Because American president is like whale hunting
Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Because Obama is a money making animal
Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Because hunting Osama is whale riding
Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Because hunting Gaddaffi is whale riding
Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Because coming to Kenya is whale riding
Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Because Guantanamo prison is a bay of whales
Barrack Obama is reading Moby ****
Because Snowden is a Russian whale
Because launching drones is whale riding
His lovely Oeuvre of Melville Herman
And what are you reading, Moby ****?














CHAPTER ONE
TABAN MAKITIYONG RENEKET LO LIYONG AND PREFECTURE OF AFRICAN LITERATURE

I am writing this article from Kenya on this day of 23 September 2013 when the Al shabab, an Arabo-Islamic arm of the global terrorist group the Al gaeda have lynched siege on the shopping mall in Nairobi known as the West Gate where an average of forty people have been killed and a hundreds are held hostage. The media is full of horrendous and terrifying images. They have made me to hate this day. I hate terrorism, I hate American foreign policy on Arabs, I hate philosophy behind formation of the state of Israel and I equally hate religious fundamentalism. Also on this date, all the media and public talks in Kenya are full of intellectual and literary tearing of one Kenyan by another plus a retort in the equal measure as a result of the ripples in the African literature pool whose epicenter is the Professor Taban Lo Liyong .He is an epicenter because he had initially decried literary mediocrity among the African scholars and University professors, Wherein under the same juncture he also quipped that Kenya’s doyen of literature Ngugi wa Thiong’o never deserved a Nobel prize. Liyong’s stand has provoked intellectual reasons and offalities to fly like fireworks in the East African literary atmosphere among which the most glittering is Chris Wanjala’s contrasting position that; who made Liyong the prefect and ombudsman of African literature? This calls for answers. Both good answers and controversial responses. Digging deeper into the flesh of literature as often displayed by Lo Liyong.
Liyong is not a fresher in the realm of literary witticism. He is a seasoned hand .Especially when contributions of Liyong to east African literary journal during his student days in the fifties of the last century during which he declared east Africa a literary desert. In addition to his fantastic titles; Another ****** Dead and The Un-even Rips of Frantz Fanon, Professor Taban Lo Liyong also humorously called Amos Tutuola the son of Zinjathropus, what a farcical literary joke? I also want to appreciate this Liyong’s artfulness of language in this capacity and identify him in a literary sense as Taban Matiyong Lo   Liyong the son of Eshu. He is an ideological and literature descended of the great West African Eshu. Eshu the god of trouble which was dramatized by Obutunde Ijimere in the imprisonment of Obadala and also recounted by Achebe in the classical essays; Morning Yet of Creation Day. I call him Eshu because of his intellectual and literary ability to trigger the East and West Africans into active altercation of literary, cultural and political exchanges every other time he visits these regions. Whether in Lagos, Accra or Nairobi.
Now, in relation to Ngugi and intellectual quality of Kenyan University literature professors was Liyong right or wrong?  Does Liyong’s stand-point on Ngugi’s incompetence for Nobel recognition and mediocrity in literary scholarship among Kenyan Universities hold water. Are Liyong’s accusations of East Africa in these perspectives factually watertight and devoid of a fallacy of self-aggrandizement to African literary prefecture as Professor Chris Wanjala laments. Active literary involvement by anyone would obviously uncover that ;It is not Liyong Alone who has this intellectual bent towards East Africa, any literary common sense can easily ask a question that; Does Ngugi’s literary work really deserve or merit for Nobel recognition or not ? The answers are both yes and no. There are very many of those in Kenya who will readily cow from the debate to say yes. Like especially the community of alumni of the University of Nairobi who were Ngugi’s students in the department of English in which Ngugi was a Faculty during the mid of the last century. Also the general Kenyan masses who have been conditioned by warped political culture which always and obviously confine the Kenyan poor into a cocoonery of chauvinistic thought that Ngugi should or must win because he is one of us or Obama must win because he is one of us or Kemboi must win because he is the son of the Kenyan soil. These must also be the emotional tid-bits upon which the Kenyan Media has been based to be catapulted into Publicity feat that Ngugi will win the Nobel Prize without reporting to the same Kenyan populace the actual truths about other likely winners in the quarters from the overseas. I am in that Kenyan school thought comprising of those who genuinely argue that Ngugi’s literary work does not befit, nor merit, nor deserve recognition of Nobel Prize for literature. This position is eked on global status of the Nobel Prize in relation to Ngugi’s Kikuyu literary and writing philosophy. It is a universal truth that any and all prizes are awarded on the basis of Particular efforts displayed with peculiarity. Nobel Prize for literature is similarly awarded in recognition of unique literary effort displayed by the winner. It is not an exception when it comes to the question of formidability in a particular effort. However, the most basic literary virtue to be displayed as an overture of the writer is conversion of theory into practice. This was called by Karl Marx, Hegel, Antonio Gramsci and Paulo Freire, especially in Freire’s  pedagogy of the oppressed as praxis.History of literature and politics in their respective homogenous and comparative capacities has it that ;There has been eminent level of praxis by previous Nobelites.Right away from Rabitranathe Tagore to Wole Soyinka, From Dorriss Lessing to Wangari Mathai.Similar to JM Coatze ,Gao Tziaping,Alexander Vasleyvitch Solzhenystisn and Baraka Obama.This ideological stand of praxis is the one that made Alfred Nobel himself to to stick to his gun of intellectual  values and deny Leo Tolstoy the prize in 1907 because there was no clear connection between rudimentary Tolstoy