Written By: Barima Adu-Asamoa
Recitation: Israel Larye
The Present
Nanina
The present could not be the barn
Of our harvested visions
So we must not light a thought
To open this barn of our harvest
It may not yet be a thoughtful dawn
Warm enough to keep-gate
Crushing ghost away
When the whiskered ones
Have bleated all nights the remains
Of their sad compelling voices
And spiteful beings in lustful colours
Have strained away
The begetters of our sundew
Across the fore-court of
Our harvested visions
Do not
Do not light a thought to see
These weeviled grains
Of our harvested visions
For our beloved country
Ghana
Is
Still
Forever
We patterned our destiny
In colourful strands like Kente
Red, gold, green and the star
Black and defiant
As if the great ones
Have declared us
True of word
Maheru
We dipped our fore fingers
In naked haste, forgetting ourselves
Deep into the still waters of our destiny
And tasted the future
Without the songs of triumph
Nor the ease of knowing
A solemn sigh then fell
On the lips of the great ones
As if the beautiful ones
Have not yet been born
Five time five we yearned
And held a multitude of emotions to our chest
And gathered husk without the burden of proof
Trusting instead the dance of the mask raiders
And
Still
Our
Beloved country
Ghana
Is
Still
Forever
The Past
We witnessed the past in anger
Fear, once dripped from the crevices of our well-being
And sorrow like tears of joy from our very eyes
We carried the spirit-pot
Filled and unfilled at once!
And tasted four recalcitrant whirlwinds
With our naked tongues
Which swirled around our destiny
But never sprouted into the glorious
Morning rise of the African star
Red, gold, green
Black and defiant
And
Still
Our
Beloved country
Ghana
Is
Forever
We poured libation at midnight
At half moon, we bowed in penance
And fasted for forty days and forty nights
Then a solemn sigh fell
On the lips of the Great ones
As if we were to live by bread alone
Seven times seven we waited with zeal
And heard echoes of the rain-thunder
That should have preceded us
But the rain never came
And our beloved country
Ghana
Is
Still
Forever
The Future
We parade the future now
In primary desires
Along the desolate path
And there is nothing to say or prophesise
The sooth Sayers have all gone home
Discarding their ware for a percentage
The divine drummers and the beautiful ones
They too have left
Surrounding their will
Desiring instead the facade beat of the divine drum
As if to hush the memory of their rebirth
And
Still
Our beloved country
Ghana
Is
Forever
The Star, once up above so high
Like a diamond in our hearts
Now twinkles with a stammering hope
We heard distant laughters
And felt a ray of sundew
On our foreheads
So we crossed the crossed-roads
And joined the enchanted ones
Singing along the path of hope
(Song)
We paused diligently
And scanned through
The remaining chapters of our destiny
Possessed by love, we wept
Sweetly and gently
As
If
We
Knew.
The poem was originally written for the Ghana @50 celebrations and was launched under the chairmanship of Prof. Atokwei Okai and Prof. Kofi Anyidoho in Accra. BARIMA ADU-ASAMOA, is a communication consultant, lecturer and cultural entrepreneur. A former lecturer at Ghana Institute of Journalism, he is currently a researcher (doctoral) at University of London, Goldsmiths College.