in the nihilism and Feasible Tolstoy in the possible manner  of the times .In a similar stretch Ngugi wa Thiongo’s literary works and his ideological choices are full of ideological theory but devoid of ideological praxis. Evidence for justification in relation to this position is found back in the 70’s and 80’s of the last century, When Ngugi was an active communist theoretician of Kenya. His stature as a Kenyan communist ideologue could only get a parallel in the likes of Leon Trotsky and Gramsci. This ideological stature was displayed in Ngugi’s adoration of the North Korean communism under the auspice of the Korean leader Kim Yun Sung. This is so bare when you read Ngugi’s writers in politics, a communist pamphlet he published with the African red family. By that time this pamphlet was treated equally as Mao tse Tung’s collected works by the Kenya government which means that they were both illegal publications and if in any case you were found with them you would obviously serve nine months in prison. And of course when the late Brigadier Augustine Odongo was found with them he was jailed for nine months at Kodhiak maximum prison in Kisumu ,Kenya .O.K, the story of Odongo is preserved for another day. But remember that, this was Ngugi only at his rudimentary stage. But when Ngugi got an opportunity to get an ideological asylum, he did not go to Russia, nor East Germany, Nor Tanzania, nor China but instead he went to the USA , a country whose ideological civilization is in sharp contradiction with communism; a religion which Ngugi proffessess.In relation to this choices of Ngugi one can easily share with me these reflections; is one intellectually  honest if he argues that he is a socialist revolutionary when his or her employer is an American institution like the university of California in Irvine ?
Ngugi was not the only endangered communist ideologue of the time. There were also several others. Both in Kenya and without Kenya. They were the likes of; Raila Odinga, George Moset Anyona, ***** Mutunga and very many others from Kenya. But in Africa some to be mentioned were Walter Rodney, Yoweri Museven,Isa Shivji,Jacob Tzuma ,Robert Mugabe and others. The difference between Ngugi and all of these socialist contemporaries of him is that; Ngugi went to America and began accumulating private property just like any other capitalist. But these others remained in Africa both in freedom and detention to ensure that powers of political darkness which had bedeviled Africa during the last century must go. And indeed the powers somehow went. Raila has  been in Kenya most of the times,Anyona died in Kenya while in the struggle for second liberation of Kenyan people from the devilish fangs of Moi’s dark reign of terror and tyrany.Walter Rodney worked in Tanzania at Dare salaam University where he wrote his land mark book; How Europe underdeveloped Africa. Later on he went back to his country of birth in Africa, Guyana where he was assassinated while in the revolutionary struggle for political good of the Guyanese people. Yoweri Museven practically implemented socialism by fighting politics of sham and nonsense out of Uganda of which as per today Uganda is somehow admirable. Isa Shivji has ever remained in Dare salaam University, inspite of poverty. He is now the chair of Mwalimu Julius Nyerere school of Pan African studies. Jacob Tsuma and Robert Mugabe they are current presidents of South Africa and Zimbabwe respectively. The gist of this reference to African socialist revolutionaries as contemporaries to Ngugi wa Thiong’o is that a socialist revolutionary must and should not run away from the oppressor in to a zone of comfort. But instead must remain and relentlessly fight, just like in the words of Fidel Castro; fight and die in the battle field as long as it is a struggle against the enemy of the revolution. This view by Castro is pertinent as it’s a Revolutionary praxis which actually is redolent of practice of an ideology that has to be held for ever above ideological cosmentics.Ngugi scores badly on this. So if the Nobel academy looks at Ngugi in terms of defending human rights then it must be reminded that Ngugi have no marks on the same because he only ran away from the practical struggle. Anyway, Politics and ideology has its own fate. But let us now come back to literature. Ngugi and his books. As at  this time of writing this essay  Ngugi has published the following works; Weep not Child, The River Between, A Grain of Wheat, Black Hermit, Petals of Blood, Devils on the Cross,Matigari,Homecoming,Decolonizing the Mind, Writers in Politics, Ngugi Detained, Pen Points and Gun Points, Wizard of the Crow,Globalectics,Remeembering Africa, Dreams in Times of War and I Will Marry When I Want as well as the Trial of Dedan Kimathi which he wrote along with Micere Githae Mugo.Out of this list the only works with literary depth that call for intellectualized attention are ;A Grain of wheat, Wizard of the crow and Globalectics. The Grain of wheat is simply a post colonial reflection of Kenyan politics. Its themes, plot, lessons and entire synechedoche is also found in Wole Soyinka’s Season of Anomie as well as Achebe’s Anthills of the savannah. My argument dove-tails with those of Liyong’s stand that rewarding Ngugi’s Grain of wheat and forgetting Achebe’s Anthills of the Savannah and A man of the people would be a literary ceremony devoid of literary justice. Wizard of the Crow is indeed a magnum opus. I am ready to call it Ngugi’s oeuv
COISAS DO ARCO DA VELHA

- Os etês gostam de bunda. Foi o que captei da conversa entre as meninas, enquanto caminhava no calçadão do Liceu.
- Tem caras que não gostam, né; acho que não são chegados; comer um cuzinho será que não faz bem?!
- Cruz credo! Exclamei mentalmente, e segui meu caminho rumo ao Fórum, que fica em frente.
Elas vieram na minha direção, a passos firmes, olhar direto, "você tem fogo...", perguntou a morena pele-de-cuia, "e como tem", observou a loira de olhos azuis, típica europeia, me examinando de cima a baixo, parando os olhos, ostensivamente, na minha barriguilha; "te vejo sempre por aqui", disse a morena, enquanto eu lhe entregava o isqueiro; "é, estou sempre na cantina, tomando café; café de Fórum é choco, frio, fraco, e causa-me asia; então, venho na cantina, às vezes comer alguma coisa", concluí.
- Uma bucetinha, um cuzinho e o que mais? Indagou a loura, acendendo o cigarro.
- Você está sempre cercado de meninas! Não é à toa!! Vai ver é o maior safadão, pica doce.... Completou a morena, sempre combinando seus ataques com a colega.

O Liceu é uma escola destinada à classe média alta, concebida nos tempos do império, onde só entravam filhinhos de papai e seus apadrinhados do aparelho de estado. Mas isso dançou com o advento da república, e hoje, assim como os "Pedro II", recebem qualquer um, desde que aguentem suas provas de avaliação, pois ainda são um padrão de ensino almejado pelas camadas interessadas em ascensão social e tecnica. Seus prédios são construções coloniais, com arquitetura rebuscada, estilosos; janelões de madeira nobre, ainda insensíveis ao cupim. Uma coisa fantástica em termos de concepção, pois possuem salas espaçosas, bem arejadas, lousas imensas, mesas de cedro vernisadas, cheias de gavetas; seus corredores lembram aqueles do filme Harry Potter, sinistros de arrepiar. E no caso do Liceu Nilo Peçanha, de Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, tem um sótão, que seguramente foi planejado como adega, pois tem balcãozinho cheio de compartimentos para copos, taças e talheres, à frente de um espelho na parede em moldura de mogno  e uma silhueta vitoriana; além de um velho barril de carvalho, aonde, sem dúvida, Casimiro de Abreu, Fagundes Varela, Lima Barreto e tantas outras celebridades literárias desta terra de orfandades iniciaram-se nos caminhos da radicalidade estética.

- Conhece o sótão do Liceu? Indagou a morena, quase ao pé do meu ouvido.
- É ideal para uma brincadinha... Insinuou ela. Respondi que lá eu já namorei, me embriaguei, estudei e fiz muita reunião do grêmio.
- Então é "liceano... Vamos!" Disseram ambas, quase em uníssono.
No rádio da cantina, exatamente às dez da manhã no meu Rolex, tocava uma canção, cujo trecho diz assim:" Deixa isso pra lá, vem pra cá, venha ver. Eu não tô fazendo nada, nem você também..." e seguia insinuando outras coisas, ditas pela voz de um dos meus tantos ídolos da mpb, Jair Rodrigues.

Bom, pra encurtar o lererê, a morena está aqui em casa há 32 anos. Já somos avós, e, nem os filhos nem os netos jamais saberão das nossas façanhas e quando lhe mostrei o rascunho deste texto, ela fitou-me com seu olhar fogueando e objetou: você não pôr aí os detalhes...
- Claro que não!! São nossas relíquias!

Esta crônica é resultado de uma conversa que eu teria com o velho companheiro de lutas Chico da Cátia. Era um companheiro de toda hora, sempre pronto a dar ajuda a quem quer que fosse. Sua viúva, a Cátia, é professora da rede pública estadual do Rio de Janeiro e ele adquiriu esse apelido devido a sua obediência a ela, pois sempre que estávamos numa reunião ou assembleia ou evento, qualquer coisa e ela dissesse "vamos embora!", o Chico obedecia, e, ao se despedir dizia: com mulher, não se discute. Apertava a mão dos amigos e partia.

Hoje, terceiro domingo do janeiro de 2015, estou cercado. Literalmente cercado. Cercado sim e cercado sem nenhum soldado armado até aos dentes tomando conta de mim. Não há sequer um helicoptero das forças armadas americanas sobrevoando o meu prédio equipado com mísseis terra-ar para exterminar-me ao menor movimento, como está acontecendo agorinha em algum lugar do oriente asiático. Estou dentro de um apartamento super ventilado, localizado próximo a uma área de reserva da mata atlântica, local extremamente confortável, mas cercado de calor por todos os lados, e devido ao precário abastecimento de água na região, sequer posso ficar tomando um banhozinho de hora em hora, pois a minha caixa d'água está pela metade. Hoje, estou tão cercado que sequer posso sair cidade a fora, batendo pernas, ou melhor, chinelos, pegar ônibus ou metrô ou BRTs e ir lá na casa daquele velho companheiro de lutas Chico da Cátia, no Morro do Falet, em Santa Tereza, para pormos as ideias em dia. É que a mulher saiu, foi para a casa da maezinha dela e como eu tinha dentista ontem, não fui também e estou em casa, cercado também pelo necessário repouso orientado pelo médico, que receitou-me cuidados com o calor devido ao dente estar aberto.

Mas, firulas à parte, lembro-me de uma conversa que tive com o Chico após a eleição do Tancredo pelo colégio eleitoral, que golpeou as DIRETAS JÁ, propostas pelo povo, na qual buscávamos entender os interesses por detrás disso, uma vez que as eleições diretas não representavam nenhuma ameaça ao Poder Burguês no Brasil, aos interesses do capital, e até pelo contrário, daria uma fachada "democrática ao país" Nessa conversa, eu e o Chico procuramos esmiuçar os segmentos da burguesia dominante no Brasil, ao contrário do conceito de "burguesia brasileira" proposto pela sociologia dos FHCs da vida. Chegamos à conclusão de que ela também se divide, tem contradições internas e nos seus embates, o setor hegemônico do capital é quem predominar. Nesse quesito nos detivemos um bom tempo debatendo, destrinçando os comportamento orgânicos do capital, e concluímos que o liberalismo, fantasiado de neo ou não, é liberal até o momento em que seus interesses são atingidos, muitas vezes por setores da própria burguesia; nesses momentos, o setor dominante, hegemônico, lança mão do que estiver ao seu alcance, seja o aparelho legislativo, o judiciário e, na falta do executivo, serve qualquer instrumento de força, como eliminação física dos seus opositores, golpe de mídia ou golpe de estado, muitas vezes por dentro dos próprios setores em disputa, como se comprovou com a morte de Tancredo Neves, de Ulisses Guimarães e de uma série de próceres da burguesia, mortos logo a seguir.

Porém, como disse, hoje estou cercado. Cercado por todos os lados, cercado até politicamente, pois os instrumentos democratizantes do meu país estão dominados pelos instrumentos fascistizantes da sociedade. É que a burguesia tem táticas bastante sutis de penetração, de corrosão do poder de seus adversários e atua de modo tão venal que é quase impossível comprovar as suas ações. Ninguém vai querer concordar comigo em que os setores corruptos da esquerda sejam "arapongas" da direita; que os "ratos" que enchem o país de ONGs, só pra sugar verbas públicas com pseudo-projetos sociais, sejam "arapongas" da direita; que os ratazanas que usam a CUT, o MST, o Movimento por Moradia, e controlam os organismos de políticas sociais do país sejam "arapongas" da direita; que os LULAS, lulista e cia, o PT, a Dilma etc, sejam a própria direita; pois do contrário, como se explica a repressão aos movimentos sociais, como se explica a criminalização das ações populares em manifestações pelo país a fora? Só vejo uma única resposta: Está fora do controle "DELLES!"

Portanto, como disse, estou cercado. Hoje, num domingo extremamente quente, com parco provimento de água, não posso mais, sequer, ir à casa do meu amigo Chico da Cátia. Ela, já está com a idade avançada, a paciência esgotada de tanto lutar por democracia, não aguenta mais sair e participar dos movimentos sociais, e eu sou obrigado a ficar no meu canto, idoso e só, pois o Chico já está "na melhor!"; não disponho mais dele para exercitar a acuidade ideológica e não me permitir ser um "maria vai com as outras" social, um alienado no meio da *****, um zé-niguém na multidão, o " boi do Raul Seixas": "Vocês que fazem parte dessa *****, que passa nos projetos do futuro..."  Por exemplo, queria conversar com ele sobre esse "CASO CHARLIE HEBDO", lá da França, em que morreu um monte de gente graças a uma charge. Mas ele objetaria; "Uma charge?!" É verdade. Não foi a charge que matou um monte de gente, não foi o jornal que matou um monte de gente, não foram os humoristas que mataram um monte de gente. Assim como na morte de Tancredo Neves e tantos membros da própria burguesia no Brasil, quem matou um monte de gente é o instrumento fascistizante da sociedade mundial, ou seja, a disputa orgânica do capital, a concorrência entre o capital ocidental e o capital oriental, que promove o racismo e vende armas, que promove a intolerância religiosa e vende armas, que promove as organizações terroristas em todo o mundo e vende armas; que vilipendia as liberdades humanas intrínsecas, pisoteia a dignidade mais elementar, como o direito à crença, como o respeito etnico, a liberdade de escolhas, as opções sexuais, e o que é pior, chama isso de LIBERDADE e comete crimes hediondos em nome da Liberdade de Imprensa, da Liberdade de Expressão,  a ponto de a ministra da justiça francesa, uma mulher, uma negra, alguém que merece respeito, ser comparada com uma macaca, e ninguém falar nada. Com toda certeza do mundo, eu e o Chico jamais seremos CHARLIE....  

Homage to the late poet; Kofi Owonor


By
Alexander K Opicho
(Eldoret, Kenya;aopicho@yahoo.com)


In one Sunday Nation article, Professor Ali A Mazrui analyzed the inter-politicality of The Jaramogi Odinga family and The Kennedy family by arriving at a difference that the Odinga’s have curse of long life but the Kennedy’s have a curse of early death through violent and untimely  mode of death .Mazrui made these analogies in reference to violent death of John F. Kennedy and the subsenguent Chappaquiddick bridge tragedy.Similarly,the salient difference between a European and American or a Japanese and African writer or African artist is that most of African writers die early in the mid of their lives through violent death but in contrast American and some European writers die peacefully and comfortably in their old age. Early and violent death is the dominant bane, fate and misfortune that now and then besmirch an African writer. This position is in recognition of a fact that my child-hood American popular literature writers in the name of Mario Puzzo author of the God Father and Robert Ludlum an author of several anti soviet spy series like; Borne dentity, Borne Ultimatum and Icarus Agenda plus very many others like The Matlock Paper had just to die recently in their late eighties. The most surprising of all is Phillip Roth whom I read at the age of twelve years while in my primary four.  Now I am forty years and this year 2013 Phillip Roth is still alive and active to the American literary civilization that he has been touted by the Ladbrokes as a probable candidate for Nobel Prize in literature. But sadly enough on 22 September 2013 in Nairobi the black angel of early  death has carried ahead its  foul duty by claiming the life of Africa’s most honorable literary scholar Professor Kofi Owonor during the helter-skelter of Alshabab terrorist lynch of the upscale West Gate Mall in Nairobi.
Actually this essay is meant to be a deep felt homage to the late Kofi Owonor, Killed by Islamic terrorists in Nairobi. However, the essay also goes ahead to decry the violent and early deaths of several other African writers. The deaths which have almost turned Africa into a literary dwarf if not a continent of artistic bovarism. Kofi Owonor, who peacefully and honorably came to attend Story Moja Literary festival to be held in Nairobi, was violently shot by the Islamic fundamentalist terror group known as Al shabab. Whose gunmen lynched the Mall in which was Kofi Owonor and his son. The terrorist were sending out the Muslim catchword on which if one fails to respond then he was known not to be a non- Muslim on to which he is shot or held hostage for ransom.Fatefull enough, Kofi Owonor was not muslim.He was an elder, an Africanist, a scholar, a poet, a realist, a rationalist, a Christian, a religious non-fundamentalist and a literary liberalist. He could not respond with any tincture of religious irrationalism to the question of the terrorist. He was shot dead and his son injured. Too sad. This is actually the time when Christian positivism goes beyond rigidity of other religious affectations in its classic assertiveness that the devil kills the flesh but not the soul. And indeed it is true the devilish terrorist killed Owonor’s flesh but not his literary soul. They are such and similar situations that made Amilcar Cabral to observe in his Unity and Struggle, in a section on Homage to Kwameh Nkrumah to rationalize that the sky is too enormous to be covered by the palm of a sadist nor to be vilified by the spitting of the filthy ones; Truly, like Nkrumah, Kofi Owonor was the sky of African intellect never to be covered by the brute of the cannon from the parrel of a Muslim terrorist.
Kofi Owonor is not alone neither are we alone. You, my dear reader and I  we are not in any historical nor literary solititude. In Africa God has blessed us with the opportunity of the dead relatives in the name of the living dead. We are not the first and the last to grief. Owonor is not the first and the last to dance with fate. Even Ali A. Mazrui in his literary expositions of 1974 otherwise published as the trial of Christopher Okigbo.A  novella in which Mazrui cursed ideology as an open window into the moving vehicle that let in  a very bad political accident to Nigeria in the name of Biafra war which claimed life of  Christopher Okigbo at the Nzukka battle front. This was one other sad moment at which Africa lost its young literary talent through violent death.
Reading of African literary biographies in all perspectives will not miss to make you attest to this testimony. Both in situ and in diaspora.Admirable African American writers like Malcolm X, and Dr Luther King all died through violent death. Even if in the recent past, the Daughter of Malcolm X revealed to Sahara Reporters, Nigerian Daily, that Louis Farrakhan was behind the assassination of her father, wisdom of the time commands us to know that it was evil politics of that time that made Malcolm X to die the way international politics of today in relation to crookedness which was entertained during the formation of the state of Israel that have made the son of Africa professor Kofi Owonor to die.
An in-depth analysis into the life and times of African writers and artists will show that the number of African cultural masters who die violently is more than the number of those who died normally in their old age. Some bit of listology will show help to adduce the pertinent facts; Patrice Lumumba, Steve Biko, Lucky Dube, Walter Rodney, Tom Mboya, J M Kariuki, Che que Vara, Ken Saro Wiwa, Anjella Chibalonza, and Jacob Luseno all but died through violent death. Lumumba died in a plane crash along with Darg Hammarskjöld only after penning some socialism guidelines. After writing I write what I want, a manifesto for black consciousness Steve Biko was arrested and tortured in the police cells during those days of apartheid in south Africa.Biko died violently while undergoing torture in police cells. Lucky Dube was fatefully shot by a confused ****. Walter Rodney who was persuaded by his student who is now the professor Isa Shivji at Dare salaam University not to go back to his country of Guyana, desisted this voice and went back only to be assassinated in the mid of the rabbles that domineered Guyanese politics those days of 1970’s. This happened when Rodney had written only two major books. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, being one of them. Tom Mboya was shot by a hired gunman in down-town Nairobi, some one kilometer away from the West Gate Mall, at which Kofi Owonor has been shot. Mboya could have written a lot. Even more than Rudyard Kipling and Quisling. But fate or bad luck had him violently die after he had only written two books; Challenges to Nationhood as well as Freedom and After. Both of them are classically nice reads until today. He had also submitted sessional paper no. 10 to the Kenya government which was a classical thesis on Africanization of scientific socialism.
J M Kariuki, Che and Saro Wiwa are all known for how they violently died. Powers that be and terrorists that be, expedited violent death against these writers. Thus, brothers and sisters in the literary community of Africa and the world as we mourn Kofi Owonor we must also let Africa to unite in spiritual effort to rebuke away the evil spirit that often perpetrate terror of violent death which  especially  claim away lives of African writers.

References
Ali A. Mazrui; Trial of Christopher Okigbo
Amilcar Cabral; Unity and Struggle
There Is Slavery in Mauritania
Alexander K Opicho
(Eldoret, Kenya; aopicho@yahoo.com)

There are black slaves in Mauritania
Indentured Patel Slaves in India
Black Slaves in Mali
Black Slaves in Nigeria
Black Slaves in Niger
White Slaves in Russia
Muslim slaves in Senegal
There are black slaves in Mauritania.

Today, December 2013
There are black slaves in Mauritania
serving the white Berbers
Toiling from morning to late evening
working under desert sun like soulless beasts
with no single pay, with no human dignity
there are black slaves in Mauritania.

Let us all go slowly and slowly to fight
In the Islamic city of Nouakchott
To demolish evil monuments of slavery
With our entire human mighty let us fight
With our blood, sweat and soul
Fight slavery the human vice in Mauritania
Free them all black slaves to freedom
Black moor, black Africans, Afro-Mauritanians
From the shackles of slavery to white Berbers,
There are black slaves in Mauritania.

There are women in slavery in Nouakchott
Herding camels and goats, donkeys and mules
Black women ***** in the field alongside animals
Enslaved women ***** in the field as children look
Black women ***** in the field as goats and sheep watch
Black women of Mauritania are in deep tribulation
All their pregnancies a protégé of white ****
No child of love, wedlock or out of romance
There are black slaves in Mauritania

There are a million black slaves in Mauritania
Some know of their fate some know not
Their doom of chattel slavery
Where man is sold away like a wooden spoon
Away to a willing buyer a slave is sold
Away to a fellow slave master man is donated
As a wedding gift or a birthday token
There are black slaves in Mauritania.

When a white Berber king dies
The journey before him is long and arduous
The journey to heaven is long indeed
He can’t go alone he needs a hand
Two live slaves are buried along with him
The slave master the white Berber
To provide hand and service to the master off to heaven
There are black slaves in Mauritania.

In the city of Nouakchott Muslim enslave Moslem
Against the holy law of Mohammed,
As long as they are black Africans and moors
Islam is neither fortress nor succor for them
Against the racist urge for enslavement
White Berbers the rich of Nouakchott
Enslave Black Muslim and half Black Muslim
There are black slaves in Mauritania.

It is true god of Christians and Allah of Moslem
Owe apology to enslaved black humanity
God and Allah should apologize to Africanity
God said, Jews can **** a non Jewish slaves is no sin
Albeit, killing a Jewish slave is sin
Jews only to be slaves for seven years
That, slaves venerate your masters
That, non-Jewish slaves are in life slavery
Their sire slaves of the master
Jewish slaves give birth to children
Non-Jewish slaves give birth to slaves
Allah said, Muslim can enslave all non Muslims
O! Africa! There are black slaves in Mauritania.

Liberated slaves of Mauritania go back
In the sand dunes and dents of slavery
Teach your folks both master and slaves
The fruit of freedom from religious utopia
Tell the slaves to ignore the Quran and the Bible
For these are none other than handmaids of slavery
Stupid bliss, blind faith, O! Archaic pusillanimity
there is black slaves in Mauritania.

Let the slaves read and teach others to read
Fanon Omar the son of Algeria
Walter Rodney son of Guyana
Aime Cesaire son of the north
Ousmane of Senegal the wood of Islam
Amilcar Cabral the verdant cape
Malcolm X and Paul Freire, pedagogy of slavery
Marcus Garvey and The black souls of W Dubois
There are black slaves in Mauritania

For me and my house I stand for freedom
For me and my house I stand for human dignity
For me and my house I stand for diversity in humanity
For me and my house I will never enslave a fellow human being
For me and my house I better serve Marxism down to my infinity
Other than flirting with christo-islamic glorification of slavery
Slaves in Mauritania have tyranny of numbers over the Berbers
Stand up and fight the few slave drivers in Mauritania
There are black slaves in Mauritania.
Canção Do Verbo Encarnado

*
Minha geração foi assim,
começou pelo quando
e acabou pelo fim.

O amor escorreu pelos cantos
e quando cantamos
a canção do amor armado,

Thiago de Melo estava em Berlim
mergulhado no verde dos olhos
da alemãzinha da ACNUR ,

nossa orquestra saiu de cena
e nossa guerra de guerrilhas
acabou no maior calor...

O suor que expelia seu odor
era o suor frio dos tiranos
nos porões mórbidos da ditadura
executando nossos irmãos.

O ar jazia cheio de sangue
e nós estávamos congelados
nas câmaras de gás dos IMLs.

Vínhamos de todos os lados,
desde os vales profundos do Ribeira,
das chapadas mais íngremes do Araguaia
ou dos guetos subumanos da urbe.

Éramos nós o odor de fumaça
que agredia as narinas alheias
com a catinga de carne queimada.

Éramos nós o encanto das canções de protesto
cantadas na avenida com euforia
para engendrar os projetos do futuro,

como somos nós os ignorados da história,
os estranhos os comícios,
a cadeira vazia das reuniões oficiais,

pois somos nós que chegamos e partimos
sem ninguém saber quem somos
e que vamos lá adiante,

distantes da balburdia alienante
e quando vós menos  esperais
somos nós que nos imolamos
às vossas portas
contra a apatia com que nos matais.

Como todos vós podeis ver,
a minha geração é assim:
começa pelo quando
e acaba pelo fim,
mas não fica à toa na vida
pro seu amor lhe chamar
e ver a banda passar
tocando coisas de amor...

Visite....http://blogdopoetacabral.blogspot.com.br/
Victor Marques Dec 2009
Que grande a geração, a de Camões,
Saia de Belém, num pranto oral...
Dizia adeus a grandes multidões!
Olhava o horizonte pequeno Portugal

Traçado o rumo do futuro,
Passado o mar forte e indeciso,
Pegava no leme, firme e duro,
Sem dor, frio ou bramido.

As ninfas, rodeavam o leme,
O Sol, queimava a proa do navio,
O capitão nada teme
Naquele mar, escuro e bravio...

Victor Marques e Atavio Nelson


Chegamos a outros pontos,
Do globo esférico, sem saber!
Que hoje são contos,
Que ainda temos de ler.

Desde Ourique, Calado e Cala trava
Com turbantes brancos reluzentes
Os portugueses lutaram com palavra
Com alegria mostravam seus dentes.

Correram os desertos, tão estéreis
Na defesa de um Santo Universal
Pela cruz combateram infiéis
Dentro e fora de Portugal.

Oh.Isabel que suaves eram tuas flores!
Que rosas encarnadas pueris
Que as músicas sejam cantadas para seus amores
Prendes-te por milagre o teu Diniz.

OH Coimbra.que tiranas do fadário
Oh Sé velha, cheia de segredos
Que encantos lá havia do Hilário
Ainda hoje escritos nos penedos...

Santa Clara, no alto...que te vê clarissa
Jovem, esbelta coimbrã!
Foste, cedo freira e noviça.
Salva-me deste fado, minha irmã!


Olá Marquez, és do Pombal
Traidor, usurpador, ladrão.
NO ódio foste genial.
E TUDO, tudo metia no gibão.
Malandro, enganas-te o teu Rei
Iludiste-o, meu falso...e mandas-te
O Távora, inocente para o cadafalso

Maldito sejas!
Isso não foi Portugal...mas foi
No norte, que uma mulher
Forte, com seios apertados
E espada no dentes bem cerrados
Em serpente e com sua gente
Em zip filas genial
Firme.destinada
Deu a vida mas
Acabou com o Cabral

Sim ali, no monte
Naquele lugar Maria da Fonte

Só com gente destemida, como eu !
Tal como o Lusitano no Gerez
Esta pátria com um plebeu
Concebeu o Tavares com um grande
PORTUGUÊS


Victor Marques
Jared Eli Feb 2015
Diaz
Diaz was from Portugal, his first Bartholomew
In 1487, rounded Good Hope, bid adieu
For going on to India was for Da Gama's crew
King Manuel sent 13 ships with Diaz and Cabral
And April 22, 1500 claimed Brazil
Half the fleet, when on return, in Jones' locker laid
But the six remaining, spice-filled ships for the voyage paid

Da Gama**
Da Gama, he was Portuguese
For Indian Ocean trade
He sailed four ships, if you please
With Indian guidance for aid

1497 is when Vasco hit the sea
And sailing 'round the Cape of Good Hope, quickly found that he
Would require some assistance from a local native guide
Together crossing Arab sea and in Calicut ending ride
But though Da Gama and the Indians didn't hit it off
He still returned to Lisbon toting spices and their cloth
Yenson Jul 2019
Our Cabral of oiks, hicks, chavs, criminals and Unions of Imbeciles
them professional bullies who gather Momentum with lies
and are conceived in hate as love in hovels do not exist
and pennies do not fall from heaven every mouth is a worry
and the coal mines are closing down and education is one less wage
decides that the Louis the fourteen, with a black face is the enemy
for that sunshine king just shines two ****** much
and his opulence and wealth was food from Scotch Jimmy's mouth
so as one does when soots are even richer than the Chimney-sweep
and live in castle full of earned treasures from the troves of Ivories
the die is cast and we call in the gang for majority rules in Hades
and Chalky and Wally and all chavs and 'Am I bovvereds' unite
that Sun King Soot is human no more, this is revolution as in war
the ******* have taken over and heaven help any traitors.
and I yawned and laughed
and laughed again and again
first world problems of snowflakes
hahaha    hahaha    hahaha....hahaha
they say your Leader ain't fit to rule
they say you hate the jews but why so
Aneurin Bevan and Kerr Hardy are turning in their graves
this wasn't about thugs, Hooligans and Criminals ruling
This was about the rights of decent hard working people
not thieves and charlatans using our party to get laid and
harass and terrorize decent honest hardworking citizen
Yenson Mar 2019
Viva our Anarchist, viva our Revolutionaries
those magnificent dudes in their underwhelming cabral
with shining mad grins showing unwashed brown teeth
they devised another supernova anarchical dastard deed

Here comrade

we anchor his neighbour to his parked car outside
remember the neighbour is same national as the Mata Hari girl
we make the neighbour engage him about the car
just casual enquires and info about the car and knowing a possible
buyer for the car
off course there's no buyer
all this is just the anchoring bit

Then

We steal the car,yes we steal the ****** car
No one's gonna talk, we have them all in our pockets
we already told them he's loaded and a parasite
a leech bleeding us the working classes
everybody hates him, there are all on our side

Bingo.......!

He's gonna go spare, that will do his ****** head in
he's gonna think neighbour has something to do with the theft
he gonna hate that neighbour, he may even go confront him
but not only that, he's also gonna hate the Mata hari girl
because neighbour and Mata hari come from the same country
so that's his love life ruined and no friend for our man
Isolation quickens mental breakdown plus all the grief and stress


Ahh....is that devious or what ........
we're not anarchist for nothing
we create emotional hurt and pain for the man
we give him grief and stress, we frustrate the ******
we foil his plan to go meet the Mata hari gal
it's all suffering and depression all the way......

( But we know he's not meeting the Mata Hari girl,
we know there's nothing going on in that end )

( Yes, we know that, silly, but the punters we are using
as gang stalking perpetrators, don't know that)

(Keep up with things, we manipulate them and all the other
foot soldiers with lies, delusions, distortions and make them all think, they are controlling the man, do you want further training
we are rogues and con-artists, that's what we do, silly!)

Our intrepid leftist Anarchist have foiled a non-event again
The used and manipulated crowds are all smiling in satisfaction
A car has been stolen with community approval, another Tax they say.
The man has not hated or blamed his neighbour he is not an emotionally immature or unintelligent  fool
the man has not anchored any of this to Mata Hari, who is also
just a pawn as are all the other contributors to this saga

This is how the Anarchist Leftist divide people and infect communities with Hate, division, unrest and ill wills all round

This is the politics of Hate and Division
This is how things roll in Modern britain today......!
Yenson Aug 2019
In your depreciating Cabral of the putrid collectives
where the poisonous oxygen sears your hackneyed minds
and the history of your undesirable stations colors your visions
painting thoughts in rediffusions of psychopathy tuning whimsical
casting the agitations and hysterics of your fractious diseased sights

Know this for nothing, he who dared show your malignancy
In stance laissez-faire, you erupted unfair troubles, chaos, strife
spurred by knaves, armoured by the green-eyed monster and deceit
boiling with historical wounds, none of my doing or from my habitat
In devious lying tongues you rout my knoll, my name, my heart et al

Now, know this, hate a'fore unknown to me, but not any more
despise will not do, detest and arbor not enough, loathe still not near
a man of peace I trouble you not but in raging madness you pillaged
You paid an army, you conned a town for the bravest it overwhelmed
Now you post your wenches and sell a fable of teasing and confusing

From this heart I do declare, this man can never turn in gay
but no ***** regardless fair or fetching who in your game, I see
that ceaseless passions burns and holds nowt but abominations for all
nurse my soul for pitiless, cruel wicked and witless snakes is too far
say what you may, pen what you will, I see you and all in contempt

I know of time and I know of age and I have known pleasures
but now I also know what hate can do and how evil blackens hearts
save your time and use your cancerous energy elsewhere as you do
to hold I want to share passions with your vacuous wenches untrue
Me see no beauty no more, only mindless effigies and sadist puppets in slime
Yenson May 2019
Too ignorant and arrogant to appreciate
that not all can be plug into their grid
slimes in campaign of 'we ****** him up'
pontificating buffoons playing Controllers in Chief
in the stupefying Cabral of lies, deceits, subterfuge and cons
gangland enforcers thinking all abide and susceptible to their wiles

Malignant minds of the murky scums thinks me semblances as them
go update your manuals of intimidation practices and dodges
a noble blameless mind gives no regards to contemptible dregs
deluded morons imagines hijacking mind and distorting
unaware that they have impacted contempt and nullified
his mind is over the place because imbeciles are mind readers

Altered perceptions, repetitive illusions based on mugs assumptions
the failings of homogenized misunderstandings of the anodynes
coward bullies think they can soften and mold a perceived *****
the infra dig of scums and nefarious deadbeats drunk on folly
selling misinformation and disinformation to fellow simpletons
mass delusions and sheep hysteria galvanizing non sensibilities

The fish bone stuck in your diseased throats and I'm in ya face
pathetic scums and base cowards, shameless sub-humans are jokes
you have lost face and become the majority of asinine disgraceful s
working a skirt now discredited and seen by all who try not to see
while they behind closed doors talk about those evil pathetic racists
You are nothing but racists thieving scums please accept my utmost contempt........
Yenson May 2020
Who will tell the winkers
that excessive winking makes you blind
now they've gone totally blind as so too their minds

Yet the answer is so simple
for puppets being pulled on red strings
realness knows no prose or rhymes to lift happenings

If truth lives with reasoning's
what better way to proclaim intentions
than reach out with olive leaves and wet dry grounds

If its the age of wisdom
where wills are free and minds ennobled
who but dolts sits on carousel imagining others in twirls

Intelligent empowerment maturity
attractive bed-fellows even better with sincerity
they always know their way home to rest with joy and peace

So keep on spitting in the winds
scrambled minds can imbue their mixed up brew
and grace their spirited delusions in their Cabral of the lame

Those that live near Train tracks
say after a while you stop hearing the constant noise
its blends into winds becoming nothing but vapid white noise

The spinners on the loom
sits in mindless involuntary actions fixated
addicted to motions and movements now automatic
chained and enslaved unable to break free even on days off
" You should never underestimate the predictability of stupidity." !
Late Latin capralis 'place of goats', from Latin capra 'goat'.
Yenson Aug 2020
Laurels adorned in the valley of Spartans
the breed excels at the call
fleet of mind
at home on the lectern of sages
the silent call of the Titan Africanus
show me no daggers or swords
for in the armoury of the visionary
fearless truth scythe bloodlessly
leaving the headless vanquished
dancing in the cabral of the undead
snatching defeat from the mouth of defeat
in blinded sight slave gladiators room their chains
but there are no free men in the Arena
and in hushed musing
a Titan sublime cast eyes below
to watch the vain and faint
the ludicrous go from the ridiculous to the absurd
knowing
the real battle is in the hearts
real men with hearts do not fight battles
Titans are Titans because they are Titans
they garrison not with hollow animus
of the fractured republic
fighting itself
with fractured hearts
and fractured minds and heads

— The End —